“The Story of Hair”

Hair grows almost everywhere on the body. The hair l think you really want to know about is the hair that grows out of the scalp. Wherever it is found, the structure and growth cycle of all human hair is the same.

Hair consists of a shaft, the portion visible to the outside world. The shaft is always pointed unless it has been trimmed. But the story of hair really begins below the skin’s surface. Where each hair is contained within a pouch-like tube called a Follicle. The portion projecting out of the surface of the skin with a funnel shaped opening and passes inwards in a curved or slanted direction, the latter in curly hair, to become dilated at its deepest extremity where it corresponds with the root. The ducts of one or more sebaceous glands open into the follicle near the skin’s surface.

At the bottom of each follicle is the root, the oval shaped centre where hair growth actually begins. Jutting into the bottom of the root is the papilla, it’s continuous with the dermal layer of the root, and is supplied with myelinated and nonrnyelinated nerve endings. The papilla contains the vital capillaries linking the body’s blood supply to each growing strand of hair.

The shaft is made up of dead, strong, durable material called keratin. The active growing part of hair, which is still alive is situated at the base of the root about 4mm deep and 0.4mm wide. Overleaf is a diagram of hair.

Therefore, the hair dies as it grows up the follicle, becomes hardened and emerges from the skin’s surface as dead material known as keratin.