Hair.

We spend a lot of our personal grooming time on our hair – cutting, dying, bleaching, perming, shaving, waxing, tweezing, etc.. It plays an integral part in defining our personal style and who we are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each of us is born with about 100,000 to 150,00 hairs on our head. Each hair is produced by a hair follicle. Hair is made of dead cells filled with keratin, the same protein that nails and your outer skin layer are made of. The cells are woven together to form the hair shaft. The hair shaft has three layers – cuticle (outer layer), cortex (long, thin layer), and medulla (center, spongy core). The color of your hair is determined melanocytes (cells that produce pigment) which are located in the hair root. Your hair has a cycle of growth and rest – anagen (growth phase) which usually lasts two to six years, and is when your hair grows about half an inch a month and telogen (resting phase) which usually lasts two to three months and at the end, the hair strand falls out and a new one begins to grow in its place. Usually, approximately 90% of your hair is in anagen and 10% is in telogen. Typically, you shed about 50 to 100 hairs a day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my next blog post(s), I will be sharing information about more specific hair issues such as dealing with dandruff and oily hair, chemotherapy and hair loss, and how to get the hair that you want.

Signed by Robert