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14. Hair follicles as the source of hair :: Posted Thursday, May 24, 2001 by admin ::
Hair is produced from a skin structure called the hair follicle. The root of the hair is located within the base of the bulb-like follicle. The follicle is very metabolically active producing hair shafts and is supplied with rich nutrients and growth factors through small blood vessels. The hair follicle is closely associated with clusters of fat cells which seem to support the health of the follicle.
Baby hair begins to grow around the third month after conception within the womb of the mother. Hair follicles develop as the fetus grows, producing downy hairs (vellus hair) several centimeters long when the baby is born. After birth, vellus hair in the head is converted into the thicker, longer shafts of 'terminal hair" or what we consider normal of the head. During wound healing, the new skin cells appear to arise from the hair follicle.
Follicles can naturally switch back and forth from vellus hair to terminal hair. This raises the possibility that the vellus hair of baldness could be reconverted back into terminal hair with the proper biochemical signals. Few new hair follicles are made after birth but the skin contains undifferentiated stem cells that might also be transformed into new follicles with proper biochemical signals.
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