The appearance of the hair depends on many factors - heredity, proper care, proper nutrition. How to make the hair healthy and happy with its brilliance and radiance? What kind of secrets hide the hair and in general everything you want to know about the hair is outlined below.
Are some diets randomly aimed at strengthening hair and nails? And in what products is the most iron, the deficit of which causes hair loss? To answer these and other questions, you first need to know how the hair is arranged, what function they perform and what can affect their condition.
How are they arranged?
Hair grows from the hair follicle. Each hair consists of stem cells (this is the part that protrudes above the surface of the skin), the root (hair follicle), the hair follicle - the matrix of cells containing dyes, hair papilla, scabbard, sebaceous glands and muscles. Hair is one of the fastest growing body tissues. Hair has an inner and outer shell.
Every person has different hairs. Special substances are responsible for this - melanocytes. They concentrate in the upper part of the hair, on its outer shell just above the mouth of the sebaceous gland. Melanocytes contain grains of various types of dyes. Their task is to transfer dyes to the cells of the hair follicle. The color of hair largely depends on heredity and race. Black people are never blond. Conversely, people with fair skin usually have blonde hair.
The main component of the hair and its building material is keratin. It's an amino acid. Which is developed at all in different degrees, in different numbers and different in duration. Other amino acids are also very important - cystine, arginine, glycine, tyrosine, phenylalanine and lysine. If their production is not enough - hair is dull and lifeless. And no shampoos (that would not promise advertising) is not there to help. Therefore, to strengthen and improve the condition of the hair, you need to act in a comprehensive way - to improve nutrition, to change the way of life, perhaps. Take hormonal drugs. Only then will the effect be achieved to the full.
How does the hair grow?
Hair does not grow continuously. After a while they grow to their maximum length and drop out. In their place, others grow up. And so constantly - we lose hair and get new ones in return. The cycle of life consists of three distinctive periods: the phase of the involution of the hair follicle, the phase of rest and the phase of growth. During the growth phase, the creation of new hair begins, which gradually increases to the level of the sebaceous glands, then to the surface of the epidermis, and then protrude above its surface. Most of the hair on the head of a healthy person is in a growth phase, while only 10% of hair is in a rest phase. On the head should be at least 85% of hair in the growth stage.
The duration of the hair cycle is very diverse. On the head it lasts about 4 years (sometimes even reaches 25 years). Hair on the head can reach more than 2 meters in length. In addition, they are among the fastest growing human hair. The average speed of hair growth is about 0.35 mm per day.
The growth phase of male bristles lasts about 40 weeks. The eyelashes have a growth cycle of 3 to 5 months. At children of hair in the rest period in first six months much more, than at adults. Their hair length at birth can reach several centimeters. Moreover, a child can be born with black hair, and then they are completely replaced by light ones, and vice versa.
Hair falls out and it's normal. During the day, we lose about 100 hair - this is the physiological norm. Pathological hair loss can be associated with a violation of the normal functioning of our body. Remember that hair has a high diagnostic value. According to their condition in many cases you can say everything about the state of human health.
What affects the condition of the hair?
If you want to have beautiful hair - you need to know about hair basic things. And no less important here is that it can affect the condition of the hair. In fact, very many factors affect our hair, their density, growth rate, physiological and biochemical composition.
Food
It plays a very important role. The state of the human hair clearly shows how well its owner is nutritionally and nutritionally balanced. For example, after two weeks of using a rigid diet, the tips of the hair immediately atrophy and the thinning of the entire hair coat occurs.
Amino acids - hair should be provided by them in full, as it is necessary for their growth. This has been shown experimentally in animals that the role of the amino acid cystine is simply difficult to overestimate. It is her deficiency that leads to hair loss. Deficiency of methionine, in turn, causes dryness and brittle hair. Deficiency of tryptophan is the main cause of baldness, and in the absence of cysteine, hair loses its luster and strength.
Carbohydrates - Hair needs the right amount of energy in any form, as they are characterized by high metabolism. After all, hair is one of the fastest growing human tissues. And carbohydrates need hair necessarily light, in its pure form. To do this, it is very important to organize proper nutrition.
Vitamins - hair is very sensitive to their lack, in particular vitamin A. This vitamin is a typical clinical factor of the changes occurring in the hair. It is also very important for the eyes - its lack can even lead to blindness and irreversible changes in the cornea. For hair, vitamin A is simply indispensable, since without it, the hair becomes very weak, dry and brittle.
Microelements - their deficiency has a significant effect on hair growth. The most important trace elements include zinc, iron and copper. Zinc deficiency can lead, among other clinical signs, to skin and hair hyperkeratosis. The daily demand for zinc is about 2 mg. This element is very difficult to absorb (it absorbs only about one sixth of the part obtained with food) and is easily excreted with feces, urine and sweat. Therefore, despite the sufficient amount of zinc in the diet (10-15 mg), people often experience its deficiency. The lack of copper leads to discoloration and structural changes in the hair. An example of this situation are pathological changes, such as Menkes syndrome - a genetically determined defect in transporting copper in the gastrointestinal tract. Deficiency of iron can lead to hair loss. An example of this is sideropenia in women, which leads to diffuse hair loss.
In the case of microelements, it is worth noting that they penetrate first into the hair itself, and then into their roots. These trace elements can include elements such as arsenic and selenium. In the hair can penetrate and other substances from the external environment. An example of such a situation is the absorption by the hair of lead, which can be found in the more protruding parts of the hair stalks. Poisoning with heavy metals (lead) and other elements (selenium, arsenic) can cause complete alopecia.
Hormonal factors
Hormonal factors are important for hair growth. An example may be the action of androgens, such as testosterone. Androgens stimulate hair growth on the head, and also responsible for baldness in men. Alopecia is a genetic ailment. Hair cells have coded information about their susceptibility to the male hormone - testosterone. When a person reaches puberty, testosterone leads to the fact that the hair on the head (in the characteristic places) becomes thinner. Hair follicles undergo atrophy.
Stress
Do not underestimate the serious effect of this factor on the condition of the hair. It happens that it causes increased hair loss and even baldness can occur. Sometimes we try to treat hair, scalp, spend a lot of time and money on expensive drugs, but they do not work. And it's only necessary to improve our life situation, to give up excitement and stress - and the hair itself becomes healthier, thicker and more beautiful. You, too, have come across this?
Hair falls out - what does it mean?
Usually all you want to know is that hair falls out just so or there are serious reasons. If the hair falls out more than it should - you need to look for causes of internal organs dysfunction, hormonal problems or deficiencies in nutrients. Sometimes in this situation, after consultation with a doctor, you can achieve positive results by changing the diet. Sometimes hormone therapy helps. In rare cases, surgery is required - a hair transplant operation. But most importantly - the hair says a lot. And their "signals" can not be ignored. Hair never does not work out just like that - you should always pay attention to it and try to do something about it.
Hair Study
Thanks to the research, you can: determine the degree of hair loss, assess the condition of the hair root, calculate the percentage of hair in the active growth phase, involution and rest. The main research is spectrophotometry. Helps determine the amount of trace elements (for example, zinc, copper, iron) in the hair, reveals the lack of metal necessary for hair growth, determines the degree of intoxication of the body with harmful substances. The World Health Organization has chosen precisely the diagnosis of the state of hair to assess the effects of toxic substances on the human body. Only this method represents a detailed picture of the general state of human health.