Hairstyles, Hair Care & Fashion

Hair Growth Rates

Q: Does short hair grow faster than long hair?
A: If you look at two men – one whose hair is cut in a crew cut (less than ¼ inch long) and one whose hair is in a bowl cut (falling to about mid-ear, say 4 inches) – you would swear that the man with the crew cut has hair that grows at least twice as fast as the man with the longer hair. This is generally untrue. While individual’s growth rates do vary somewhat, the average rate of hair growth (on the head) is one-half inch per month.
So, based on the averages, after two weeks’ of hair growth, the guy with the 1/4th inch crew cut will have doubled the length of his hair (increasing it by 100%), while the guy whose hair was 4 inches long will only have increased his hair’s overall length by 6.25%.
men with different hair lengths

This also means that if the goal is to keep the hair maintained at a specific length – such as if you are intending to cut the hair when it exceeds 50% of the current length, the crew cut will need to be trimmed at least once a week, while the bowl cut could take as much as 4 months before it has to be trimmed.
Understand that these schedules and limiters are arbitrary, but they help to illustrate how shorter hair may “appear” to grow much faster than longer hairstyles. Generally, people whose hairstyles are very short do have to have more frequent maintenance visits for trimming and other services. Conversely, those whose hairstyles are very long may not need to have their hair trimmed as frequently, but they do typically pay more for services because the longer hair usually takes more time on which to work.
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Does a man's hair grow faster than women's hair?
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