The Peculiar Parts And Functions Of Hair By Monica C. At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Have you ever wondered what it is that you’re actually dealing with when you go to the salon to have your hair straightened, curled or simply cut? A brief excurses into the biological structure of the hair would reveal surprising things about one of the most cared for parts of the human skin.

A Hair is Not Just a Strand

When someone cuts into hair, the scissors actually incise wire-like protein structures that have an outer sheath, an inner layer and a core. This is why cutting hair isn’t really that simple: because hair is not simply a naked strand that you can simply cut like a naked wire. When you cut through hair, you’re actually cutting through a complex structure with moisture.

Aside from the moisture, hair is statically charged. You can prove this by doing an age-old experiment with a plastic comb and a few pieces of torn paper. Brush your hair for a few minutes and hover your comb above the pieces of paper. The papers will be magnetized by the plastic comb, because it had been already statically charged by your hair.

A regular strand of hair is actually not ‘singular’ in the truest sense of the word. For one, hair is formed by many thinner strands that form spindles. These strands are cellular in size. This would explain how the dermal papillae could actually give rise to such magnificent tubular structures: the hair shafts themselves.

From the ‘ground’ (the skin) the cellular hair is arranged in columns and are twined (like strong ropes) until a strong shaft of hair is produced. How do you gauge the relative strength of a single strand of hair? You can do this again by looking at the samples of hair from the three racial stratums.

African hairs are usually twisted around twelve or thirteen times. This produces weaker hair than those with lesser twists. So to sum it up, the straighter your hair, the stronger it is relative to other hair types. Of course, kinky hair that has been cared for with wholesome methods is better off than straight hair that has been exposed to a hundred different chemicals for thirty years. The conditions still vary from person to person, from country to country.

The Hair is Protected by Scales

Believe it or not, your hair is protected by scales. You might not be able to see these scales, but upon close inspection these cuticular scales resemble fish scales of all things. They are named such because they’re made up of the same stuff as nails: keratin.

Why do we have scales on our hairs? Foremost, the scales on our hair allow air and moisture to pass through it quite easily. Because your hair is made up of organic matter, it has to interact with the environment and it has to establish equilibrium with the environment.

So remember, always brush along the scales and never against it. That’s why combing down is always a bad idea, because it destroys the natural scaly ‘clothing’ of the human hair. Always brush along the cuticular scale formations to preserve your hair.

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