Hair is one of our body’s most visible features, but it takes a lot of work to maintain it. Shampooing, conditioning, curling, straightening, trimming, coloring, shaving, plucking and waxing—the list goes on. It can be easy to take our hair for granted, but it actually has an impressive amount of strength and flexibility.
Hair grows from the skin of every mammal and is composed primarily of a protein called keratin. It’s also rich in lipids that give your locks a healthy shine and moisture. The structure of a single hair is similar to that of a nail or horn and can be broken down into three parts: the root, the shaft and the cortex. Each of these layers is crucial in determining hair’s texture, color and overall appearance.
The hair follicle is where it all begins, with living cells that multiply and push old ones out of the skin. The shape of the follicle determines how the hair will grow. A rounded follicle produces wavy hair, while a narrower one produces curly hair. The shape of the follicle also affects how thick and strong your hair will be, as well as how fast it will grow.
Once the follicle produces new hair, it forms a tube-like structure that moves up through the skin and emerges as the shaft of your hair. The shaft is what you see when you look in the mirror, and it’s made up of a tough outer layer known as the cuticle, an inner core known as the cortex and a soft center known as the medulla (which is only present in some types of hair). The cortex makes up most of the hair’s pigmentation and gives the fiber its strength. It consists of hard keratin filaments with sulfur-containing cysteine residues that form covalent disulfide bonds with each other.
Hair is flexible and has a high tensile strength, which means it can stretch quite far before breaking. It is also surprisingly light and reflects the sun’s rays, which is why it’s so shiny!
Our hair can have a huge impact on our personality. It can indicate our sexuality, worldview and even socioeconomic status. For this reason, it’s important to choose a style that suits you and expresses your individuality. Hair can be a source of pride or shame, and for some people it’s just something they don’t care about at all. It is also a very personal item for many people and can be used as an indicator of cultural heritage. It is unfortunate that hair can also be used to apply stereotypes to groups of people and it’s a shame that it continues today. However, it is possible to change the way that we think about our hair and how we use it.