Ask A Scientist
What is hair made of?
Asked by: Chelsea Murphy
School: Owego Elementary School
Teacher: Trevor McCloe
Hobbies/Interests: Lacrosse, soccer, gymnastics, baseball basketball and hockey
Career Interest: A pro gymnastics player, a pro lacrosse player, a pro soccer player, a pro basketball player or a GREAT teacher.
Answer from Rita Bergevin MA, RN, BC
Clinical assistant professor, Binghamton Universit
Board certified in Geriatrics.
Palliative care and oncology, Holistic health.
New York University, Masters in Nursing, Kings County Hospital School of Nursing
Husband, Patrick Bergevin MD, sons Andrew 19 and Dennis 16.
We use our hair to express our personalities - to conform, to make a statement, to help us feel good, to attract other people. Our hair even reflects our mood especially when we are sad. Our hair is perhaps our most distinctive feature. A hair is a specialized outgrowth of part of the skin called the epidermis. It has two distinct parts, the hair follicle and hair shaft. The hair follicle is a tiny cup-shaped pit buried deep in the fat of the scalp. The follicle is the point from which the hair grows. It is well supplied with minute blood vessels, and the blood passing through them nourishes the growing region. The hair bulb lies inside the hair follicle. It is a structure of actively growing cells, which eventually produce the long fine cylinder of a hair. New cells are continuously produced in the lower part of the bulb. As they grow and develop they steadily push the previously formed cells upwards. When the cells reach the upper part of the bulb they begin to change, and they arrange themselves in cylindrical layers, one inside the other. The inner three layers become the actual hair. The outer three layers become the lining of the hair follicle- the inner root sheath. Cells inside the hair bulb produce the pigment that colors the hair - the pigment is called melanin. These special cells are called melanocytes.