by Jonte Rhodes

Created on: March 14, 2010

It has been a popular idea for a long time that cutting hair makes it then grow faster. While there is some truth to this, hair actually never grows and faster or slower at any point under normal circumstances.

The idea of cutting hair making it grow faster is something of an urban myth. In actual fact there is an effect on the hair, although it still grows at the same speed as before. Trimming the ends of your hair merely makes it appear to be growing faster than it was before, although this is not actually the case.

One of the main reasons that this myth exists is because when men shave, the stubble often seems to be growing in faster and looks thicker than it was before. In actual fact hair just appears thicker when it is nearer to the face, and when it grows out it seems thinner because it the thickness is visible against the face.

Also when the hair is trimmed, it is trimmed back to the same length so that any growth which occurs is more noticeable. When hair is damaged and parts of it break off, eventually much of it becomes a different length. This eventually means that the growth becomes uneven and is often more difficult to see. Trimming then makes all the hair start growing from the same length again and so makes the growth more visible.

Often as hair gets longer the ends tend to get frayed and split, which means that it tends not to grow as straight as it does when it is shorter. When you cut the ends of these split ends off, the hair grows back in one complete piece, which means is grows straighter and appears to be growing more quickly.

Similarly if the hair is split and in a generally poor shape, then it is much more likely to break off at the weakest point, which is usually where the splits start. This of course means that the hair appears to have stopped growing, because a lot more of it is falling of before it has gotten noticeably longer.

Although some people have hair which naturally grows slowly, for the most part hair tends to fall into a similar range in how fast it grows. Some people are slightly faster and some slower, but usually the difference is negligible. Condition your hair too often or using things like straighteners regularly can also damage the hair and cause it to break more often, again making it seem as if it isn't growing very quickly.

All heat products such as straighteners are often the culprit of drying hair out and making the hair brittle and weak. These will not only stop the hair from growing as quickly, but will also mean that the hair is more likely to fall out and become less thick.

There are certain medication and treatments which either prevent hair growth or cause the hair to be lost. Famously chemotherapy causes complete hair loss, but there are all manner of other medications which can cause either partial hair loss or for the hair to stop growing. Generally of course the easiest way to combat this is to ask to be switched to a different medication if possible.


There are ways that the hair can be made stronger though, which tends to be the main problem that people have rather than that their hair grows very slowly. There are several different vitamins which can strengthen the hair, as well as dietary supplements and drinking plenty of water.

The average length that most peoples hair grows is around half an inch per month. Because of this it is important to have an experienced hair dresser trim your hair if you are intending on growing it longer. The reason being that they will know not to trim off too much and negate any growth that will have occurred. Similarly you should only get it trimmed every six to eight weeks to ensure that it has enough time to grow back in between visits to the salon.

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