Does Your Hair Ever Stop Growing?

…and how long can it grow?

Staying ahead

Because scalp hair usually stops growing after 5–7 years and then sheds, the average maximum length is about 75–105cm, though genetics, hormones, and health can extend or shorten this.

But that’s scalp hair; scalp follicles typically grow hair for 5–7 years at roughly 15cm per year, while eyelash follicles have a much shorter growth phase, limiting lashes to around 1cm.

You may be wondering why different body hair behaves differently: fibroblasts in each follicle determine whether hair becomes scalp hair, eyelashes, or other body hair, controlling growth rate, thickness, shape, and color based on location.

In the case of current world record-holder Xie Quiping, her record-breaking hair length over 5 meters resulted from an unusually long anagen (growth) phase, combined with helpful genetics, good health, and minimal breakage.

As for things that can get in the way:

• Why baldness happens: follicles can shrink and eventually stop producing hair when epithelial stem cells decline, while testosterone-related effects can also interfere with growth signals.
• Why hair turns gray: follicles gradually lose melanocyte stem cells, reducing pigment production and leading to gray or white hair, which in turn is usually more brittle, thus breaks more easily, thus does not usually reach the same lengths as pre-gray hair.

As for whether we can speed up hair growth: technically no, as no known treatment can make hair exceed its biological growth speed. But! Some treatments can reduce hair loss or improve hair condition, which will result in the appearance of quicker-growing hair, since the overall length will increase (due to reduced breakage and reduced shedding).

For more on all of this, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

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Take care!