Fabulous Shiny Hair

How to Have Fabulous Shiny Hair

Hair and Nails

You may be wondering why hair and nails are included in a website about cosmetic surgery and that involves skin. It’s because your hair and nails are an extension of skin. Both grow from the same epidermal tissue which makes skin cells, and both consist largely of the protein keratin.

Nine weeks after you are conceived, the first hairs on your eyebrows, upper lip and chin are actually established. By the time you are a 16-week old foetus, you will have an estimated 5 million hair follicles, of which only about 100,000 are located on your scalp.

In fact, apart from the palms of your hands, the soles of your feet and your lips, you have hair follicles over all your body. Some produce long, thick coloured hairs such as on the scalp, others produce shorter coloured ones such as those on your eyebrows, in your pubic and underarm areas and in men’s beards, but the majority grow tiny, fine translucent ones, called vellus hairs, such as those over your cheeks or stomach.

Whether thick and dark or fine and fair, each hair is similar in construction. The shaft consists of several concentric layers of elongated keratin protein cells which are formed in the bulbous part of the follicle deep in the dermis. The inner layer of the shaft is the medulla — the living core — although this may not be present, at least not all the way through the hair shaft, Its role is not clearly understood. The middle layer is the cortex which also contains pockets (melanocytes) of melanin pigment, which as in your skin, gives your hair its protection and colour. The outer layer is the cuticle which comprises five to ten layers of overlapping sheets, or curved tiles, of keratinocyte cells. Composed of anucleic cells, all hairs are essentially ‘dead’ matter.

The cuticle — the key to glossy hair

The examination under a microscope of glossy hair would reveal that each hair shaft was covered in tightly-bound, overlapping layers of keratinoyctes. When the layers lie flat and close over one another, light bounces evenly off each individual hair shaft making your hair look fabulously shiny. Just as successful skin-care depends on keeping your stratum comeum clear, clean and intact, so successful hair care depends on keeping your cuticle the same.

Beauty spot

The number of hair follicles you have is genetically-determined and neither increases nor decreases after birth. It doesn’t matter what you do to your head or body hair – shave it, wax it, pluck it or dye it – you cannot cause more hair to grow. It is what occurs within your body, including fluctuating hormone, nutrition and temperature levels, that can affect the type and rate of hair growth.

The long and the short of it

Hair grows in cycles of three phases; a growing anogen phase, a transitional catogen phase, and finally a resting telogen phase. Then the hair falls out and the cycle begins again. The length of your particular cycle is genetic and how long your hair will grow depends on how long its anogen phase is. As most hair grows about half an inch a month, someone with a six-year anogen phase could grow hair three feet long whilst someone with a two-year growing phase could only grow two feet of hair. As you get older, the growing phase gets shorter and the resting phase longer meaning that even if you wanted to, past the age of fifty, you probably couldn’t grow hair past your waist.

Hair loss – what’s normal?

There are about 100,000 hairs on your scalp, each follicle going through its 1,000 day cycle (about 20 times a lifetime). The number of hairs you naturally lose a day depends on your cycle but anything from 25 to 100 hairs a day is completely normal.

The curly and the straight

How curly or straight, wavy or fine your hair is depends on the size and shape of the follicle from which the hair grows. Oriental hair grows from the large circular follicles, African hair is the product of a ‘crinkle-cut’ oval-shaped follicle and Caucasian hair runs the gamut inbetween. The size and shape of your hair follicles are genetically determined but the texture of your hair can change over time. The reason some people’s straight hair becomes curly at adolescence is thought to occur when, as a result of accelerated growth, the follicle moves deeper into the dermis, twisting as it does so and forcing the hair to corkscrew out from it.

The black and the blonde

Your natural hair colour is controlled in part by the same pigment responsible for your skin colour — melanin. There are two different shades of melanin: eumelanin, which is brown to black, and phaeomelanin which is yellow to red. In hair there is also a third type, oxymelanin, also yellow to red, which is a naturally bleached version of eumelanin.

Going grey

If you are going grey and not enjoying the experience, it is doubly depressing to discover that the reason for loss of hair colour is not yet fully understood and, as a result, there are no imminent cures. What is apparent is that the ability of the melanocytes to produce pigment declines with the years. Perhaps they become exhausted earlier than other parts of our bodies because they work so hard. The hair bulb is an area of some of the most intense cellular proliferation seen anywhere in our bodies. Most Caucasians begin to see their first white hairs by their mid thirties while in black races the onset of grey comes a decade later.

The loss of colour is not the only problem. Many people complain that their previously sleek, perfectly behaved hair becomes wiry and unmanageable as it greys. Lack of melanin not only means hair is less protected from UV damage, but also less able to retain its optimum moisture levels. Using sunscreening hair products, good conditioners and availing yourself of the wealth of sleekening styling preparations now available (look for ones with silicone in them), will help avoid the unflattering ‘wire wool’ look.

The key to glossy hair

As you have read, ultimately, great-looking glossy hair is dependent on a tightly packed cuticle.

You can keep your cuticle flat by:

• washing your hair regularly — preferably once a day — to maintain your hair’s water balance. When moisture is lost the outer cells of the layers of cuticle tend to curl up, resulting in duller, drier-looking hair

• using conditioner to smooth down the scales and lock in the necessary moisture

• towelling your hair dry by squeezing rather than rubbing

• using silicone serums to help detangle your hair easily

• never brushing your hair, but using a wide-toothed comb when it is wet, gently beginning at the bottom and working upwards in sections

• using sunscreening hair products.

You can ruffle your cuticle by:

• washing with harsh detergents or alkaline soap

• vigorous towel drying

• handling it roughly, particularly when wet

• having your hair permed or bleached which by its very nature opens the cuticle to break down proteins bonds or leech out pigment

• using very hot styling devices too long and too often.

• letting it get sunburnt.