Hair Loss Review

A Review Of The Technical Facts Of Hair Loss

You may or may not be aware, but your hair is the fastest growing tissue that is in your body.

It is made up of proteins that are called keratins. Each piece of hair has 3 layers; the medulla (inner layer) the cortex (middle layer) and the cuticle (outer layer.)

The medulla is only present in thick hairs, while the cortex determines the colour, strength and texture of the hair, and the cuticle protects the cortex, it’s no wonder that baldness is such a complicated subject.

Almost everyone knows that our hair grows from the roots, but what they do not realise is that it is the roots of our hair that are alive, and these are covered in follicles. Below our roots is a layer of skin that is known as the dermal papilla.

The dermal papilla is fed by the bloodstream, the reason for this is because the bloodstream carries nourishments which are essential to hair growth, lack of these nourishments can be one of the contributing factors towards baldness.

What you will find at the end of your hair is actually just dead tissue, it is important to take care of our bodies and scalp as these are vital in the hair growth and maintenance of our hair.

It is the hormone called androgens that may cause hair to reduce in size, which will result in thinning of the hair or eventually baldness. On average, your scalp contains 100,000 – 150,000 hair follicles and hairs and 90% are constantly growing with 10% resting at any time.

FACT – it is thought that bone marrow is the only other thing in our body that grows faster than our hair!

Similarly to hair being made from 3 layers, it actually grows in 3 stages as well! These are anagen, catagen and telogen. The first stage (anagen) is where the hair is actively growing (this lasts longer for women than men.)

The 2nd stage being catagen is where the hair falls out, (not actually causing baldness),

it is natural for everyone’s hair to fall out (this is estimated at approximately 100 hairs per day and most people do not realise they are losing hair until about 50% is actually lost), this is only temporary before the follicle ends in the telogen stage.

This stage is simply where the hair rests and will be the 10% that rest as mentioned above.

Timescales for these 3 stages are as follows:
Anagen = Approx 5 years
Catagen = Approx 3 weeks
Telogen = Approx 12 weeks