shedding 100 hairs per day is normal? bollocks!

[everysixseconds]

well, think about it.

the vast majority of women do not encounter any pattern baldness whlist young. but if you ask a trichologist, they'll tell you that its normal for taht woman to loose between 100 and 150 hairs a day. okay, stay with me...

typical number of hairs on head : 100 000
average amount of hair shed: 100

that means statistically, the first 100 hairs to sprout out will be shed after growing for 1000 days. cos thats when the cycle comes full circle.

and they say hair grows at around 1.25 cm a month for women. after 1000 days, thats 41.6 cm (1 foot and 11.6 cm) of growth before the hair sheds. that means, it is more or less impossible for hair to grow significantly longer than that because that would indicate some hairs cycle quicker (which in a healthy person no significant amounts do).

NOW, ive seen hundreds of ladies with hair longer than a foot and 11cm (from tip to end - im talking it goes down to their butts if they let it). so loosing that amount of hair and it not being pathological has to be bullshit.

 

[Deaner]

wtf are you talking about? Just because you lose 100 long hairs a day doesn't mean your hair can't be long. Hair can grow for years and years, and grows for significantly longer periods of time in women generally. The number of hairs you lose a day has no bearing on how long each individual hair grows, you make no sense.

 

[everysixseconds]

well, if most female scalp hair grows, for years and years (it does! the average is 6 years), then that would mean the hair cycle is also roughly 6 years. 6 years is (6 x 365 = 2190 days) and seeing as there is typically 100 000 hairs on the scalp, thats means on average (100 000 / 2190 =) 45 hairs a day are shed. so anything significantly more than that is pathological.

HENCE

loosing between 100 and 150 hairs is NOT normal unless you have much more than 100000 hairs.

thats why in 6 years of growth, hair can grow up to nearly a metre of which women with long hair are living proof of.

deaner, do you agree that if absolutley NO hair was shed, then you could have hair length of infinite growth (it would just keep on growing...)???

if you accept that, then the converse must also be true, that if any number of hair is lost (not the same individual hair but each hair on the head in succession), then there must be a length at which the hair reaches maximum length cause then the cycle comes full circle. Jus think for a minute, i know its complicated, but it makes sense....

 

[The Gardener]

This "average" number of hairs is somewhat affected by age. Younger women probably have haircounts well above average, and older women have haircounts well below average.

Additionally, this "100 hairs a day" shed is also just an average. We all know that sheds do not come uniformly, they tend to come in synchronized events. That is to say, your hair sheds are not, from month to month, 100, 100, 100, 100, 100.... but are probably more like this: 40, 40, 40, 250, 40

Additionally, some scalp areas (say, the front bangs of a woman's hair) may shed more frequently (150 per month, if averaged) and other areas of the scalp (say, the back of the head) may naturally shed less frequently (say, 30, if averaged). So, while some areas of the scalp may never be able to grow hair longer than a foot, other areas of the scalp may be able to grow hair that can be measured in feet.

Taking all of these variations into account, it is very easy to see how young women can grow very long hair. Especially women who, for genetic and/or ethnic reasons, buck this "100 hairs a month" trend. As women get older, they tend to not to be able to grow long hair anymore. This is why a lot of older women take up shorter hairstyles. Take a look around at the women over 30. Most of them have shorter hairstyles, or are starting to take up a shorter look, as their hair if grown long to the same length as their youth ends up looking thin and brittle. Younger women have an easier time growing hair in excess of two feet. But, the "average" is just that, an average.

Next time you go to the mall, take a look around at the women. No, not just the young women with the long flowing locks, but the women of ALL ages. I think you find the theory validated.

Before you apply averages like that, you have to take into account that averages over an entire human population can have some very wide variations. Consider the relative heights, or weights, of people you see... it varies rather widely. If someone told you that the average person is x'x" tall and weighs xxx pounds, why do you not freak out equally so at the fact that there are many people out there who buck the average quite dramatically.

Not all of the women out there have hair down to their ***.

ON A SIDE NOTE, all of the above is a good illustration as to why I believe that counting shed hairs to see whether or not you shed over 100 hairs in a day or not is an assinine waste of time.

 

[Deaner]

I never said that hair infinitely grows, where'd you get that from? Hair reaches a maximum length simply because it falls out after that. A woman's hair looks longer because her hairs are allowed to grow for a longer period of time, and the rest of her really long hairs are nearing their death. However, since the death of her hairs are all staggered, she has slightly shorter hairs with more growth left in them, and even shorter hairs after that, all ready to keep the length of the hair looking uniform even after the longest hairs die.

Let's say you start off with 100000 hairs at a ripe young age, all your follicles are in full gear finally producing hair, all that stuff, and so now say you've got 6 years left until your hair falls out and is at its maximum length. So at year 6, you start losing 100 hairs a day. Now, since not all your hairs kicked in at the same time, and you won't lose them all at the same time, you're only losing about 100 a day, and let's assume it takes even 3 months for them to start growing again. that's 9000 hairs are lost before some start growing again. Since they're all dying at different times, and not all the longest hairs die at the same time, allowing more to grow to that same length before dying. It's not really a tough concept to comprehend, and by this math, the statistic that 90% of your hair is in the growth phase makes perfect sense.

 

[pilogenic101]

Excessive shedding of hair, especially when on hairloss treatments/medications, is not normal or necessary. I shed only a few visible hairs a day, not a hundred or more, because I use "natural" treatments that help me to retain my hair. Knock on wood! In particular I use topical B6, zinc oxide, apple cider vinegar, salicylic acid, tea tree and peppermint essential oils, seed and nut oils, and antioxidants like procyanidins and flavonols. I also believe that a scalp massage is helpful to me in retaining my hair.