Why is My Hair Not Growing Back After a Buzz Cut?'

Matthew

Question: Hello. After buzz cutting my hair and then letting it grow out to roughly 2 inches I have noticed there are lots of small hairs on the top of my head that refuse to grow past the initial buzz cut length. I can feel them with my finger tips while running them over my scalp. There has got to be over a hundred of them. What is happening here? I'm 35 years old.

Answer: Hi Matthew, there is likely to be a very simple reason for this and, you'll be pleased to hear, it has nothing to do with hair loss.

At any given point, the hairs on our scalp are in a different phase of the hair growth cycle. These phases are Anagen - the active growth phase, Catagen - the phase where the hair transitions from active growth to the next step, which is Telogen - the resting phase when the hair has finished growing and sheds. Once the Telogen phase has ended the process starts again, re-entering the Anagen phase in order to produce new hair.

Only a percentage of hairs enter each stage at a time as otherwise, when the growth cycle was suspended and hairs shed during the Telogen phase, all our hair would fall out at once.

What sounds most likely here is that some of your hairs are still growing and, because your hair is so short, the fact that there is a slight variation in the growth speeds is more noticeable. You should find that this rights itself in the next three-to-four months though, given your hair is very short, you may be able to see an improvement before then. Using hair growth boosters, such as taking a highly targeted hair health food supplement such as Hair Vitalics may help.

From what you have described we do not believe this is a cause for concern, however, should any of the hairs seem thinner than normal, we would recommend you have a professional tricho-check in order to investigate this issue further. If thinning hair is present it could be a sign of androgenic alopecia (Male Pattern Baldness) which can easily be diagnosed and treated by a hair loss specialist.