During the telogen phase, no new hair proteins are produced, the hair follicle bulb pinches off and recedes, and the stem cell population and melanocytes may die, preventing future hair regrowth from that follicle unless specific conditions are met.

“During that telogen phase, that bulb down there at the bottom, instead of being nice and oval and really having a lot of space in it with all these different things like stem cells, starts to pinch off from the little tube that comes down from the surface of the skin that normally would have a hair in it. It starts to pinch off. At some point, many hair follicles pinch off that bulb region, and it recedes and dies. When it recedes and dies, the stem cell population and the melanocytes go with it.”