You have invested in some hair loss treatment that the FDA has approved for your type of hair loss even though you are a little sceptical as to how successful it will be. Three months into the treatment you finally decide it is not going to work for you and you decide to quit trying and shave off all your hair to resign yourself to your new bald self gracefully. Your spouse thinks you are acting a bit hasty and for once you could do well by paying attention to what they say, because they may well be right.
So you sit down in a family meeting and your spouse produces charts, maps, graphs and illustrations to prove to you why three months isn’t enough time for the treatment to begin to make a difference. (Well he might just as well go to all this effort, it’s not often he is right, so let him have his moment of glory)
To your horror though his presentation starts just as you shed a huge clump of hair. And to make matters worse he just shouts “yippee!! I told you it was working”
Although it might seem your husband has lost the plot, he’s right – sudden shedding of more hair is likely to happen as the drug causes hair follicles to eject existing hairs to allow a new cycle of hair growth to begin.
The reason why hair loss treatments can take so long to show any signs of improvement is something called hair cycles. The hair follicles on your head go through a cycle of growth, rest and shed, before the follicle starts all over again with a new hair. This growth period can be anywhere from two to six years, and every time a new hair emerges it will be thinner, shorter and lighter than the last time. This is the natural order of things. The next stage is for the follicle to be ejected and replaced by a new and stronger one.
With some treatments the resting follicle will be ejected to shed the hair that is already there, giving room to a new and stronger follicle. So a sudden burst of lots of hairs simply means your hair follicles are about to start growing some new hair these take time to show however.
You know already that hair does not grow quickly. In fact it only grows at about one cm a month or four inches a year. So you can see why it will take some time for your hair to be restored to its original glory.
The first stage of a hair re-growth program will take about six months because of these hair cycles. The follicles that are resting have to be woken back up and have to be reminded to grow new hair. Or they get pushed out and shed to give place to a new follicle.
So if your husband tries to stop you from shaving your hair because the treatment will work, listen to him. And if you have already shaved it off don’t worry.
It’ll grow back.
