The Truth About Hair
Human hair is made of cells just like the rest of the body. When new cells are formed at the roots, the hair is gradually pushed further and further out of the follicle, the tube-like pouch below the skin surface. The portion of the hair that that protrudes from the follicle is known as the shaft.
Each strand is attached to the base of the follicle by the hair root, where the hair grows and gets nourishment from tiny blood vessels. When they are pushed further away from the source of nourishment, they die and transform into a hard protein called keratin. Therefore, the hair we see above the skin is dead protein. It is the follicle, which lies deep in the skin, that is the essential growing part of the hair. So, the strands of hair we see in the basin after we shampoo are usually hairs that have been previously shed. Sometimes it surprises me that people go great lengths to find the best diet pills but they don’t give similar emphasis on their hair.
However, having balding areas are obviously a sign of hair loss. Generally, men lose their hair at the sides of the forehead. Most of the time, it occurs during middle age, though it can happen at any time after puberty. There are those who lose their hair at the top of their head. This is called common baldness or male pattern baldness, where only the sides and back of the head have hair, leaving a horseshoe shape.
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