Healthier Hair

My six year old daughter, had kidney reflux and a UPJ obstruction at birth, both have been surgically corrected. Her hair is shoulder length and has been for three years. I trim it regulary and it remains extremely dry and barely grows. Her hair does come out fairly easy when brushed or pulled (by her brothers). She really wants her hair to grow and I would love to know how I can make it more healthy and have peace of mind that nothing is medically wrong. I would appreciate your time and assistance. Thank you

Hair loss can be caused by stress (physical and emotional), malnutrition, and multiple surgeries. Brittle hair can be treated with more gentle handling as brisk brushing can pull out or break the fragile hairs. Make sure that your daughter’s diet allows her to get all the nutrients that she needs. It is normal to lose around 100 hairs per day. The length of her hair indicates (assuming that hair grows 1/2 inch per month) that her hair cycle may be as short as 2 years (assuming 12 inch length of her hair) and each hair that falls out gets replaced by another one that starts to grow from ‘scratch’. Everyone has their own hair cycle, which usually ranges from 2 – 6 years. I would expect that as she gets older, the cycle length will change (probably get longer which may mean that the hair will grow out longer as well).