Hair is made up mainly of a protein called keratin. The only
living part of the hair is the root (sometimes known as the bulb), which is
anchored to the base of the follicle. The follicle supplies oxygen and
nutrients to the root, and lubricates the hair shaft with an oily substance
called sebum.
Hair is in a constant cycle of growth, rest and renewal – it
is natural to lose some hair each day. Hair grows in phases.
The colour, curl,
length, thickness and amount of hair depend on genetic factors.
The hair growth cycle has three different cycle: anagen (living growing hair), catagen
(in-between phase) and telogen (resting or falling-out phase).
We are born with all our hair follicles already in place.
While some may change in size over time, we don't develop any new ones after
birth.
As adults, we have about 100,000 individual strands of hair. It's
completely normal to lose some 40 to 100 strands every day. Normal hair loss is
the result of the growth cycle of the follicles, similar to an 'on off' system.
This means that when an old hair 'dies', the growing phase starts again for a
new hair to replace it.
Normally about 100 hairs reach the end of their resting
phase each day and fall out. When more
than 100 hairs fall out per day, clinical hair loss may occur. A disruption of
the growing phase causes abnormal loss of anagen hairs.
