SHEDDING AND HAIR LOSS...

Hey Fabulous naturals!

Doing some research about shedding and how its said that hair shed's more during different times of the year.  I found it to be quite interesting, I came across an article, that in all honesty was really helpful to me and cleared up a lot about shedding.  Below I will post the article in hopes that you ladies find it as helpful as I have :)

SHEDDING AND HAIR LOSS

With its cycle of repetitive planned obsolescence and rebirth, hair is a unique organ system. It’s of little wonder that with its complex and continuous recycling, there can be multiple clinical disorders based on cycling abnormalities. Although much is known about the organization and composition of the hairs themselves and of the follicles, we still have an incomplete and rudimentary understanding of relevant pathways and mechanisms that regulate follicular function. In this article, we are addressing only entities that cause hair loss or shedding, rather than problems of hypertrichosis or overgrowth of hair.


The first hair follicles on the scalp form at approximately the 9th week of gestation. On the average, the human scalp will have 100,000 follicles and no further follicular neogenesis occurs after birth. You are born with as many hair follicles as you are ever going to have. The same follicles that produced lunago (unpigmented ultra-fine) hair in the fetus and immediate postnatal life, eventually produce terminal hair. It is important to note that during one’s lifetime, the same follicles can intermittently produce vellus or terminal hair

A knowledge of the hair cycle is essential to understanding hair problems. Hair growth on the human scalp is an asynchronous regeneration of the hair follicle in repeated cycles, referred to as a mosaic pattern of follicular growth. The growth stage is the anagen phase. The duration and rate of growth of the anagen phase normally varies at different body sites, in different individuals, and at various ages. Scalp hairs have a relatively long anagen phase typically ranging from 2 to 5 years, but has been documented to be as long as 10 years. The short-lived catagen period, usually 2 to 4 weeks in duration, is the transitional portion of the cycle. At this time, each terminal hair bulb moves from its location in the dermis to a more superficial location by means of shrinkage and remolding of that portion below the bulge region where the arrector pili muscle inserts. This muscle is not present on true vellus hair and allows terminal hairs to ‘stand on end’. Once a hair has made the transition to the telogen phase, its existing hair shaft will not grow any longer. The hair shaft during the telogen phase is no longer anchored securely in the dermis as it was in the anagen phase and can be easily dislodged with the gentle traction of brushing or shampooing or combing. Usually the shedding is unnoticed. Since the hair can accumulate in the shower drain or on soapy hands, patients can erroneously associate washing the hair with causing hair loss. The telogen hair has a club shaped proximal end within the hair follicle and retains the club shape when it is shed. The new hair produced from the subsequent anagen phase does not "push out" the hair from the previous cycle and may on occasion be found adjacent to the temporarily retained club hair within the follicular canal.

NORMAL SCALP GROWTH OF TERMINAL HAIRS

Average number of brown/black scalp hairs: 100,000
10% more on blonde's
10% less on redheads
Fastest Growth: between 15 and 30 years of age
Slow growth in infants and elderly
Average scalp hair growth: 0.35 mm/day or ~1 cm/month
Hair grows faster in summer than in winter
Month of greatest shed in the Northern Temperate zone: November
Anagen growth phase: 2 to 5 years
Percentage of hair in anagen phase: 85%-90%
Average daily numbers of hair shed: 50 to 100
Female hair grows faster than male hair

http://www.minoxidil.com/subpages/journal_articles/shedding.html


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