The Science Of Hair Growth—Everything You Need To Know About It

Want to have long and luscious hair? Here’s the thing, the first step to accomplishing anything is understanding how the process works. This is especially important when it comes to natural processes, for example, hair growth.

Once you understand how your hair grows, you can use techniques that bolster and support the process, working with your body’s natural mechanisms to give you the desired results.

To understand your hair growth process, let’s start from the beginning:

Where Growth Begins

Contrary to popular belief, hair growth doesn’t begin at the scalp. It happens at a much deeper level than that—within the hair follicles. These follicles are hidden deep underneath the surface of your scalp and act like pockets or pouches that hold your hair.

A hair strand begins at the base of the follicle in the form of a bulb. This bulb later divides into cells, and the hair starts growing. A growing hair strand is fed by the blood vessels in the scalp that supply it with the necessary nutrition and oxygen.

Over time, these cells will form the hair shaft, which will push through your scalp and will become that annoying baby hair that you’ll need to set with the help of hairspray.

The Lifecycle Of Hair

Every hair strand in your body goes through three main stages of growth: the Anagen, the Catagen, and the Telogen. Let’s begin with the Anagen stage.

Anagen

This stage is also known as the growth stage. This is where the follicle receives nutrients from the scalp and transfers it to the hair strand, helping it grow long and strong.

This is the longest stage of hair growth and can last anywhere from two to eight years.

Catagen

This stage is also known as the transition stage. Coming right after the anagen stage, it means that your hair has stopped growing, and the respective follicle is no longer receiving any nutrients from the scalp. As the shortest stage of the hair lifecycle,  the catagen stage lasts only four to six weeks.

Telogen

Telogen is the final stage of the hair lifecycle and is the period of time between catagen and when the hair finally falls out. This is also called the resting stage and can last up to two to three months when your hair falls out and the follicles start preparing for brand new hair!

If you’re interested in growing your hair out, the best way is to help your body and blood vessels supply proper nutrition to the hair follicles. Ancient Hair Secrets is a line that deals in products that are loaded with nutrients that enable healthy growth for African-American hair. Their best selling products are the super growth serum and detoxifying shampoo.