When Will Your Baby’s Hair Texture Change?

Published on July 9th, 2020 and Updated on January 12th, 2024

There are so many things about your baby that you cherish. Like how easily they fit into your arms, that sweet baby smell, or even the delight they take in dropping food on the ground. But just like their tiny toes and their love for peekaboo, your child’s hair today may not be their hair for life. Your child is growing and developing every day, from their tiny toes to their hair follicles. These changes often spark questions like, “How will my baby look?” And that is completely normal!

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According to neonatal experts, by the age of two, your child’s locks are locked in. But until then, hair grows and changes. That’s why the answer to “When will my baby’s hair texture change?” isn’t as simple as you might think.

How Does Baby Hair Texture Work?

To understand your baby’s changing hair, let’s start with some key hair terms:

• Hair Shaft: This is the part of your hair that isn’t anchored below the surface layers of skin in the hair follicle.
• Hair Follicle: It goes all the way down into the dermis, the thicker layer of the skin that resides below the epidermis.
• Hair Root: The hair root anchors your hair to the follicle.

For every individual hair strand, the hair growth cycle occurs in three stages:

• Anagen Phase: This is the active growth phase where cells divide at the hair’s root, pushing the hair out of the follicle and over your baby’s scalp. This phase lasts between two and seven years.
• Catagen Phase: The hair is cut off from the protein-supplying capillaries at the base of the follicle, preventing further growth. This phase lasts for two or three weeks.
• Telogen Phase: The hair follicle rests, and no new growth occurs for two to four months. Shedding of about 25 to 100 telogen hairs is normal each day. At the end of this phase, the cycle starts again with the anagen phase.

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Pregnancy hormones can affect hair growth, resulting in thicker hair during pregnancy. After delivery, hormonal changes can cause excessive hair loss known as telogen effluvium.

This three-part cycle, however, only applies to terminal hair, which is the hair adults have. Terminal hair typically grows in by the age of two, and before that, two stages of hair development occur.

When Does Baby Hair Texture Change: The Phases of Baby Hair

During the first 24 months, your baby’s hair texture will dramatically change as it goes through three phases:

Baby Hair Phase 1: Lanugo

While in the womb, your baby’s hair follicles produce a soft, thick hair called lanugo. It begins to appear at five months of gestation and grows all over your child’s body, including their head. The purpose of lanugo is not fully understood, but it may be related to fetal hormone development. Typically, lanugo hair is shed during later stages of gestation and absorbed into the amniotic fluid. However, sometimes babies are born with their lanugo, which is perfectly natural.

Baby Hair Phase 2: Vellus Hair

Lanugo hair is replaced with finer, nearly transparent body hair known as vellus hair. These hairs can be found all over your baby’s body, including their scalp. Vellus hairs can make up between 6-25% of your baby’s scalp hair. The rest will either be lanugo or terminal hair, depending on the stage of your baby’s hair growth.

Baby Hair Phase 3: Terminal Hair

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Around the age of two, your child’s vellus scalp hair will be replaced with thicker, longer, and darker hair. These hairs are your child’s terminal hairs, which are the adult hairs. The cycle of anagen-catagen-telogen phases mentioned earlier will apply to these hairs.

How Does Baby Hair Texture Change?

The texture of your child’s hair may be drastically different from their lanugo hair. As your child grows, the diameter of their hair follicles enlarges, and the shape of the follicle develops into its adult form.

The best way to picture this is by imagining pasta dough. Just as a pasta maker presses dough through various holes to create different noodle shapes, the shape of the hair follicle determines the texture of the hair strand. Round follicles result in straight hair, oval follicles create curly hair, and follicles between round and oval produce wavy or kinky hair.

The shape of your child’s follicle and the thickness of their hair strands are determined by genetics. Different genes, such as EDAR, FGFR2, and TCHH, play a role in determining hair texture and thickness. However, hair texture is polygenic, which means that multiple genes interact to determine the texture of your baby’s hair.

In conclusion, a baby’s hair texture undergoes several transitions from lanugo to vellus hair and ultimately to terminal hair by around two years of age. These transitions are influenced by genetics and the changing shape of hair follicles. It is a fascinating journey of growth and transformation that contributes to your child’s individuality.

*Sources:

1. University of Utah, DEBUNKING OLD WIVES’ TALES: BABY’S HAIR
2. What To Expect, Newborn Haircare
3. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Hair from infants gives clues about their life in the womb
4. Stanford University, Understanding Genetics
5. US National Library of Medicine, Is hair texture determined by genetics?
6. The Washington Post, Dear Science, Why Does The Hair On My Head Grow Longer Than The Hair on My Body?
7. US National Library of Medicine, Hair follicle dermal papilla cells at a glance
8. Open Text, Layers of the Skin
9. Science Direct, Novel mechanism of human fetal growth regulation: A potential role of lanugo, vernix caseosa and a second tactile system of unmyelinated low-threshold C-afferents
10. Healthline, What it Means if Your Baby is Losing Hair
11. Medical News Today, What is Vellus Hair
12. US National Library of Medical Science, Role of Hair Papilla Cells on Induction and Regeneration Process of Hair Follicles
13. Wiley University Online Library, The Biology and Genetics of Curly Hair
14. Khan Academy, Variations on Mendel’s Law
15. UniProt, UniProtKB – Q07283 (TRHY_HUMAN)Basket
16. American Pregnancy, Hair Loss During Pregnancy
17. Today’s Parent, Pregnancy Hair Changes
18. Healthline, 6 Natural Remedies to Pregnancy Acne
19. Healthline, Why Hair Loss Can Occur During or After Pregnancy and What You Can Do.*

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