Hair covers the whole body, with the exception of soles of feet, palms of hands, mucous membranes, and lips.

Hair is actually dead material when it leaves its root which is why it doesn't hurt when your hair is cut.

A hair is built in a tubular way and consists primarily out of a substance, called keratin. Hair is absorbant like a sponge. The contents of the tubular hair determines the color. The surface of the tubular structure is scale-like, covered with tiny plates. Hair does not contain nerves or blood, however is rooted in living skin, whereby a uniform structure is formed.

The hair is divided into a shaft, the portion growing above the skin, and the hair roots anchored in the skin.

The hair root of an individual hair forms a tiny long tunnel (called a follicle) which reaches into the lower layers of the skin. At the end of the tiny tunnel there is a hair papilla. The papilla is the center of growth for the hair, it is here where nutrients are taken up from the blood.

Slightly below the surface of the skin there are sebaceous glands which supply the hair with sufficient sebum, the fatty secretion of these glands. A tiny hair-raising muscle is responsible for providing sebum from the sebaceous glands. This tiny muscle can also straighten up the hair in the case of goose pimples.

The strand is pushed out of this bag about 0.35mm per day, making an average growth rate of 1cm, or half of an inch, per month. The growth rate is however very much related to the individual person, his age, his diet etc.

Healthy hair has an average lifetime of 2-6 years. After a rest period of three months the single hair falls out, and a new strand starts to grow out of the bag. The lifetime depends on circumstances and person, too.

The lifetime of hair is responsible for the maximum of hair length you can have. Waist length hair takes about 6 years to grow out from a short hair cut, periodic trims included. If your hair has a life cycle of 2 years, you will never achieve a nice waist length mane.

For good hair health, try wholemeal products, eggs, liver, kidneys, vitamin D, herrings, salmon, carrots, green vegetables, and vitamin C.