What does new hair growth look like

Growing your hair back is often a long process, and it’s easy to imagine waking up one day with fully grown out, new hair. But the reality is far from this.

First up, lets take a quick look at the hair cycle. There are 4 phases to the cycle – anagen, catagen, telogen, and exogen.

Anagen

• Growth stage

• Average rate of 1cm growth a month

• Lasts from 3-5 years, depending on genetics

• The longer your hair stays in this phase, the longer your hair can grow

Catagen

• Transitional stage

• Hair follicle reduces in size and growth slows

• Hair is released from the base of the follicle

• Lasts around 10 days

Telogen

• Resting phase

• Hairs are no longer growing

• Hair does not tend to fall out in this phase

• New hair begins to grow at the base of the follicle

• Lasts around 3 months

Exogen

• Shedding phase

• Hairs are shed from their follicle

• New hairs grow as the old are shed

• Around 50-100 hairs lost a day in this phase

From this, we can see that the growth stage is what takes the longest in the cycle, and shedding happens lot faster. So if your hair growth isn’t showing as fast as you would like, know that it will come eventually. So onto the the main question…

What does new hair growth look like?

New hair grows from the hair follicle and will have a tapered end but this is only visible under a microscope. If you have short hair, the hair growth will be visible much faster than with long hair. It will fill out to the same length as your existing hair in 1-3 months.

For longer hair, you will still see new growth but it will take longer to reach the same length as your existing hair. Often, you will see the new hair growth along the parting of your hair, as there is more visible scalp in this area. It will look a bit crazy for the first few months, and may look like breakage along your part. This is because there is not enough weight to the hair shaft for it to lie flat like the rest of your hair.

This cycle of hair loss and growth is very normal, and happens on your head everyday. You will only notice dramatic levels of new growth if you have lost a significant amount of hair at one time. This could be due to an illness or if you have started using something like a serum or vitamins to enhance growth.

Ways to encourage new growth

There are lots of great products on the market for speeding up hair growth, such as vitamins or serums.

The best thing to do as a baseline is to ensure you have a nutrient dense diet and have no vitamin deficiencies. Remember, your body needs to function at its best to achieve hair growth.

Some important vitamins for healthy hair include; B vitamins, vitamin D, vitamin E, zinc, biotin and iron.

These are consumed through foods such as:

• Biotin – organ meats, eggs, fish, meat, seeds, nuts

• Iron – liver, red meat, beans, nuts, dark leafy greens

• B vitamins – broccoli, leafy greens, brussels sprouts, chickpeas and kidney beans

• Vitamin D – oily fish, liver, egg yolks, red meat

• Vitamin E – almonds, sunflower seeds, avocado, fish

• Zinc – oysters and shellfish, meat and poultry, mushrooms, kale, legumes, dairy

In conjunction with a balanced diet, a specialised hair vitamin is a great option. This will ensure that any vitamin shortfalls in your diet are supplemented.

You can also apply hair serum or oils to your scalp, which help break down dry skin around your hair follicle. When massaged in with your finger tips or a scalp massager, more blood flows to the scalp, aiding new growth.