Apparently your hair doesn't stop growing when

[Paie]

It gets to a certain length?
My hair has never grown longer than this- it's just past my shoulders.
As a child I had regular hair cuts to deal with split ends and "encourage growth".
I will now admit I very rarely have my hair cut nowadays, I cut my own fringe and the rest just doesn't do anything.
DP is convinced that I could have luscious long locks if I had regular hair cuts- I think otherwise. I don't think my hair will ever grow past this length!

I thought that hair length was genetic- much like type- you either have curly hair in your DNA or you don't.

So, mumsnet, who is right?
Am I denying myself of lovely long hair?

Do you use heat on it? I used to use a lot of heat and it did stop growing. I stopped using the heat and it grew a lot.

Each individual hair gets to a certain length and then falls out. The length it gets to varies between people, as far as I know. If you are balding, each hair cycle gets shorter and shorter, thinner and thinner, until the hair becomes a vellus hair.

Certainly trimming the ends is never going to make it grow any faster.

Hair is dead. It's not like pruning a lavender bush or something to encourage growth.

I suspect the 'trim it to make it grow faster' myth may stem from people confusing haircare and gardening. That and hairdressers not wanting to lose out on income.

Different people have different maximum hair lengths - trying to grow it past that just gives you scraggly ends. Suggest your H grows his if he wants luscious tresses to fondle?

It's kind of a myth. Hair never stops growing but some people's hair follicles have a greater ability to retain hair than others. If your hair was say 18" long and your hair follicles could only tolerate 18" of hair before the hair dropped out, then it would appear to stop growing (although not really). If you then had it cut to 16" it could grow another 2" back to 18" but would then stop again.

So it's half true, but it's not true that cutting it will suddenly make it grow longer than its maximum length

Hair does have a terminal length, I've got to mine now, and what Ginza said. Your hair isn't grass. I am jealous of people who have really long hair, but I don't think I could handle looking after it. I'm lucky enough to have hair long enough to sit on. (More Goldilocks than Rapunzel.)

@Fabpinky
Nope, literally just wash and leave it. Occasionally hair dry.
No products/ styling or anything like that

Thank you mn! You have answered a long standing debate between me and DP

Ofthread is right, it’s to do with the lifecycle of each hair, they all fall out at some point, it’s not that they stop growing, it’s that they fall out when they have reached the end

I thought that if you cut it regularly it means it’s less if a drag on the root so is likely to be stronger because it’s not so weighed down?

My hair gets past my shoulders and grows out the way, a little like Crystal Tips.

Soooo ... is it that

• hair never stops growing but the follicle lets it go at different lengths for different people depending on how strong the follicle is as creampie says,

or that

• different people's hair have different maximum lengths with a start and a finish written in their genetics and stops growing at x, y, z inches before starting again, as offthread says?

There's a subtle difference.
Seems to me if creampie is correct then treating the scalp and follicles might be more likely to 'lengthen' your hair but if offthread is right you're kind of stuck with it.

Just to say all my DDs hair grows like buggery. Down to their waists in a few months. They get fed up with chopping it off. (20s)

Mine? I never cut it and it will not go past bra strap length. Never has.

I always thought hair just grew, I know some falls out but in my mind it just grows and grows.....until you cut it! This is remarkable!

mine will grow down to the ground if I let it but it falls out a lot!
I use coconut oil on it once a week and it's in amazong condition most of the time, I don't do anything else to it, no speaicl shampoo and I don't condition

I don't know what to believe!

Hair grows between a quarter and half an inch a month. A single hair can last between 2 and 7 years. So, if you have long hair, your hair probably lasts longer and grows faster.

This is true, I heard it from a hairdressing tutor who taught such things.

No belief needed. It is the life cycle of your personal follicles that determines how long uncut hair will grow before it falls out.

Nothing speeds up growth rate. All beauty product claims are lies.

Each hair has a lifespan - say a few years. It goes through a dormant then a growth (Anagen) phase and the length of that phase determines How long the hair grows to. An eyebrow hairbhas a shorter phase.
Scalp hair varies a lot due to genetics, between 2-7 years in the growth phase and you can affect the growth with some external and internal influences too (hormones, nutrient availability.)

So yes, whether your hair will grow to your shoulder or the floor is genetic. You can help by being well nourished and not having any thyroid issues or nutrient deficiencies

Anatidae Wed - ... An eyebrow hair has a shorter phase.

Thank goodness

Each person hair has their own growth cycle, it will get as long as that growth cycle allows then it will naturally fall out but each follicle has a different time scale which I why you don't go bald when a hair falls out so one follicle will be half way through while another is at the beginning or end.

The hair ends though may break of due to various reasons like heat or split ends etc and that means that the hair never gets to its full length because the end got broken off.

My friend did an hnd and she told me this is some of the things she learned during her course.

Well that was full of spelling and grammatical errors

Trimming doesn't make it grow however trimming the split ends ( I literally gets the very ends cut ) will stop the split ends from splitting more further up the strand which leads to breakages , unruly messy looking hair and ultimately a bigger cut than planned in the long run to sort it all out . I say this as very reluctant hair trimmer !!

When you look at someone with straight hair, in a certain light, you can see all of the hairs that are shorter sticking out all down the length of the hair. These shorter hairs have a tapered end rather than a blunt end, as they have never been cut.

They are shorter because they have previously fallen out and the replacement hair is growing down.

ofthread

I never thought of that !!! I'm not being sarcastic I honestly never did I could see some shorter strands sticking up the other day and thought god why are they like that Iv tried keeping my hair in the best condition I can etc . But obviously we are constantly losing and growing new hair at different stages.
I'm a total wally at times !!!!