Hair: DefinitionHair is found in mammals as a filamentous outgrowth of dead cells from the skin. Other life forms, especially insects, show filamentous outgrowths, but are not considered "hair".
Keratin is the primary component of hair. Keratins are proteins, long chains (polymers) of amino acids. Keratins are a principle part of the cells in the epidermis, hair, nails, feathers, hooves, horny tissues and the enamel of teeth. 91% of hair is protein.
The hair's outermost layer is the cuticle. The cuticle is a transparent scalelike layer and is the primary defense against damage. It protects the cortex. The cortex is the middle layer of the hair. It is full of protein elongated cells and also constains melanin (pigment).
Scalp hair grows at a rate of about half an inch per month, on average, and shampoos or vitamins have not been shown to noticeably change this rate. Hair growth rate also depends upon what phase in the cycle of hair growth one is actually in.
Hair care is an overall term for parts of hygiene and cosmetology involving the hair on the human head.
Care of the hair and the scalp skin are sometimes considered separate, but are often together because hair grows from underneath the skin. The hair follicle is the living part of hair. Hair itself is not alive. Much can be done to protect, strengthen, and nurish the hair and roots.
When scalp skin disorder arise, it is often necessary to visit not only a qualified physician, but sometimes a dermatologist. Conditions that require this type of professional help include forms of alopecia, hair pulling/picking, hair that sticks straight out, black dots on the hair, and rashes or burns resulting from chemical processes.
Hair TypesThe first thing to look at in hair care is one's hair type. Different hair will require different care. All hair is not the same.
Hair texture- Coarse, medium, or fine
Hair density- number of hair strands in a given area on your head. Low, medium, and high (or thin hair, medium hair, and thick hair)
Hair elasticity- Ability of hair to stretch and return to original shape without breaking. Low (breaks easy), normal can stretch up to 50% of size and return back.
Hair porosity- Ability of hair to absorb moisture. Condition of cuticle layer. You can slide fingers along a hair to feel if it feels smooth or rougher.
Dry hair & scalp= flaky scalp, dull, dry , lifeless hair -> Use moisturizers (hydrate skin) and emollients (soften skin). Use weaker soaps, less frequent washing, and avoid alcohol products.
Oily hair & scalp= greasy buildup, oily hair -> Use clarifying and normalizing shampoo on a regular basis, good diet, and exercise,.
Hair Nutrition Keratin =primary component of hair.
Protein =building block of Keratin.
Amino Acids =building blocks of Proteins.
Proteins are the essential ingredients of hair. Other nutrition however is needed to promote the processes of making hair, keeping hair, and strengthening hair.
1.) Eating Proteins is the first step to growing stronger, longer, faster growing hair, skin, and nails. Too low of proteins, and hair will thin, and slow down growth.
Amino Acids are the building blocks of Proteins. Animal meats have all amino acids. Plants sometimes have only a few amino acids, though Soy has all of the amino acids. Soy is the essential meat/dairy substitute for vegatarians and people with lactose intolerance..
Meats (Lower fat fish, chicken, eggs are great), nuts, beans (soy/tofu has been found to grow better hair), whole grains (wheat and wheat germ), seeds, gelatin, yogurt, all are great foods that contain protein. Of the proteins, wheat germ, soy, and gelatin are found as the source in many hair growing products.
Vitamins
Vitamin Bs are the main vitamin hair needs to improve. Vitamin B complex - Regulates the secretion of oil, keeps hair healthy & moisturized. Of the Bs Biotin (B-7) and B-6 (Pyridoxine and Pyridoxamine) is most important, though another 3 Bs (B-5 (Pantothenic Acid), B-12 (Cyanocobalamin), and B-9 (Folic Acid)) are needed to work with Biotin.
2.) One should take a daily Multi-Vitamin for overall nutrition or eat a very healthy real rounded (Vitamin packed meals). In addition, take a B-complex to add additional B vitamins to help the hair. Check with your doctor before taking any vitamins supplements. I list the natural foods that contain the vitamins also.
