The hair follicle’s environment
It is in an environment mainly made of COLLAGEN, at the heart of the dermis, which the hair follicle develops. The collagen must necessarily remain supple, especially at the papilla level and all around the follicle (perifollicular collagen). If it loses its elasticity, that is, if it hardens under the action of free radicals, then it locks everything into a stranglehold, and curbs its activity.
Inside the factory
THE PAPILLA
An essential zone, providing both the factory’s raw material, and its brain. Made of dermal collagen, it introduces itself deep into the follicle, and links it to the rest of the body. It is via the papilla that the many blood vessels that will irrigate the follicle throughout, and bring it all the necessary shaping messages pass (genetic and hormonal instructions, life length, nutritional elements…).
MATRIX
Located at the basis of the root, it is the starting point for the production chain. This is where the keratinocytes, the hair’s mother cells, are located. They break into daughter cells at an unbridled pace (the fastest in the body). New daughter cells continuously appear, and drive away the previous ones, which climb upwards in a queue, and die. This stacking up of the dead cells makes the keratin and shapes the surface of the hair stem, as we see it. That is how the hair grows.
The better the papilla’s cells are irrigated, and the more they carry positive messages towards the matrix, the greater the follicle’s size, and the more it favours hair growth. Worth noting: recent research has found that the stimulation of a growth protein (VEGF) at papilla level could favour the papilla’s development.
EXTERNAL EPITHELIAL SHEATH (EES)
It shapes the tube into which the hair slides in order to emerge and reach the skin’s surface. The EES must be dense and well framed in order to enable the hair to strongly anchor itself to the dermis.
INTERNAL EPITHELIAL SHEATH (IES)
It is placed alongside the hair stem. Its external surface is made of flat cells, shaped as tiles and oriented downside. They interlock, top-to-tail, into the hair stems’ cuticle tiles, turned in the opposite direction. The more the IES is firm and structured, the more the hair stem easily reaches the top, just like a rack railway.
The annexe
Annexed to the hair follicle, the SEBACEOUS GLAND is responsible for the finishing stage. It contains the sebum, which the hair needs for protection and lubrication. Under hormonal dependence, the sebaceous gland can become unsettled, and produce too much, or too little, sebum.
