Volume 2

Health lectures for the people.

Date:
1883-1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health lectures for the people. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    114/600 (page 102)
    canals carry bricks, mortar, and wood for the construction of our houses, so these blood-vessels convey to the hair-bulb the.material necessary for hair-growth. Additions are therefore being con- tinually made to the base of the hair through the greater part of its life, and as it rises up in the follicle, its upwardly directed scaly covering sweeps before it the scales which line the follicle. The scales which are thus carried to the surface constitute a part of the scurf of the head. In its first formation the young hair usually passes upwards through the follicle with its point bent upon itself like a loop. This gradually forces itself through the orifice of the hair-follicle, and then the hair straightens itself by means of its own elasticity. Sometimes, however, the mouth of the follicle is closed by a plug of hardened greasy matter from the oil-gland, or, it may be, by a collection of scales from the scarf-skin. In such a case the growing hair may be unable to force a passage, and as it continues to elongate, it coils itself up like a watch spring inside the follicle. In time it produces an itchiness which calls our attention to the predicament in which it is placed, and we proceed to liberate it. But when we are discussing the phenomena of hair-growth, you may very naturally ask, At what rate does hair grow and what length does it attain 1 The first part of this question is very difficult to answer, because so many circumstances influence hair-growth. In young people it grows much more rapidly than in people of advanced age, and in the same manner the earlier part of a hair's life is more active than the latter part. The time of the day and the season of the year are also considered by some to have an eff'ect on hair-growth. Thus it is said to grow faster during the day than at night, and during the summer than in winter. The average growth of the beard has been computed to be 6^ inches each year. A man of eighty years of age, therefore, who has shaved regularly all his life may be said to have sacrificed to the razor about 35 feet of hair. In the case of the head-hair the greatest discrepancies exist in