Is there such a thing as 100% Hair Length Retention?

My Answer is NO! There's no such thing!

I recently read a reader's comment on  Natural Nigerian's Facebook page about how she maintains a 100% hair retention. The comment was to a question posted by another reader who seemed to be struggling with retaining her new growth, despite diligently following almost every hair care rule. My advice to her was to be patient and may be stretch out her hair every once in a while to see how much the hair has actually grown.

Pardon my art skills :) 

Instead of letting this reader know there isn't such a thing, I decided to share my two cents on what I know about hair anatomy on here. The reason why one cannot  retain 100% of the hair that grows out of the scalp is because our hair is like a tree branch which periodically breaks off due to age and/or elements from the environment.


The hair strand is almost like an upside down triangle where the part closest to the scalp is the thickest while the ends, which is furthest from the scalp is the thinnest.

The reason for this is because hair closest to the scalp is the newest part of the hair strand which is equipped with the highest number of cuticle layers. The hair gradually starts to loose its cuticle layer as it ages and grows further away from the scalp. Also, physical manipulation which includes shampooing, combing, brushing, hair styling as well as environmental elements all contribute to the gradual loss of these protective layers. 

The loss of these protective layers results in a fragile thin hair towards the end of every strand. 

Because the "old" ends aren't as protected as their "newborn" roots due to reduced cuticle layers, they will become vulnerable to stress caused by physical hair manipulation and environmental events (this includes heat, hard water, humidity,  heavy wind, smog and general pollution). This means that these thin ends will eventually break off when the hair is combed or manipulated in any other way. These thin ends are also often trimmed off because they tend to split into splitting ends and often knot with other ends.  

These aging ends are what I like to call "dead" hair because they provide no advantage to the overall health of the hair and should be trimmed off whenever possible.

So, do you still think it's possible to retain 100% of the hair that grows out of your head?