How does hair (other than on your head and face) know when to stop growing after its shaved, plucked, or cut?

Question

I have always wondered how hair works in the sense that you can shave your arms or legs (or whatever) and it will grow back to what to me seems to be the same length. What happens if you only cut the hairs half way, will they grow the other half back? I heard somewhere that hair is not "alive" in the traditional sense so how does it "relay the information" of it being cut?

Answer 1

THE HAIRS DON'T STOP GROWING. HAIR GOES THROUGH THREE PHASES, ANAGEN, CATOGEN AND TELOGEN. SO YOUR HAIR GROWS AND SHEDS WHICH IS WHY YOU MAY SENSE THAT THE HAIR JUST STOPS GROWING. HAIR REPLACES ITSELF DAILY ALONG WITH EYELASHES AND EYEBROWS. IF YOU WERE TO NOT CUT SHAVE OR OTHER WISE YOUR HAIR WILL GET ALOT LONGER THAN YOU THING BUT CERTAIN PARTOF OF YOUR BODILY HAIRS SHED AND REPLACE THEMSELVES SO QUICKLY YOU THINK THAT THEY JSU GROW TO A CERTAIN LENGTH..

Answer 2

A hair follicule produces what is basically a dead strand of protein. The follicule adds pigment to make a certain color (or does not add pigment and gets a white hair), and the shape of the hair determines if it is going to be straight or curly.

The follicule also determines the length of the hair- some follicules produce VERY long and rather thick hair on the head, other folicules, such as on the cheek, produce very short and fine hairs.

Follicules push the tube out at a fairly consistant speed- about 1/2" per month. It can vary by age, genetics, hormones, etc.

Once a hair has been shoved it out as far as it is supposed to (the growing phase), it rests for a while (resting phase). (Sometimes these phases alternate, but usually it is one of each phase per hair.)

At the end of the resting phase, the hair is allowed to fall out of the follicule and the next hair grows out.



Remember- the hair itself is basically a waste product- it is dead and designed to be 'thrown away' after a certain period. Very little you do to the protein strand affects the follicule.

Cut a hair and the follicle keeps thinking it is still there and continues either growing it or letting it rest. There is no change to the cycle.

The new hair will not be thicker or a different color than it would have been naturally... but because a natural hair is tapered and a cut hair has a thick 'stump', the stump may look bigger or darker than the original tapered hair was.

Answer 3

It doesn’t honestly make the hair thicker; it makes the hair seem thicker. When the hair grows evidently, it begins out skinny and tapered on the finish. When you shave the hair, you shave off the factor and depart the tip blunt. It will develop again to the equal period that it used to be, however now the tip of the hair isn’t skinny and tapered, however feel and blunt.