Is my regrowth a positive sign?

My hair is regrowing. There are tufts. It's more than a centimetre. Is this a positive sign? These are all questions that I've seen before, and ones that gain so many responses on forums or social media feeds. Understandably, any regrowth can be exciting and exhilarating and maybe, just maybe a sign that your immune system is back under control and leaving your hair alone! Or maybe not...

Hair regrowth will vary from person to person; I've met people who have lost all their hair, then almost immediately received full regrowth which has lasted for months or years or to this day. Others who are in a perpetual cycle of shedding, growth, shedding, growth, shedding again. Then of course there are people just like me who have seen no more than a millimetre of growth or the odd longer hair, but never for very long!

As well as being unpredictable, it also means it is impossible to determine a pattern and even more difficult to determine what the hair regrowth may mean. To understand it even a little bit, we have to look to the causes and process of alopecia...

Each individual hair naturally goes through a three phase cycle, and it does so over a number of months, at a different rate / time to the hair next to it. The cycle is:

• Anagen Phase: In simple terms, this is the 'growth' phase of the hair. Each individual hair grows for somewhere between three and five years, reaching lengths of up to 30 inches in most people. With good care, diet and a bit of luck, this phase can last up to seven years, reaching lengths of up to a metre! That's if you let it grow out of course!
• Catagen Phase: Occurring immediately at the end of the Anagen Phase, the Catagen phase is a transitional period for the hair, when the hair follicle begins to collapse. This indicates the start of the shedding period and can last up to 10 days.
• Telogen Phase: An immediate follow-on from the Catagen phase, Telogen is a period of 'rest' for the hair follicle, lasting around three to four months for each individual follicle. The hair follicle releases the hair shaft (the individual strand of hair), which is shed from the head and falls out. The hair follicle remains in this period of statis, before returning to the Anagen Phase to start growing again.  

At any one time, 90% of the hair on your head is in the Anagen Phase and you will lose approximately 80 hairs per day from the head. As each individual hair is at a different point in the cycle, it means that in normal cases, you won't see any thinning or baldness. When this cycle becomes interrupted however, it will cause baldness or patches of baldness, which may have many triggers.

What this means is that any hair regrowth is in itself positive because it means the hair follicles are still able to enter the Anagen phase and able to produce new hair shafts, which could signify a return to a full head of hair in the future. Unfortunately, the longer hair follicles go without growing new shafts, the less likely they will restart or be able to restart BUT again, this is not a certain outcome either! To explain, we need to revert to the examples included previously, which show that hairloss and regrowth is unique to the individual...

• Some people will be a permanent state of flux, growing hair, losing it, growing it again, and it is likely will be like this forever
• Some people will have no regrowth at all for years, only to regain it again out of the blue
• Some people will have almost instant regrowth, which may or may not stay forever

Looking at the hairloss cycle, it is clear that any regrowth is positive in as much as the hair is growing, but that is about all you can draw from it! Those experiencing hair regrowth should be happy, but also wary and honest with themselves that it may change just as quickly, taking each day as it comes, and those with no regrowth ever should not be disheartened that it will be this way forever, as it may change on a coin flip too (not literally).

So yes, it's positive, but no it might not mean anything either!

Victoria x

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