What is Normal Hair Growth?

A common question we find here at CHL so we thought we'd try and summarise!

On average you have between 100,000 and 150,000 hairs on your scalp. If you are blonde then you will have around 140,000 compared to brunette which is more likely around the 105,000 mark. Redheads have even less funnily enough with around 90,000 on average.

Each strand of hair grows independantly and takes place at the root, underneath the scalp.

In normal hair growth the hairs are actively growing around 90% of the time. This is called the growth phase - and hair grows at a rate of around 2 cm per month.

Once the growth phase has finished the hair goes into resting and this can last around 2 or 3 months. Once the hair has finished resting it then halls out and is replaced by new hair that is formed in the same follicle.

It is normal to lose upto 100 odd hairs a day. After all, if on average you have say 100,000 to 125,000 hairs on your head and 10% of the time your hair is in resting then you can calculate that you have around 10,000+ hairs in the resting phase, Some of those hairs (around 10%) will be entering the shedding stage at any one time so 100 hairs a day is not unusual.

CHL, May 14, 2006