Healthy and beautiful hair cant be without healthy scalp. What is scalp consists of? Scalp consists of three parts – epidermis, derm and hypodermis. Epidermis is the upper skin layer, then comes derma (main skin layer) and hypodermis (subcutaneous fat). Hair grow from basal layer is situated between mentioned layers. Different people have different thickness of this layer, its maturity can be discovered with fingers – touch your scalp with finger pads, press on it. If you feel hardness then your basal layer is probably not mature. If your scalp is soft and elastic then your basal layer is probably mature. Basal layer can have different thickness on different head parts – it is usually more thick on nape and less thick on parietal region.
Hair grows from follicle that is situated in basal layer. Nerve endings, oil gland and muscle go from follicle. If for some reason nerve ending dies, hair will never grow again. What do we need oil gland for? Oil gland greases the hair makes it shiny and elastic. The most important thing depends on oil gland – the type of scalp. If your oil glands are enlarged, over developed then you have oily type of scalp. If your oil glands are under developed, then your scalp type is dry. Normal scalp type has normally developed oil glands. Usually normal type scalp needs one-two shampooing a week. Find out which type of scalp do you have here.
What does hair consist of? It consists of three layers – hair shaft, bast layer and medulla. Each layer has its purpose. For instance shaft layer is in charge of hair shine, if scales are positioned correctly (like tiles) then hair will be shiny, elastic and flexible. Bast layer is in charge of hair quality, it contains nutrition components and the thicker it is the more healthy is hair. The aim of medulla is still not known it also can be absent. If your hair is thin (when you do pony tail, it is thin) then most probably your hair don’t have medulla layer. If your hair is thick (when you do pony tail, it is thick) then most probably your hair has medulla layer.
Hair growth cycle consists of three phases – anagen, catagen and telogen phases. Most of hair (95%) are in the growing – anagen phase. Hair in this phase can be pulled out with pressure, it doesn’t come out itself. The anagen phase can vary from two to six years. Hair grows approximately 10cm per year and any individual hair is unlikely to grow more than one meter long. Transition from alive hair to dead hair is catagen phase. Catagen phase lasts from one to two weeks. During the catagen phase the hair follicle shrinks to about 1/6 of the normal length. The lower part is destroyed and the dermal papilla breaks away to rest below. Dead hair is telogen phase, it is the phase of mechanical coming out – with little force while brushing hair or drying with towel. It usually lasts from 5 to 6 weeks during which time hair stays in follicle but it doesn’t grow. New hair will grow on the place of old hair. Every twenty four hours we loose from 40 to 80 hair.