Written by: Reshu Rani Singh - 2028027, Grade IV
Posted on: 17 February, 2021
There are two main reasons why we have hair on our heads. First, our hair helps our head to keep it warm, and second, it helps cushion our skull a bit in case we bump our heads while playing or doing anything. But what about other visible hair? What are they for? Depending on where it is, hair has different responsibilities like the eyelashes protect your eyes by limiting the amount of light and dust that go into them and eyebrows protect your eyes from sweat dripping down from your forehead. Now that we know some of the reasons why we have hair, let's look at how hair grows well no matter what part of our body hair, it all starts under our skin that has tubes like tiny holes called hair follicles. And the bottom of each follicle is the hair bulb that contains active hair-growing cells made up of protein. A small blood vessel in the skin give the root nutrients to help cell growth allowing the hair to grow and as the hair begins to grow it pushes up from the root and out from the follicle and eventually breaks through the surface of the skin and finally, you can see the hair the visible part of the hair is known as the shaft. And once the hair is at the skin surface the cells within the strand of hair aren’t alive anymore and contain dead cells. That’s why it doesn’t hurt when we get a haircut.