Vitamin B comes from a number of natural sources, including potatoes, bananas, cereal, lentils, liver, turkey, and tuna. Brewer's yeast is an especially good source of Vitamin B.
Vitamin A is needed for healthy scalp. Vitamin C, Vitamin E (repairs skin and damage) and a few minerals such as iron and sulphur also help hair, which taking a multi-vitamin daily should cover.
Vitamin A is found naturally in many foods. dark green, orange & yellow fruits & vegetables contain Vitamin A. Sweet potatoes (yams), Carrots, Pumpkin, Spinach, Sweet peppers, Winter squash, Apricots, Cantaloupe melon, Mango, Liver (beef, pork, chicken, or turkey), Eggs
Growth Blockers
Stress, lack of sleep or rest, chemical stimulants (caffeine, smoking, carbonated soda stunt hair growth), heat/hot water weakens hair scales, too much sugar and fats are all bad on hair.
3.) Relax, sleep, rest, dont smoke or take caffeine, use cold to lukewarm water on hair if possible, avoid hair dryers, limit sweets and high fats.
4.) Massage scalp at least once a week to stimulate hair folicles.
Detangling (Brush and Comb)
The main reason for detangling is to straighten hair in the same direction, take out knots, snarles and tangles, and to remove any loose hairs that have fallen out naturally.
1. Use your fingers to take out knots. Using a tools (brush or comb) can make it worse. Fingers can gently pry the hairs apart then work gently to loosen by drawing hairs upward and out to the side yet away from the knot.
2. Use a brush or comb to straighten hair, starting from the outside longest parts of the hair and working inside and up. This helps keep the root and hair protected more from stresses.
3. Don't try to detangle wet hair wet hair is already fully stretched. If you have to do it while wet, wait till it is just damp instead of fully dried. If you absolutely have to do it wet, use a wide tooth comb and do it while your hair is drenched in conditioner.
Hair Washing (Shampoo and Conditioner)
Hair care also includes hair washing. Bacteria can damage the hair and skin, if the hair is not properly cleansed. However, not all scalp disorders are a result of bacterial infections. Hair washing refers to not only the cleaning of the hair, but also the cleaning of the scalp skin. The primary tool used in cleaning of the hair is specialized soaps called shampoo. Conditioner is recommended after rinsing out shampoo to replace removed moisture in the hair as well as to strengthen and help in detangling. In dry to medium hair, conditioners are especially beneficial. Its best to get shampoo and conditioner made for your hair type.
You dont have to wash your hair daily because it will remove the skin of essential natural oils (sebum), which help protect the hair. How often you wash will depend greatly on the style and products used, your age/hormones, amount of physical activity, and any issues with the health of the scalp skin. Allowing a day or so to pass and then washing is often helpful to the maintenance of the acid mantle as well as the hair since overwashing can also result in drier hair fiber.
1. First step in any washing is to prepare the hair by detangling. Also this will help remove dirt, dead skin, hairs that have fallen out, and stimulate scalp somwhat.
2. Then apply shampoo (that is good for your hair type, there are shampoos for every type of hair and scalp) in the palm of the hands, approximately the size of a quarter at maximum for most hair lengths, and not directly to the hair and scalp. Lather in the hands and thoroughly wet the hair.
3. Then wash the hair without using excessive force or scrubbing motion, as this causes tangles, overly bends, and stresses the cuticle. For any length, simply squeeze the shampoo down the length of the hair. It will become sufficiently clean.
4. If you wash your hair daily, only one lathering is needed. If you wait between days then a second washing may be needed. Once to break it up, and a second to remove any buildup or dirt.
5. Do not use fingernails to scrape the scalp. You can use gentle use of a fine tooth comb to loosen up any wax, dirt, dead skin, or loose hairs. When using your fingers use the pads of your fingers to massage and clean the scalp. Rinse the shampoo out completely.
