Derm Corner: Types of hair (geek alert ;)

Seeing that I'm in geek mode, I thought it would be quite a good idea to inform yous about the different types of hair that we see all over our bodies. I don't know about you but I definitely wasn't aware that we had 3 types of hair.


So the 3 types of hair are:
1. LANUGO hair- I know weird name; anywayz, these are fine, soft hairs present when we are in our mothers uterus. Remember how I spoke about the genesis of hair and how when we clock 9 weeks of age we develop our first follicles and hairs?? Well this is the type of hair that grows out of those follicles.
I don't know if you've ever seen pictures of babies in the uterus?- If you look closely, you'll see these tiny hairs sticking out of their bodies as though they were little furry creatures.
Now if you look around your body you wouldn't be able to find any (unless you're anorexic), and that's because, by 8 months of age, you shed all your 'lanugo' hairs. So when next your carrying a baby, look at their skin to spot these fine, soft, lanugo hairs.
About the anorexic reference, apparently these people tend to regrow these hairs again for reasons unknown. So if you happen to be standing next to an anorexic person say on the tube or subway, try and take a peek without being too obvious to see if you can spot them. Better still you could always just google to find images.
I wouldn't recommend starving yourself so that you could show off your new lanugo hairs at the next birthday bash.

lanugo

2. VELLUS hair- This is the fine, short downy hair that covers most of our body. I suppose it's also interesting to note that this hair type does not have a core / medulla (will explain the components of the hair strand in next post).

3. TERMINAL hair- Yes, finally the hair all we hair enthusiasts go ga ga about. This is the thick long hair that is seen in the scalp, eyebrows and eyelashes. Interestingly after puberty, vellus hair develops into terminal hair in the pubic regions,  trunk and arms and legs in real hairy men. In balding the opposite occurs where terminal hair on the scalp becomes vellus hair.

Since we don't care about the hairs on our arms or backs aka vellus hair, I'm going to go straight ahead to explain the structure of the hair strand that grows on our lovely heads.
Stay tuned :)


xoxo
Miss J

Style Series 6- the top bun

Sunday 20th May, 2012

Hey guys I promised i'd blog this weekend but man it sure has been busy; busy but fun. Pentecost 2012 was totaly amazing..the music was great and the messages reaffirming...I almost didn't make it but God made a way. The rest of the weekend was spent catching up with old friends over a movie (the Dictator- no comment), the UEFA champions league final with a bunch of decent pub fans and a mini reunion over indian food. I had a real good weekend and boy will I miss this city.

Back to hair tales, I actually planned on taking out my twists at the 2 week mark on Friday and got myself some tressemme conditioner (2 for 5 quid :D) and a detangling comb to assist in the process, however, sleep won over and by the time I awoke, it was too late to start as I had to rush to Pentecost.

So I ended up rocking a top bun and wearing it down post co-washing for the entire weekend.

I must say I really like the top bun and will definitely be keeping my twists in till the end of the week at least.

Luckily I had a pair of hands to help take the pics this time around :)

'top' bun indeed

side view

the back

and again :)

And that's all for now folks.

I'll try and post again at the weekend 'cos I'm having quite a busy week.

Take care and God bless.

xoxo

Miss Jay

oh where? oh where?

I know I haven't blogged in a while and it's been on my mind. I've been really busy this past week and will be till the weekend. I'm looking forward to getting some down time this weekend and updating you's on what's been going on; Needless to say I don't think my twists will be making week 3 but we'll see. By the way if anyone's in London this Friday you HAVE to come to Pentecost. I am super excited about attending and I can assure you it's going to be AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!

Btw Can I just say that I think K'naan is pretty cool. (just said it....lol)

Nwys Take Care,
xoxo
Miss Jay

Style Series 5 - the 'mini' twist

5th of May, 2012

So I don't know what possessed me to do this at 11:30pm last night, but I had just washed my hair and there and then decided that I was going to put in some mini-twists.

I started twisting the 1st of 4 'big' sections at like 11:30ish and didn't go to bed till like 2am.
I then woke up at 9am or so and continued the rest. It took me watching (and crying to) the second half of 'Precious' and 'The Sisterhood of the traveling pants 1&2' to finish my whole head.... sigh, now I really wanna go to Greece.

