Paulines Mongolian Hair
It can be easy for some to disparage just how hard it is to go bald. Both men and women lose their hair and in either case it can be a difficult thing to accept. For men it can be emasculating in a strange way, we as a society celebrate good looking hair on men in a way that might have seemed unprecedented just a half century ago. For women the problem can be far worse. There is a sense of pride in one's hair and literally thousands of dollars a year goes into it's maintenance and a continual search for it's new relevancy. The results of hair loss in both cases can lead to strange coping mechanisms and denials that to everyone else might seem embarrassing.This is why the wig industry has so steadily improved their products, especially for women. These days if you are a woman choosing to wear a wig you do not have to be committed to long wigs as you might have many years before. Instead they have figured out methods for making short wigs that form around the head without revealing that they are in fact a wig. Of course long hair continues to be a popular option.Hair is a type of protein, more specifically a filamentous bio-material. Only mammals have hair, but other organisms such as insects and plants have hair-like growths that are not actually considered hair.The human body is covered with hair, except for the nose and ear which has cilia, which again is not considered to fit the true charicterization of hair.Hair grows through the skin from a follicle, and takes the form of a rope-like strand of keratin. The only living part of hair is that which is in the follicle. Once the hair leaves of the follicle it is considered dead. Each hair is made of three parts: the medulla, the cortex and the cuticle. The medulla is the nucleus of the hair. The cortex is the middle layer and the cuticle contains the color of the hair. The cortex is the source of the hair strength. The shape of the follicle generally determines the shape of the hair fibers, which in turn dictates the texture of the hair. Oval shaped fibers are usually more wavy or perhaps curly.Scalp hair grows in three phases. The anagen phase is the active growth phase.