Losing Hair and Hairballs..

One of my colleagues.. Joni Shibata decided recently to start collecting her hair that has naturally fallen out, yeah, weird I know… but here it is:

Packed tight (Joni’s words)

I then thought this would be the ideal opportunity for me to talk about the subject of hair naturally falling out….

People tend to think that they are losing their hair when they see all the hair on the floor, in the sink, in the brush…. horrors! But unless you are sick, pregnant or have something going on with your health then its perfectly natural for your hair to fall out. The average amount of hair that you lose is about 60 a day, more in the spring and autumn (as in animals when they molt). Technically what happens is our hair goes through a growth cycle and each hair is growing at their own rate in the cycle. Each hair grows at an average of half and inch per month, (again varying depending upon how hot it is, hotter it is, faster it grows, due to stimulation of scalp).

Hair is actively growing for an average of 2 to 3 yrs, this is called the anagen stage, Once finished growing they reach a state called catagen which means the hair is dying and will last about 2weeks before they come away from the follicle. About 1% of a persons hair is in this stage. Then for the next 3 or 4months the follicle is in its resting stage, telogen. Then the whole cycle begins again and the anagen stage starts again.

Another note to remember is with short hair, you don’t notice the fall out so much becos the hair will end up on the floor or wherever, but if you have longer hair the fallout will cling in with the rest of the hair and therefore when you brush, wash, run your fingers through your hair it seems like there is much more loss, but not so. So please don’t panic so easily when you see that big clump of hair.

I brushed my hair recently (I don’t brush it much I must admit) and from one brushing this is what I produced:

Not packed tight at all

So the hairball contest is on……………