At some point almost everyone hits a wall where their hair grows to a certain length and then just seems to stop, and after trying every supplement and shampoo out there most people shrug and blame their genes. Before you do that though, it is worth knowing that your genes decide the potential your hair has, but your scalp decides whether it ever actually gets there.
What Is Actually Happening
In most cases your hair has not stopped growing at all, because what has stopped is its ability to survive long enough to get anywhere. Your hair grows in cycles and the growing phase can last anywhere from two to six years, and how long your hair gets depends on how long it stays in that phase and how much it breaks along the way. When your scalp is not in great shape it tends to grow thinner, weaker hair that breaks before it builds any real length, so your hair is technically growing but you never get to keep it.
Your Scalp Is the Soil
Think of your scalp like the soil in a garden, because you could have the best seeds in the world but if the soil is dry and packed down what grows from it will always be weak. A clean healthy scalp helps your hair grow stronger and stay in the growing phase longer, which is why scalp health plays such a big role in the overall strength and quality of your hair. This is not just a theory because research has shown that just four minutes of scalp massage a day over several months led to noticeably thicker hair in the people who took part, which is literally just the length of one song.
Signs Your Scalp Might Be the Problem
Have an honest look at this list:
- Your scalp feels itchy or tight a lot of the time
- You have flaking that dandruff shampoo is not really clearing up
- Your hair feels thinner than it did a few years ago
- Your scalp gets greasy really quickly even when you have a regular routine
- You are seeing more hair in the shower or on your brush than you used to
None of these on their own means something serious is going on, but a few of them together suggests your scalp might be working against your hair rather than for it. This is very common in people dealing with oily roots and dry ends at the same time, because the scalp and hair are both struggling in different ways.
The Thing Nobody Mentions
A scalp that is always a little itchy or flaky might not seem like a big deal, but if it has been that way for a while it is worth paying attention to because an unhappy scalp is not a great place for your hair to grow from. When your scalp is irritated it can affect how strong and healthy your new hair grows in over time, so what feels like a small annoyance can actually be quietly getting in the way of your hair goals.
What You Can Do
A few things that make a real difference are using a shampoo that is made for your scalp type rather than just your hair type, adding a scalp serum with ingredients like caffeine or niacinamide to help with blood flow and hair growth, doing a few minutes of scalp massage every day because it genuinely helps, and getting a professional scalp treatment every now and then to clear what your home routine cannot.
Come See Us at FORD Salon in Kelowna
At FORD Salon in Kelowna, we look at your scalp and your hair together because one affects the other, and if your growth has felt stuck and you have run out of ideas we would love to take a proper look. Book a treatment with our team and find out what your hair can actually do when everything is working the way it should.
