Hair!

The entire time I have had Trich, I’ve always been curious about hair itself. I mean what good is it anyway? How long does it take to grow back? And all those other questions too? So, I did some research and found some good stuff. I hope that this informs you a little bit more about what hair pullers concentrate on all the time!

Your Hair Questions ANSWERED!
-Why do we have hair?
All mammals have hair, and it’s just about everywhere on our bodies. Aside from doing things like cutting, styling, or even pulling our hair, it serves a purpose!
It insulates our skin by creating kind of an “outer-layer” to protect our skin and keep our body warm. For example, different animals in different climates shed or change their fur (or hair) depending on their environment. Hair can also be camouflage, especially used by animals.
Eyebrows serve a purpose...to get sweat away from our eyes. Eyelashes sweep away particles and dust that come near our eyes, and they help us sense when to close our eyes if an object id coming close. Hair also has sensory nerves which connect to the brain to inform us about the environment.
For humans in past and present, hair has signaled to us age, gender, social status, religion, culture, etc... Hair also is a stepping stone in maturing...from being a baby to puberty. And everyone fusses with their hair, cutting, washing, styling....hair plays a big role in our lives.
-Why is my hair sometimes curly?
Our hair follicle, one of the two main parts of the hair, is what shapes our hair the way it is. As the hair grows, it progresses through the follicle and shapes itself to become curly, wavy, straight, etc... Another factor which determines hair shape is genetics....but that’s a whole different thing. Many people have found over time that pulling causes hair to grow in curlier.
-How does hair get color?
Inside the hair follicles are pigment cells, which create pigment which colors your hair. They either produce melanin (brownish/black)or heomelanin (reddish) pigment. Obviously, brown haired people have more melanin, and red heads have more heomelanin. Blonde can be a mixture of the two.
-How long does it take for hair to grow?
It’s hard to say an exact number or days for hair to grow, because it varies for each individual. The rate at which you hair grows depends on if you are male or female, and your age. Also, some hair on your body grows faster than others. For scalp, the number of growth days range from 90 to 140. Eyebrows take around 60 days, and eyelashes take the longest to grow, they only grow 0.16 mm per day!
-Sometimes I see a bit of blood or a white thing at the end of the hair. What are those?
The white thing is the bulb of the hair...not the root/papilla. When the hair is pulled, the bulb is pulled from the hair shaft and out of the papilla, which is the area surrounding the bulb. The hair bulb is the thing from which the hair grows, and is where the hair gets its nutrients from.
The red thing is a spot of blood, sometimes you pull out this because the bulb is attached to a blood vessel to receive nourishment, and for some reason that particular hair bulb decided to “take some blood along.”
-Why are some hairs thicker than others?
The area of the body somewhat determines the thickness of your hair, otherwise sometimes if you pull, the hairs may grow back thinner or thicker depending. There are 3 types of hair that are found on different places on your body...which also have certain thickness characteristics.
-Will my hair ever stop growing?
No one really knows for sure if hair would ever stop growing, yet almost all of the time it grows back. Unless a hair follicle gets damaged or infected and scars, your hair will keep growing.

Quick Hair Facts!

-We have about 5 million hairs on our bodies, and around 150,000 of those (depending on the color of your hair) are on your scalp.

-Every day our scalp sheds between 25 and 100 hairs.

-Your soles on your feet and the palms of your hands are the only 2 places you don’t have hair.

Hair Stages!
The hair growing cycle has 3 steps, anagen, catagen, and telogen. Anagen is the stage when the hair is actively growing (it can be up to 5 years for scalp), and catagen is where the growing stops and the follicle “adjusts” to the newly grown hair, which is for a couple weeks. Telogen is where the hair is fully grown and resting for about 2-4 months, and then the hair becomes loose and falls out. After the hair falls out, the next hair starts to grow. Hair pulling causes the follicle to enter Telogen early, and it may cause the next hair to start growing slower.