Hair Growth Cycle
Eyelashes go through 3 stages of hair growth
Anagen (active growth phase)
Catagen (transition/regression phase)
Telogen (resting phase)
Unlike the hair on your head eyelashes and eyebrows have a very short anagen phase of about 30-40 days. The short duration of eyelash growth explains why the lashes are shorter than the hair on the scalp.
Approximately 60-80% of the eyelashes are in this phase.
Eyelash growth cycle
Follicles
Each individual hair is formed inside a hair bulb deep in a hair follicle that has it’s own growth schedule.
Lashes grow and fall out one by one at completely different times. This is why we never end up losing all our eye lashes at the same time. A healthy follicle produces nice strong hair.
If you pull a hair out of a follicle another one will grow up in its place. If you lost your eyelashes because they were pulled out as long as the follicle isn’t damaged your lashes will grow back as soon as it ends the dormant state.
Each follicle can grow many hairs over a lifetime. The phasing of the growth cycle is staggered amongst the follicles. This prevents periodic phases of baldness when the growth cycle stops.
The growth phase is called Anagen. How long the anagen phase lasts is determined genetically, and varies between the sexes and from one person to another.
It is the length of this time that determines how long the hair will grow. For head hair the anagen phase can last from three to as many as seven years.
Catagen is the intermediate phase. The catagen phase is a short resting phase that follows the anagen phase. This phase lasts between two and four weeks.
No pigment is made during that time and the follicle stops producing hair.
The base of the follicle moves upwards towards the surface of the skin.
Telogen is the shedding phase.
The Telogen phase lasts for three or four months. During this time a new hair begins to grow from the hair follicle. As it grows upwards the old hair will be shed naturally or may be pulled out.
Tweezing is easily and painlessly done with telogen hairs. These are the hairs that come out when you shampoo or brush your hair.
Shedding is part of the normal process of the replacement of old hair with new.
At any one time around one in ten of the follicles on an individual’s head are in the shedding phase.
The new hair emerges from the same opening at the surface of the skin as the old one and the hair cycle begins again. As people age the hair cycle can become shorter depending on your genes.
The follicles gradually give up producing long strong hair and the hairs become thinner and shorter.
This can happen to lashes, brows, leg and arm fuzz and so on.