Derm corner- How it all began

I don't know about you but I love knowing the genesis of every story. It makes life so much easier knowing how things started because it helps to understand why things work the way they do. In high school I loved biology of all the sciences simply because it made sense. You could often see the cells your teacher spoke about using a microscope in sharp contrast to physics where you could only imagine these electrons, positrons and what not (and that's even if they really existed).

Today we are going to discuss how the hair we see on our skin came about. So sit back and tantalize your brain cells :)

I think it's fair to state before I start that our skin is made up of two layers, the epidermis and the dermis.

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As a fetus in your mother's womb you were hairless...like completely bald all over. Your skin was plain and smooth with no tiny black dots on it. Weird huh? Well I have good news. All that changed when you hit 9 weeks of age....9 weeks??....Yes, 9 weeks. I'm gonna get a lil detailed here so hang on.

A cylinder of cells from the surface of your skin grows obliquely downwards from the epidermis into the dermis...kind of like a badger burrowing into the soil. This hollow path created through the thickness of your skin is the famed hair follicle.

                                     

Upon getting to the dermis, the follicle is met by another cluster of cells, the placode,  which bulge into the lower part of the hair follicle forming the papilla (the pink stuff). The roof of the papilla and the adjacent concave part of the hair follicle is called the hair matrix.

This papilla would eventually contain blood vessels which bring nutrients to the hair matrix. Since the matrix receives all the goodies that is where mitosis (the rapid division of cells) takes place to form the hair shaft/strand/fibre....whatever you want to call it.

the 'real' deal :)

So basically, the hair you see on your head is as a result of hair fibres, formed by the matrix, being pushed up through the pathway called the follicle.

MYTH BUSTER: So if there is any myth we can debunk with knowing this fact, it is that shaving does NOT make your hair grow faster because all you're doing is just cutting the ends of the hair shaft. It does not affect the matrix in any way and as we have seen, hair growth starts from the matrix in the dermis and not just merely the scalp.

I hope y'all enjoyed the 'pilot'.

Take care and keep watching this space.

Xoxo
Miss Jay