Science behind hair health: how diet and lifestyle are key, and eight tips for maintaining luscious locks
- Everyone’s hair is different: the shades, shapes, length, texture. But what is the purpose of hair, and how should we best take care of it?
- Find out why some people go bald, why our hair turns grey and how your lifestyle can change the way your locks look
Hair. Some of us have loads, others none. But what is the purpose of it? What explains the variety of colours and textures and, most importantly, how can we best take care of our luscious locks?
Andrea Clark, salon artistic director and trichologist at Hong Kong’s Mandarin Oriental hotel, says while humans have evolved to no longer need hair for camouflage or protection, it still “keeps the head warm and protects our scalps from burning in the sun”.
Despite this, today, the purpose of hair is predominantly aesthetic – it’s all about the confidence we get on those good hair days.
Hair is made mostly of the protein keratin, which is also found in animals’ hooves, claws, beaks and feathers. It grows from scalp follicles which determine whether the shape will be straight or curly. Once hair has grown from the follicle and reaches above the skin, it dies.
While it may appear fragile, hair is tough; each individual strand can support 100 grams in weight and, given that one person has between 50,000 and 150,000 strands, our hair could in theory support the weight of two elephants.
It’s fortunate we have so many strands – on average, we shed between 50 to 100 a day, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. New hair starts to grow instantly to replace lost strands. This cycle of shedding and re-growing means that about every four years we have a new head of hair.