6. Condition the hair for at least 3 minutes after using warm water. Warm water keeps the cuticles opened. Rinse with cold water to close the cuticle to remove the conditioner.
7. Towel dry hair by blotting instead of rubbing. Rubbing the hair and skin removes essential oils. Blotting keeps more good oils on the hair and scalp. A good absorbant towel is a must.
Haircuts includes five basic elements of style; shape, form, space, line, color, and wave pattern. Shaven heads are also a hair cut, and require skin care. Hair cutting is also an expression of art. Various cultural aspects of a person may affect what types and limits a hair cut may include. Hair cutting often involves considerations of body proportions, hair density and hair type, face and head shape from all views (profile, 3/4 and 360 degree, from above and from below), overall bone structure, age, and pattern of how hair lies or falls.
For a list of some haircuts or hairdos see Susan's wiki
https://www.susans.org/wiki/Hair_styling.Which types of cuts can be styled both masculine and feminine and/or androgynous?Short hair - ways to add more masculinity, neutrality, or femininity to your style.
1. Perm 2. Bob Style 3. Tease crown, tuck hair behind ears except one piece to fram face 4. Layer hair longer on top 5. Longer Bangs 6. Pixie haircut
Examples, not in order of list above
Medium to Long hair
1. Long straight all over 2. Mullet 3. Pageboy 4. Super long bangs 5. Ponytail
Examples not in order of list above
What style(s) work best for various facial structures? Age appropriate styles. Oval Face-Almost any hairstyle depending on your hair volume.
Round Face-Pick styles that add volume to top, and are very close to the sides (to prevent emphasizing the width). Keep medium to short if neck is short. Off center part, left or right above the eye helps to break up the face. Dont use very short styles nor center parts.
Square Face-Put curves around temples and jaw to soften the harsh angles. Add volume to ear area to create a bit of width. Add height to crown. Keep cut medium to short if neck is short. Avoid solid straight bangs.
Pear Shape (Triangle)-Pick a style that has volume at the temples, has some height on top, and can curve a bit narrow to chin area (soft fringe) such as slightly curled out. Carefull not to add much volume to chin area. Hair should be straight near bottom or curved in.
Heart Shape (Inverted Triangle)-Keep the hair near the head on top with no volume. Fringe is good, especial if it comes in on the temple area hiding the wide forhead. Increase the volume of the hair slightly in the mid area around the ears. Go widest at the jaw and neck areas. Avoid short hair. Keep length chin to shoulder length or longer.
Diamond Face-Most volume in jawline and forehead. Bangs add to fullness. Avoid exposing hairline and ears. Hair near ears is close to head with no volume. Play most caution around this ear area. Avoid long haircuts because they will elongate your face.
Oblong Face (Rectangular)-Keep hair closely to top of head (as to not add anymore height). Add volume to the sides to create an illusion of width. Chin length hair is the max, since anymore would add to the elongated shape. A round shaped haircut is great. Avoid straight and pulled back hair, or exposed hairline.
2. Wigs. Styling tips, care, how do I make it feel like my real hair?Hair Extensions can be added to thinning hair to add volume and length. Synthetic or natural human hair is fastened onto existing hair.
Hair Additions can add volume to thinning hair in the top and crown areas. Synthetic or numan hair.
Hair Pieces can be fastened onto the head in several ways.
Adhesives: Double-sided tape is used to attach the hairpiece and makes for easy fastening and removal. The downfall to adhesives, however, is that they tend to leave a sticky residue on the scalp and on the underside of the hairpiece. The tape can also become unglued if you perspire heavily or go swimming.
Clips: Metal clips attach to the underside of the hairpiece and fasten to your natural hair. The clips are secure and easy to remove. However, many people worry about the hairpiece falling out of place when engaged in any sort of rigorous activity.
Snaps: Snaps differ from clips because they are tied or sewn to your natural hair. They cannot be removed any time you wish and you will require the expertise of a technician to help you take off the wig. Snaps may cause an inconvenience because they must be relocated as your hair grows. Another downside to snaps is that they do not allow daily cleansing of your scalp.
