How your hair is built

March 21, 2023

How your hair is built

I find it important that you know how a hair is built. This helped me to understand how to take better care of my hair.

A hair is more than the part you see in the mirror. It grows out of the hair follicle which is the only living part of your hair. The hair itself is actually dead material. Around the follicle there are bloodvessels that supply the follicle with oxygen and nutrients, that make your hair grow. Around every hair sebaceous glands produce sebum, which I like to call your own home made natural conditioner. Tiny little muscles surrounding every hair, help to squeeze out the sebum. Those muscles are also the ones that make your hair stand-up when you are furious or when someone pulls a scary trick on you. The hair strands themselves are built out of a very strong kind of protein, which is called ‘keratin‘. That is why I talk about the importance of protein in your diet in another article.

The hairshaft consists of 3 parts:

1. the medulla

2. the cortex

3. the cuticles

how your hair is built

Healthy hair that is shiny and soft has cuticles that are lying perfectly flat. When your hair is dry, prone to breakage and out of shape; magnifying the hair will show that the cuticles are not closed, making your hair vulnerable for outer agressions. Also brushing with a quality hairbrush can help protecting the hairshaft against damage and can also help flatten the cuticles as it helps spread natural sebum along the hair lengths, smoothing the hair fibre.

So many think that hairproducts alone like shampoo and conditioner are the most important part in their journey for healthy hair but they forget that the hairbrush you brush with and neglecting the power of brushing is an essential part and key element in it all. That is why I created my own line of natural boar bristle, handmade hairbrushes. A hairbrush also has to be a match with your hair type. If you are curious what brush is right for you (even if you have curly or afro/African-American hair!) then check out this handy overview: read it HERE. And finally find a hairbrush that is right for you.