11 Myths About Hair Growth You Should Stop Believing
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Along with important facts come myths, and now thanks to the internet, people are spreading them even more. For many years, people used to believe in myths about hair loss and growth, and it’s about time we busted a few of them. Many of these myths can leave you feeling disheartened and confused. It’s important to note that hair loss can happen to any one of us and has nothing to do with you plucking out a grey hair or trimming it. It’s vital that we junk common myths about hair loss so that those who suffer from it don’t get misinformed. So if you’ve wondered if washing your hair with cold water can prevent baldness or if trimming your hair regularly prevents hair fall, we’ve got the answers for you! By uncovering the real story behind these lies, we can help eradicate some of the misconceptions surrounding hair fall and learn more! So here is a list of eleven hair care myths we’ve all heard and the real truth behind them.
1. Trimming Your Hair Helps Increase Its Length
Try to think about this logically. Your hair grows from its roots. So how will trimming it guarantee that your hair will increase in length or thickness? The truth is that trimming your hair regularly is beneficial as it gets rid of split ends. It leaves your hair looking thicker and more voluminous.
2. Dandruff Can Cause Hair Loss
There has been no proper correlation between hair loss and dandruff. Dandruff can cause your scalp to get dry and lead to you vigorously scratching it. This can cause hair to thin and fall out and result in terrible hair loss.
3. Switching Shampoos Often Can Cause Hair Loss
Our scalp doesn’t automatically become used to just one type of shampoo. Switching your shampoos regularly will not cause you to go bald or lead to a staggering loss of hair. So go ahead and experiment with any shampoo that you choose!
4. Hair Loss Doesn’t Affect Young Folks
This ridiculous myth does nothing but draw attention and shame to those suffering from premature hair loss! Hair thinning and hair loss can occur in people as young as twelve, and there can be plenty of reasons behind it. The person can be dealing with hormonal issues or other reasons, and it’s not fair to assume just older folks have to deal with this.
5. Daily Stress Affects Your Hair Growth
Unless you are undergoing severe traumatic stress, there is no way that your hair loss is due to stress. If you have experienced an effective form of stress, then there may be a sudden but temporary thinning of your hair. This is referred to as telogen effluvium, and once this stress is eliminated, your hair growth will return back to normal.
6. Washing Hair With Cold Water Will Prevent Baldness
There are quite a few benefits of using cold water to wash your hair, but no, cold water will not stop you from going bald. Bathing with cold water may prevent frizz, tighten your cuticles and increase blood flow to the scalp, but it won’t affect the number of your hair follicles.
7. Using Hair Products Leads To Hair Fall
There are a lot of people who are under the belief that conditioner, wax, hairspray, or even gel causes hair fall, but this is also not true. In fact, making use of a conditioner actually helps you as it detangles your hair and smooths it out. Unless you use these products excessively, there’s no way that it can lead to hair breakage. Using these products in excess may actually weigh down your hair, but it won’t prevent your hair growth. If anything, you should only be wary of harsh heat treatments like those used in hair straightening.
8. Plucking Out Grey Hair Causes More Grey Hair To Grow
Hair color is caused by melanin produced in hair follicles. Once the cells stop the production of the darker pigment that is required, your hair will start to turn grey or white. So this doesn’t mean that individually plucking out grey hair will lead to you growing twenty more!
9. Wearing A Hat Can Cause You To Go Bald
Hair follicles don’t really need to breathe since they get their source of oxygen from blood. Hats only cause baldness if you are wearing one that might be exerting excessive friction or tension on your crown. Your hair follicles don’t breathe on the outside, so even if you wear a cap/hat for more than twenty hours, you won’t go bald!
10. Direct Sunlight Can Cause Baldness
Direct sunlight doesn’t affect your hair follicles since your hair can act as a natural shield and protect the top of your head. So no, your hair will not fall out due to direct exposure to sunlight!
11. Hair Fall Is Caused By Your Mother’s Genes
There are more than 150 genes to regulate the rate of hair growth. Your genetics from your mom and dad’s side of the family play a significant role in your hair growth and not just your mother’s. However, there is some research that suggests that your mom’s father might have to shoulder some of the blame (1).
In the end, regardless of what you choose to eat or do, you can’t really change your genetics. Now that you know some of these hair myths, we’d be interested in learning some of the craziest hair myths that you’ve heard! Tell us which were the craziest myths related to hair fall and hair growth that you’ve heard about in the comment section below!
