Have you ever noticed that your chest hair never grows past a certain point? It grows about an inch long and then stops. Trimming it seems pointless if you don’t care about that particular length.
Other parts of the body are a different story. In general, I prefer cured male body hair. I’m a fan of trimming underarm hair, for example, as it sometimes grows out of bounds. Your partner is probably a fan of trimmed pubic hair, since she’s flossing abundantly right now, thank you very much. The brows never seem to grow more than an inch, if at all, although I recently found two stubborn ones on my left brow that were an inch (a whole inch!) long. I guess I need to use scissors more often.
With all the masculine care and grooming we do, I’ve been curious about body hair (from head to toe) and why it grows differently (and stops growing at different points) from one part of the body to another. Why can the hair on my head grow past my butt, but butt hair never sweeps the floor? (Thankfully.) For more information, I contacted Dr. Baiju Gohil, MD, of Robotic Hair Restoration on Long Island.
He is a board-certified surgeon and member of the American College of Surgeons, dedicated to the restoration and treatment of hair loss. This is what Gohil had to say about hair growth and the rules he usually follows.
Why does hair grow at different lengths from one part of the body to another?
Gohil says the first thing to know about hair growth (anywhere on the body) is that it goes through a life cycle that consists of three different phases. This starts with the anagen phase, which “is the actual growth stage of the hair,” says Gohil. “For head hair, this phase lasts 3-7 years for each hair follicle. However, for our body hair this phase only lasts 3-6 months.” The stopping point, which is the maximum that a hair can grow, is called the “terminal length” of the hair.
Then there is the catagen phase. “This is a brief transition phase after anagen, where hair growth slows to a halt. This phase lasts between 10 days and three months.” Finally, the Telogen Phase “is the resting phase where the hair stops growing, loosens, and falls out,” says Gohil. “The follicle then goes into a dormant state for about three months, after which a new hair starts to grow and the whole process repeats itself.”
Body hairs, such as those on the chest, eyebrows, face, and other extremities, obviously do not grow as long as the hairs on the head. “The longer the anagen phase lasts, the longer the hair can grow,” he says. “Each hair follicle independently goes through the growth cycle at different times; otherwise, all the hair would fall out simultaneously. Instead, only a certain number of hairs are lost per day, around 80 hairs, from a healthy scalp.”
