Cutting your hair does not make it grow faster. Here is what does.

No, cutting your hair does not make it grow faster. Hair grows from the follicle in your scalp at roughly half an inch a month, and a pair of scissors at the end of the shaft cannot change that rate. What regular trims actually do is stop split ends travelling up the shaft, which keeps the length you already have. So your hair feels like it is growing more because you are losing less of it to breakage.

If I had a pound for every client who told me they were booking a trim because they want their hair to grow, I could buy us all dinner.

The short version

• Hair grows from the scalp follicle, not the ends

• Average growth is about half an inch a month

• Trims protect length by stopping split ends spreading

• Eat enough protein, manage heat, sleep on silk

• Castor oil and counting strokes do nothing

Where the myth came from

Hair grows from the follicle in your scalp, not from the ends. A pair of scissors at the bottom of the hair shaft cannot speak to the root at the top of your head. The two ends of your hair have nothing to do with each other.

The reason the myth took hold is that regular trims keep your length, which makes it feel like your hair is growing more. If you ignore split ends, they travel up the hair shaft and snap off mid-length. Once that starts, you lose length from breakage faster than your roots are producing new growth.

A tidy trim every 8 to 12 weeks stops that breakage at the source. Your hair grows at the same rate either way. With regular trims, you simply keep more of what you grow.

What actually makes your hair grow faster

Three things, mostly. Genetics, hormones, and your general health.

Average hair growth is about half an inch a month. Some people get a little more, some a little less. You cannot really change that speed at the follicle. What you can change is what is slowing it down or causing it to shed.

Stress, restrictive diets, postpartum hormones, thyroid issues, and not eating enough protein are the usual culprits I see in my chair. If a client tells me their hair feels thinner or is shedding more, my first question is what has changed in their life in the last three months. Hair lags behind the body. What you went through in February shows up at the salon in May.

The stuff that actually helps

Protein. Your hair is made of keratin which is a protein. If you are not eating enough, your hair has nothing to build itself from. Same goes for biotin and zinc, which most decent multivitamins cover.

Sleep and stress management. Boring answer, but the truth.

A silk pillowcase. I know it sounds like an Instagram thing but it genuinely cuts breakage at night. Cotton pulls at the hair while you move around in your sleep.

Heat protection every single time you use a hot tool. I see clients come in with snapped, fried mid-lengths asking me why their hair will not grow past their shoulders. The hair is growing fine. The bottom is just breaking off as fast as the top is growing in.

And yes, regular trims. Every 8 to 12 weeks for most people, sooner if you bleach.

What does not help

Castor oil rubbed on the scalp every day. There is no real evidence it speeds growth. It can sometimes help with breakage at the hairline, but you do not need to walk around with greasy hair for six hours.

Tracking your length weekly. I see clients on Instagram measuring their hair every Sunday. Hair does not grow in a steady line you can plot on a graph. You will drive yourself mad. Take a photo every three months and compare. That is enough.

Brushing your hair 100 strokes a night. This was a thing my grandmother did and her hair was thinning by 50. I will leave that one with you.

When a cut is the right call anyway

If your ends look like a frayed paint brush, if your hair is snagging on your jumper, if your colour has faded six inches before the rest catches up, that is a sign you need a cut. Not a tidy little dust. A proper cut.

A restyle with us is £60. A cut and finish is £42 to £55 depending on the stylist. Ashleigh, Keira, Sabrina and Shree are all on the team, plus me when I have time. We will take off what needs to come off and not a millimetre more if you are trying to grow it out. Just tell us at the start of the appointment.

Honest answer if you want longer hair

Stop bleaching your ends to a crisp. Stretch your trims to every 12 weeks rather than every 6 if your ends are behaving. Eat properly. Sleep. Use a heat protectant. Wait.

That is genuinely it. Anyone selling you a hair growth gummy promising six inches in three months is selling you a problem your hair did not have.

The half inch a month figure is not salon folklore. The NHS notes that hair grows at an average rate of around 1 to 1.5 centimetres per month, which works out to roughly half an inch. Genetics, hormones, and your general health move that needle. Scissors do not.

If you want to chat through your hair goals or book a trim, call us on 01582 730381 or book online. We are at Shop 660, Jansel House, Hitchin Road, Stopsley, open Tuesday to Saturday.