No matter the number of hairs you may have on your head or your hair’s texture, healthy, normal hair has a regular grow-shed cycle of about 80 to 100 hairs a day, so a certain amount of “fall out” is a natural occurrence.

When everything is going as it should, there are three stages of the grow-shed cycle. The first is the anagen stage, which lasts from two to six years. During this stage, hair is firmly seated in the hair follicle, getting plenty of nourishment, and growing at a rate of one quarter to one half an inch per month. This happens with more frequency in our youth, and lessens as we age.

“More than 85% of scalp hair is in this phase at any time,” says dermatologist Dr. Wilma Bergfeld, head of dermatology research at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. So, most of our hair is constantly in the process of feeding and growing.