Natural Hair Stages of Hair Growth

Natural Hair Growth

Naptural Counselor Story: Approximately 23-24 months after my BC, I discovered significant breakage of the hair. I panicked because it appeared that my hair was breaking at the root.  I was utterly discouraged and confused--because I FINALLY perfected my healthy hair regimen, as evidence by frequent trims and healthy growth methods (protective styling, moisture, stretching the hair, etc).  I began researching online Natural Hair Breakage. I pleasantly discovered many women were experiencing the same type of ‘breakage’.

3 stages of Natural Hair Growth: 
1. Rapid Hair Growth stage  
2. No Hair Growth (dormant stage) 
3. Rapid shedding stage (new hair growing in- pushes out the old hair out)!

YES! MY HAIR WAS NOT BREAKING!!!

Here is a little test to discover if your hair is breaking or shedding. Look closely at the hairs that arecloose. If the hairs are short pieces—it is breakage. If the hairs are long with little white bulbs at the end—then the natural hair is shedding.

In my opinion, it is healthy for your hair to shed. Why? Your hair will shed approximately 100 strands of hair a day. It is typical for those that have natural hair, not to comb or brush their hair on a daily basis—thus it appears that we have SIGNIFICANT shedding when we detangle. Please remember that your hair sheds 100 strands of hair a day, thus if you only detangle once a week or every two weeks, please expect more loose hairs. It is vital to detangle your often, in order to get rid of loose hairs and prevent tangles or hair loss.  

This picture captures the THIRD stage. As you can observe in the picture: The short hairs appears to be fuzzy. In this stage, it is difficult to pull back the hair in puffs, wear braids or pony tails—due to the amount of fuzz the short hairs produce. The fuzz hairs are actually the new hair growing in to replace the old hair that was pushed out (shedded hairs). What I once thought was ‘breakage’ was fresh new hair coming in. I noticed the new hair grew pretty fast and after a few months, I did not notice the new hairs began to blend with my other hair.