If you'd damaged your hair by over-styling, too much heat or over coloring with harsh chemicals, the good news is - your hair will grow back healthy.
Hair follicles are part of your skin that are responsible for growing your hair. If you accidentally pull out a strand of your hair and it has a ball (bulb) on the end of it, you didn't pull out the follicle, and instead, you removed your hair root. That root grows back and your hair will grow back, too.
In most cases, hair replenishes itself by growing back to maintain a full head.
Because hair is not a living tissue with regenerative ability, it cannot heal and repair. You can use oils, conditioners, hydrolyzed proteins or other ingredients to disguise the issues temporarily but it's akin to using makeup on the face.
When hair breaks, the broken strands do not grow back, but the hair follicles themselves remain intact and can continue to produce new hair. As long as the underlying scalp health is good and the causes of breakage are addressed, new hair should grow in to replace the broken strands over time.
All experts agree on this: when hair is damaged, it must be cut off. “If the damage is so bad (you're bleaching too much or using too much heat), that's when it becomes a cut instead of a trim,” says Polko.
Hair breakage is when your hairs begin to snap while brushing, styling or washing, and start to lose their healthy sheen. It's important to remember that fixing hair breakage is a process – you can't mend individually-broken strands.
Hair is surprisingly resilient, and in many cases, hair regrowth after pulling is entirely possible. Here's the catch, though—it all depends on whether the follicle remains intact. The follicle acts as the production line for each strand, and as long as it hasn't been damaged or scarred, your hair can stage a comeback.
Vitamin D.
Vitamin D is essential for creating the cells that develop into hair follicles. It also supports healthy bones and your immune system. If you have hair loss and low vitamin D levels, your doctor may recommend vitamin D supplements.
In most cases, hair breakage is temporary, and people can repair their hair and restore its strength by using products and home remedies.
So dead hair follicles can look like a smooth, bald patch of skin or like a scar. A trichologist may be able to get a better view of your follicles by using a microscope or other trichological tools.
Fully destroyed hair follicles cannot usually come back to life without surgical intervention, such as a hair transplant. However, you can revive damaged or dormant hair follicles. Only when the follicles are extremely, deeply damaged does it become irreversible.
If your hair follicles are damaged, you might notice one or all of these symptoms: Hair loss or hair thinning. Extreme dryness. Irritation, redness, or flakiness.
And that damage can range from barely noticeable but raggedy ends that look and feel better with some extra TLC, to all-out “we're spiraling” strands that may require a serious hair cut or a stylist consultation. But luckily for us, breakage can be temporary and is totally reversible.
What does hair breakage look like? Knowing when your hair is damaged is a special skill in itself. The main symptoms are broken hairs in your brush or drain, split ends, fly-aways, extreme dryness, a loss of volume, and tangles or knots after washing.
Using products that are designed to nourish the scalp and hair can definitely speed up this process, but on average you'd be looking at six months to a year to fully see a difference in your hair's condition.
Pull Test and Tug Test
This simple test measures the severity of hair loss. During a pull test, a dermatologist grasps small sections of hair, about 40 strands, from different parts of the scalp and gently tugs. If six or more strands fall out, you have what's known as active hair loss.
For most people, the lost hair grows back, and you maintain a full head of hair. But illness, hormonal changes, stress, aging and inherited conditions can interfere with your hair's growth cycle. More hair falls out, but new strands don't always grow back.