3/4 wig or hairpiece - lengthens hair instantly. Can use your natural bangs and blend with your hair. Must pick exactly as natural hair.
Male pattern baldnessMale pattern baldness is characterized by hair receding from the lateral sides of the forehead, known as "receding hairline" or "receding brow." An additional bald patch may develop on top (vertex). The trigger for this type of baldness (called androgenetic alopecia) is DHT, a powerful sex hormone that adversely affects the hair and prostate.
The mechanism by which DHT accomplishes this is not yet understood. In genetically-prone scalps, DHT initiates a process of [follicular miniaturization]. Through the process of follicular miniaturization, hair shaft width is progressively decreased until scalp hair resembles fragile vellus hair or "peach fuzz" or else becomes non-existent.
1. For those of us with balding heads (but not a complete reverse mohawk yet) maybe some styling secrets to hide bald spots in the back and receding hairlines in the front.Blond color hair is normally thinner than darker hair, so dying hair blonde or blonder can help somewhat in some thinned hair.
The comb over or parting to the side was the original thin hair hairstyle and now it has changed to the short buzz cut for men. a shorter hairstyle like a crew cut or a layered "caesar" cut will give the illusion of thicker hair. Long strands will only draw attention to hair's sparseness closer to the scalp, so if long one can help by either doing a ponytail or styling product that controls hair closer to the head.
For slight hair loss at the the front hairline, some use of styling the bangs can be used unless hairloss becomes more noticable. If major front hairline is a problem then wigs (hairpiece attachments, or full length wigs), rogaine, and hair transplants become the main solutions if one considers hidding the lost areas.
For women, a chin-length bob gives hair more body and "swing" at the ends if overall thin hair is a problem. Face-framing bangs help give the style more fullness and height. Anything longer than shoulder-length will make thinning hair look straggly. For women's crown loss, they typically pull their hair back. Small attachable hair fillers can be also purchased to cover crown thinned hair. If loss is slight, some products may be able to save further hair loss , or recover hair that was lost.
3. Transplants. If I am considering other "cosmetic" enhancements, how about hair transplants? Which types are best? Which look most normal? How much can I expect to spend?Hair transplantation is the only permanent method of restoring hair. Healthy hair follicles on the back and sides of the head which genetically do not shed, are moved to the balding areas.
QuoteThe 2-4 mm "plugs" leads to a doll's head like appearance where the clumps of hairs can be seen.
"micrografting", "minigrafting" and what is now called "Follicular Unit Transplantation." With microscopic dissection of donor pieces from a resected portion of scalp, individual follicular units containing but 1-3 hairs could be prepared, and individually relocated into needle punctures in the recipient areas. With current techniques, upwards of 50 grafts per square centimeter should be the standard. The development of the 'lateral slit technique' in the 1990s allowed transplant surgeons to determines which direction the hair would grow in ( hair on different parts of the scalp tends to grow in different directions) resulting in a far more natural appearance.
At an initial consultation, the surgeon analyzes the patient's scalp, discusses his preferences and expectations, and advises him/her on the best approach (e.g.,single vs. multiple sessions) and what results might reasonably be expected.
For several days prior to surgery the patient refrains from using any medicines, or alcohol, which might result in intraoperative bleeding and resultant poor "take" of the grafts. Pre-operative antibiotics are commonly prescribed to prevent wound or graft infections.
Transplant operations are performed on an outpatient basis, with mild sedation (optional) and injected topical anesthesia, and typically last about four hours. The scalp is shampooed and then treated with an antibacterial chemical prior to the donor scalp being harvested.
In the usual follicular unit procedure, the surgeon harvests a strip of skin from the posterior scalp, in an area of good hair growth. The excised strip is about 1-1.5 x 15-30 cm in size. While he is closing the resulting wound, assistants begin to dissect individual follicular unit grafts from the strip. Working with binocular microscopes, they take great care to remove excess fibrous and fatty tissue without damaging the vital follicular cells that will produce the patients' first crop of new hair.
