Very often I see this "cry of despair" on various "women's" forums, after which many dozens of pages are devoted to various "recipes" for this problem.
As a rule, we are talking about warming masks, which theoretically allow to accelerate hair growth, but such recipes do not always help and not all.
Instead of going through one recipe after another, let's try to understand why hair doesn't "want" to grow.
There can be only three reasons:
- they have reached their "genetic length";
- they grow slower than they could because there is a lack of nutrients in the follicle for mitosis (division) of cells;
- they are constantly broken down and the "growth" is not felt.
Before we look at each cause in detail, let's remember how hair grows in principle.
Hair has two parts conditionally - visible - a hair shaft, and a root.
Hair root (bulb) is in a kind of hair "bag" - a follicle, which in turn is located in the skin layer (at a depth of 3 to 6 mm.).
In the hair follicle, there is a continuous active mitosis (division) of cells. Growing or mature cells gradually lose their nuclei and keratinize. The pressure inside the follicle due to continuous mitosis "makes" the hair grow upwards at an average rate of 0.3-0.4 mm per day.
The hair shaft consists of 3 layers:
- 1. The brain layer is the core of the hair, which consists of 2-4 layers of unburned cells of cubic shape.
- The cortical layer is the main part of the hair, consisting of longitudinal rows of keratinized cells, which provides the hair with strength and flexibility. Its composition is 90% keratin, a protein substance. This layer contains the molecules of melanin, the hair pigment.
- The cuticle is the top layer of hair, a kind of "shell" that protects the cortical fibers and holds them together. This layer consists of 6-10 layers of elongated keratinized plate-shaped cells, which like tiles overlap each other in the direction of roots to ends.
Each shell cell originally contains an external covalently bound fatty acid that gives the hair water-repellent properties. It is not washed off by shampooing but is destroyed by perm and staining. The secret of the sebaceous glands in the scalp covers the shell but is not associated with it.
Finally, we move on to the very reasons why the hair can not reach the cherished length.
- Sometimes there is a mention of the term "genetic length" on the net, but I have not found a satisfactory explanation for it. What is this? In fact, everything is simple. The hair grows in continuous cycles. At the end of each cycle, the hair falls out, and in its place, a new hair begins to grow out of the same follicle So, the duration of the period of active growth of hair (the phase of anagen) for each person - an indicator is individual and not subject to change (except in cases of hereditary baldness = androgenetic alopecia, when the phase of active growth is significantly shortened). But unfortunately, there is no way to prolong this phase.
- Lack of nutrients. I have already mentioned that active mitosis (cell division) occurs in the follicle. This mitosis requires vitamins, trace elements, and protein, which form new cells that make up the hair shaft. Therefore, if you eat little protein, do not take vitamins and trace elements, it is quite logical that the blood flow, which washes the hair follicles, does not bring them anything "good". Mitosis slows down and hair grows slower. Vitamins and their influence on the hair, I will devote a separate article, so far only say that in today's world of foodstuffs it is impossible to get an adequate amount of useful elements. So I definitely "for" the reception of vitamin complexes, and not courses, and on a regular basis, with two reservations: vitamins should be bought not in Russia (why - will tell in the article about vitamins) and have in the composition of components, especially useful for hair (L-cysteine, biotin, methionine, group B, zinc, etc.). And there is no need to spend time and effort on rubbing vitamins in the head! Hair can only be "nourished" by vitamins from the inside. The fault is the specific structure of the skin and the presence of the epidermal barrier, through which the vitamins do not penetrate.
- 3. The most common reason is the constant breakage of the hair tips. This is easy to see, especially if you're dying your hair. You can see that the roots have grown by 1-1.5 cm in a month, and you are dyeing them regularly without changing their overall length.
Drying with hot air or lack of drying, staining with household dyes, non-observance of technology of staining with dyestuff, cutting with cheap scissors, lack of special "care" means or their incorrect application - all this leads to the fact that the outer layer of hair is damaged, hair tips are constantly broken and the length is not added in any way.