Do You Worry About Your Hair?

YOU may be one of many who spend time each day in front of a mirror carefully inspecting their hair. Men and women alike are interested in their hair, and sometimes it can be a source of worry.

Know Your Hair

Do you know how many hairs your scalp contains? On the average, about 100,000. An individual hair continues to grow for only two to six years, not endlessly. It then falls out, and after an interval a new hair starts to grow from the same pore. The life cycle of an individual hair is called a hair cycle. (See the box "Hair Cycle") Because of this cycle, even if one does not have a hair problem, some 70 to 100 hairs fall out naturally every day.

What causes the variety we observe in hair color? The World Book Encyclopedia explains: "The color of hair is determined largely by the amount and distribution of a brown-black pigment called melanin." Melanin is a biological pigment that is found in hair, skin, and eyes. The greater the amount of the pigment, the darker the hair will be. As the amount of melanin lessens, the hair color varies from black to brown or rust or blond. If hair contains no melanin at all, it looks shiny white.

What concerns many, apart from dandruff, is either a loss of hair or gray hair.