Does Your Hair Really Change Every Seven Years?

If you look back at photos from 10, 20, or more years ago, chances are your hair is still growing ‌after thatnot quite the same as therenow. The truth is, your locks don’t just look different, they have a whole new head of hair.

Of course, this didn’t happen overnight. But if you’ve heard the old woman’s story about how her hair changes every seven years, there’s some truth to that.

Individual hairs actually germinate, grow, and shed over a period of several years. “Each hair is a living organism that on average he lives two to six years,” says Jeffrey Shue, M.D., a board-certified dermatologist and co-founder and co-director of his dermatology in The Oak of Chicago. said. “In humans, the cycles are asynchronous, meaning each hair is independent of the others.”

Over time, it becomes a new head of hair. Also, thanks to normal age-related changes, the hair you have now may look different than the hair you had before.

Human hair grows in a three-phase cycle. There are approximately 100,000 hairs on the human head, and each goes through a period of growth and rest before it separates from the scalp and falls out, said Commissioner, owner and director of Orchard Lake Dermatology & Cosmetics. Board-certified dermatologist Rohit Kakar, MD, explains. At Orchard Lake, Michigan.

Normal hair loss is 50 to 100 hairs per day, most of which come off while washing, combing, or brushing.

According to the National Library of Medicine, after a hair falls out, the follicle that caused it to go dormant for about a year. When the follicle is well rested, new strands form and begin to grow again.

Yes, No. Indeed, most of today’s hair did not exist more than seven years ago. However, each individual hair sheds and regrows at different rates, so not all current hair is new.

In other words, some hairs may be buds that are only a few months or a year old, while others may be relatively old timers that have been hanging for several years. A small portion (1-3%) are dormant and have no hair at all.

Which hair will fall out and when? Ultimately, the pattern of hair loss and regrowth is fairly random.

“Different hair follicles are in different stages of the hair cycle due to lack of synchronization, allowing them to maintain a constant hair density,” says Dr. Kakar.

one more? Human hair has an upper lifespan of seven years, but not all hairs can sustain that lifespan. Our hair growth and hair loss cycles tend to shorten with age, and those assigned female at birth generally have a longer anagen than those assigned male at birth.

On the other hand, hormonal changes, illness, and damage to hair follicles can all cause hair to fall out prematurely. So can chronic stress, says Dr. Su.

If your hair looks different now than it did when you were younger, there’s a reason. The hair that grows back to replace the old hair that has fallen out may have different characteristics than the previous hair, Dr. Su says. Over time, the entire mane can change.

As you age, you may notice that your hair begins to look like this.

• ‌thinner:As the hair grows shorter, the individual strands begin to decrease in diameter. As the number of these fine hairs increases, your hair may not look or feel as thick as it used to, explains Dr. Kakar.
• ‌Dryer or coarser:As we age, our scalp produces less sebum and natural oils. “This causes hair to lose its smoothness, softness and shine as it ages,” says Dr. Kakar.
• ‌gray:You knew this was coming As the years go by, more and more hair follicles lose the pigment-producing cells that give the hair its color, and new hair grows back, turning gray.