Ever wonder why your chest hair grows rapidly, while your head hair thins out?

Scene: Your alarm goes off. You’d normally hit snooze, but you’ve got an early meeting today. Half asleep, you ensure your coffee timer didn’t malfunction before hitting the shower. You haphazardly throw off your T-shirt and suddenly, you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror: Your chest hair seems to have grown from forest to jungle overnight, while you SWEAR the hair on your head continues to thin. What is UP with that? You’re thinning on top, but your body decides to overcompensate by growing hair 12 ways to Sunday on your body?

Yup. That’s precisely what’s happening. Here’s a little story about why the top of your head may be lacking, but your chest hair can’t stop showing up.

Understanding why your hair grows in certain places (but not others) requires a little trip to science 101. According to our friends at Popular Science, hair grows in three stages: anagen, catagen, and telogen. The hair on your head stays in the “A-gen” phase for an extended period of time, while other parts of your body (like your arm hair and chest) will head into the “C-gen” phase within a matter of weeks (so you need to maintain it more frequently). When your hair stops growing, it means it’s in the dormant “T-gen” phase. When your head hair reaches the “T-gen” phase post “A-gen”, it starts disappearing.

The main culprit here is testosterone. As we age, some parts of our body get sensitive to “A-gen”. And when testosterone hits these areas, it makes areas in the “C-gen” phase grow faster, and those in the extended “A-gen” stage peace out. Thus, hair grows in certain places faster (like your chest) and shrinks hair in other areas (like your scalp).

To summarize, think of it this way: Your normally “A-gen”-friendly head hair follicles are like your friends who leave the party early because their bed is more appealing, while the hair on your chest, arm, leg, and other body parts are having so much fun with all that “C”, they end up the people you put in a cab at 3 a.m. (because you know they won’t go home on their own).

Over the imbalance? We get it. Here are some things you can do to even it out:

• Scalp Micro USA Services for thinning head hair: Not to toot our own horn, but we have a pretty killer line of services that can help with the lack of hair on your head. Check out our website for information on scalp micropigmentation.
• Trimming: Ready to tame the chest hair? We get it – keep it casual. However, DIY with sharp objects requires a little TLC. Experts at Gillette recommend trimming with a styler, first, before using a razor. Then, hit the shower, lather the area up with shaving cream, and make sure that blade isn’t dull before going at it. Remember, go easy. Cuts suck.
• Creams: Hit any drug store and you’ll see these options are aplenty. Creams work by hitting the hair and dissolving it through chemical interaction. It’s fast and easy, but pro tip: Only test on a small area first before slathering all over where you want the hair to go bye-bye. You want to be careful of irritations or reactions. Also, read the directions carefully before you start. No, seriously. You don’t want to mess up the application or you’ll end up looking like a cheetah.
• Let it GROW: None of these options sound appealing? Then just let nature take its course and DGAF (don’t give a…).

Demystifying why your hair can grow in certain places may sound like something found on the SciFi channel, but it’s important to know you’re not a freak; it’s biology. Your hair growth is a fickle beast, and here at Scalp Micro USA, we have all the information you need to understand the changes, and options available to make you feel confident.

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