What Is Hair???

I havent been updating you all on my natural hair journey very much. i mean i have but its only been on YouTube. with that said i figure its about time that i start writing about hair on my site as much as i do on video’s on youtube. so lets start with what hair is….

Hair is basically dead cells that we are trying to preserve over time. But lets break that down even further. For starters hair grows from follicles inside the skin, the part of the hair inside of the follicle is what we know to be the root. At the bottom of the root is a very small white blub, which is where the hair receives its nutrients and new cells can be formed. The hair follicle also has a Dermal Papilla which is a cone shaped figure at the bottom of the follicle that feeds blood (in other words nutrients) to the bulb; the Sebaceous Glad (or simply oil gland) helps to keep the hair lubricated, shinny, and healthy. Lastly, the Arrector Pili, a small muscle connected to the follicle, that reacts to the stimulus (cord) causing hair to stand straight up, better known as goose bumps.

When taking nutrients from the dermal papilla, the hair bulb creates new hair cells. While the cells are slowly moving up through the hair root, they begin to mature into a process none as Keratinization (beginning stages of hair growth) where they fill with fibrous protein and soon lose their nucleus. Once the cell finally loses its nucleus it’s no longer alive, this is why people say hair is not healthy because it is already dead. By the time the hair surfaces its nothing more than fibers made of keratinized proteins.

From the hair follicles keratinized proteins begin to surface and create the hair shaft, which has a very specific construction that includes three layers. One is an outer covering of the overlapping keratin scales which is called the cuticle, the second is a middle layer of keratinized protein fibers called the cortex, and at times there is a central core of rounded cells known as the medulla. However for the most part the medulla is mostly only found in coarse hair and barely found in naturally blond and fine (thin) hair.

stay tuned with for info on hair later. next top i will tackle is hair typing.