The surgeon then uses a fine needle to puncture the sites for receiving the grafts, placing them in a predetermined density and pattern, and angling the wounds in a consistent fashion to promote a realistic hair pattern. The assistants generally do the final part of the procedure, inserting the individual grafts in place.
The finest surgeons can place more than 70 grafts per square centimeter in order to get a good density and appearance. In a "megasession", they may perform more prolonged surgeries, placing more than 2500-3000 grafts, reportedly even 6000 grafts, in one sitting. There is a recently reported case of 7761 follicular units transplanted in a patient, performed by Dr Victor Hasson in one 18 hour megasession.
Newer procedures today allow for far less invasive surgery with optimal results. FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction), invented by Dr. Ray Woods and Dr. Angela Woods Campbell of Australia, allows the surgeon to select individual follicular units from a donor region and transplant them to the recipient region. This method uses a small needle (0,50-0,75 mm diameter)to pluck out the follicular units, eliminating the need for the surgeon to excise skin from the back of the head. Benefits of FUE are quicker healing time, far less trauma, no strip scar, and the surgeon's ability to individually select follicular units. Drawbacks are that the procedure is far more time intensive than traditional STRIP methods and thus is much more costly. A top STRIP doctor can transplant more than 3000 grafts in a day, while a top FUE surgeon is limited to 1000-2500 in a day. An FUE procedure can continue over consecutive days, allowing to harvest over 3000 grafts if required for larger sessions. If too many grafts are harvested, a patient may get a "moth eaten" appearance in the back of his head.
An extension of the FUE procedure is BHT, body hair transplantation. A select group of surgeons are now successfully transplanting body hair to the head. In some cases, the body hair can take on many characteristics of head hair. However, the procedure is still in its infancy, and while there have been successful cases, more completed results are needed to give a better assessment. At this stage the hair transplant community sees body hair as a good "filler" between scalp hairs, and as an additional donor source when patients have run out of scalp hair to transplant.
During the first ten days, virtually all of the transplanted hairs, inevitably traumatized by their relocation, will fall out ("shock loss"). After two to three months new hair will begin to erupt from the moved follicles. The patient's hair will grow normally, and continue to thicken through the next six to nine months. Any subsequent hair loss is likely to be only from untreated areas. Some patients elect to use medications to retard such loss, while others plan a subsequent transplant procedure to deal with this eventuality
Generally, hair transplant costs can range anywhere from $4000 to $15, 000. The cost of your hair transplant depends mostly on how many grafts you need, and/or how many sessions you need to complete them in. Hair transplant costs vary, that is why it is imperative that you consult a variety of doctors before choosing one. The price of a hair graft, for example, can range from $3.00 a graft to $10.00 a graft. Other expenses to keep in mind when calculating a hair transplant cost is the price of any extra medication, blood tests, anesthesia, and facility fees.
4. Do Rogaine and such products really work? Do I have to use them for the rest of my life?It is easier to prevent the falling out of healthy hairs than to regrow hair in follicles that are already dormant. Finasteride (marketed in the U.S. as Propecia) and minoxidil (marketed in the U.S. as Rogaine, and some places as Regaine) have shown some success in partially reversing loss. In a one-year study of finasteride, evaluation after one year showed five of 21 subjects (23.8%) had two-grade improvement in MNHS grade on a modified Norwood/Hamilton scale and 12 of 21 subjects (57.1%) had one-grade improvement; the others remained at the same grade. However such treatments are generally ineffective at treating extreme cases of hair loss.
Some people who take minoxidil only grow hair that is thin and wispy or similar to peach fuzz.
Minoxidil seems to work best on people younger than 30 years of age who have been losing hair for fewer than 5 years.
If a person uses minoxidil to stop hair loss for a length of time and then stops taking the drug, hair loss will occur again.** All pictures come via Google searches for images
