2006-07-20 17:56:14 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Other - Science
hair isn't dead skin. Your skin isn't dead either (only the topmost part is, which is continually pushed out by the lower part).
Hair is a product of chemical reactions within the living part of the skin. Think of hair follicles like little factories that make a huge rubber tower from the bottom up, or squeeze out the tower. Except that the rubber is protein.
2006-07-20 18:35:02 · answer #1 · answered by rainphys 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hair IS NOT the dead skin - it is independent part of the skin superficial layer. It has root and blood vessels and nerves around the root, but the hair itself contains none of the above menitioned stuff. It grows because it is supposed to grow.
Your confusion has evolved from the fact that the hair is not made of a living thing. But at the beginning, in the root, it is very alive and kicking and growing. The tissue that hair is made of contains no blood vessel or nerve, but it grows because in the root there are cells that take building material from the bloodstream, combine them and form a hair. The material is added at the bottom of the hair, so it grows constantly at the speed of 1/2 inch a month (for capital hair) or about 1 inch a month (for man's facial hair).
2006-07-21 02:29:22 · answer #2 · answered by Vlada M 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hair grows from the roots within your skin. The ends are dead and this is the reason that pinching hair does not hurt, but pulling hair which tugs at the roots under your skin...hurts.
2006-07-21 01:06:27 · answer #3 · answered by chance 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hair is not growing by cell division but due to accumulation of protein at its root or hair follicle. This protein is systhesised by the living cells. There is no meristem tissue in hair as in the case of plants. The tip of the hair remains as such, but lenght of the hair increased due to continuous accumulation of proteins a its base (root or hari follicles). Thus, it seems to be growing. It is just like the growth of the finger nail. You might have seen the non-erasable ink mark made on the finger nail (during casting votes) slowly move towards the tip of the nail, as it grows.
2006-07-21 01:58:40 · answer #4 · answered by K.J. Jeyabaskaran K 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You have a large production of hair coiled up underneath your scalp that comes up slowly. If you pull on one hair long enough and slow enough and take in to consideration that your hair MUST be STRONG enough...you can double the length of that hair. You basically uncoil it and pull it from the scalp. I have done it. Be careful to only do it with one strand though cause it damages your hair, as well as the fact that you don't want it to pull out. My hair got cut a little while back and I pull it slowly and it is back down to my waist already. But it is sensitive now because of the nerves of the scalp and brittle because the hair strands have not built up a production of oil to protect from damage and weather.
2006-07-21 02:22:28 · answer #5 · answered by Kat 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because the hair grows from the roots and they are alive...just like finger nails.
2006-07-21 00:59:29 · answer #6 · answered by Somebody Somewhere 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
hairs are not dead skin.
2006-07-21 01:05:19 · answer #7 · answered by T 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it just keeps stacking up on its live roots till it falls out
2006-07-21 00:59:43 · answer #8 · answered by AKAPAC69 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