Anywayz, I plan on keeping them in for 3-4 weeks and boy am I looking forward to taking a break from styling my hair.

Below are the Steps, tools/ingredients I used as well as some pics. Enjoy!!!

PRODUCTS (L to R): T44Z(scalp & hairline), shea butter, jojoba oil, water, detangling comb

Step 1: As my hair was already in 4 sections from the wash, I decided to take down one section and  make about 6  vertical parts from my midline to my ear.

Step 2: I twisted each mini section loosely and then started mini-twisting section by section. 

the mini sections from the vertical parts

Step 3: I did about 4 sets of twist for each mini section. (As my hair density is quite low, you may need more mini-sections or twists per section). For each mini twist, I'd first of all spritz my hair with water then apply some shea butter to that section before sealing with jojoba oil.

Step 4: I'd then detangle the section starting from root to tip using a medium sized comb, before twisting. (I find it's easier to detangle if you got a good amount of oil on each section). 

Step 5: After completing one of the 4 big sections, I'd move to the next and the next, until I was done twisting my whole head of hair.

the 2 front sections

section 3 complete, about to start section 4

A close up view of the roots (which ideally should be a bit tighter)

another view

the back view

side view

I tried twisting and pinning the front section.

The remaining pics are of the finished style...they look more like midi twists to me now that I look at them...ah wells, enjoy!!!

getting my 'bob marley' on ;)

ok, so I noticed my mirror was a bit TOO 'cloudy'

And that's all for now folks.

xoxo
Miss Jay

Derm corner- How hair gets its color

So the last time we stopped at how the actual hair strand is produced from the  matrix and travels up the hair follicle until it reaches the scalp where it becomes visible to the naked eye.

Today we are gonna talk about how and why we get different hair colors.

I'm sure you all have heard of the word melanin. It is the pigment that gives skin and hair its natural color. Those with darker skin have higher amounts of melanin than those with fairer skin. This pigmentary substance, melanin, is produced by cells called melanocytes which are located in the cells lining the hair matrix.

[These melanocytes are also found in the border between the epidermis and dermis (the basement membrane) where they produce melanin that gives skin its color.]

Ok, so back to hair- The melanocytes in the hair matrix  are responsible for laying down pigment onto the newly formed hairs. So if you can imagine, as the matrix is producing a colorless hair strand, the melanocytes there quickly slash some melanin onto the hair strand to give it some color.

Now there are 2 types of melanin, and this is what makes ALL the difference:
1. EUmelanin- which is responsible for brown and black hair, and
2. PHAEOmelanin- for red, auburn and blond hair.

Grey and white hair is caused by low melanin production which is mostly due to aging.



GEEK ALERT!!!!

Interestingly, africans, indians and caucasians actually have the same number of melanocytes on their basement membranes. The difference lies in how the melanin is produced. 

Now in actual fact these melanocytes don't just spit out the pigment like a blob of paint. We are human beings and so things are a bit more complex and organized. The melanin is usually contained in little packets called melanosomes and its these melanosomes that are 'secreted' from the melanocytes into neighboring 'normal' cells (keratinocytes) which travel up the epidermis and are eventually shed after we've caused them too much wear and tear with our designer clothes and body creams .

In caucasians, the melanosomes are lumped together forming this big blob and as they are transferred to these keratinocytes which travel upwards, the melanosomes break down hence containing less color by the time they reach the surface.

In darker skinned individuals, the melanosomes are not lumped into one big blob but are individual and larger, and so they travel up the epidermis without being broken down. Pretty cool, huh?

Now this is even cooler; melanosomes within keratinocytes of Asian skin are distributed as a combination of individual and clustered melanosomes with a proportion of 62.6% vs. 37.4%, respectively. This contrasts with dark and light skin keratinocytes where melanosomes are predominantly individual (88.9%) and clustered (84.5%), respectively [Br J Dermatol. 2003 Sep;149(3):498-505]

I'm so tempted to carry on with this topic, as I came across some pretty cool research whilst writing this post. To find out why albinos look the way they do and their melanosome distribution click here

I also found an article that discussed briefly why some australian aborigines, like this kid have blond hair.

That's all for now folks. Hope y'all learnt something new; I definitely did :)

xoxo
Miss Jay