Simply put, hair follicles are the basis of hair growth, and each hair follicle is an independent hair production factory. Each scalp hair follicle contains 1~4 hairs. Some hair follicles are independent, while others are composed of 2-5 hair follicles.
Like humans, hair follicles have their own life span. But hair follicles are different from humans. Hair follicles have their own life cycle, which means that hair follicles can be reincarnated, but people can't. However, the circulation of hair follicles is not endless. Generally speaking, the life span of hair follicles is 2-6 years, with an average of 3 years, just like infancy, childhood, adolescence and adolescence, including growth period, regression period and rest period.
In fact, the life span of hair follicles is closely related to human life and rest. If people don't pay attention to and treat their hair follicles well, they will shorten their life span. Once the hair follicle completely atrophies or disappears, it will never grow again. In short-you will be bald.
When a person is born, the number of hair follicles has been decided, and the number of hair follicles in the back will only decrease gradually with age, but will not increase. Therefore, hair follicles are non-renewable resources, and those drugs that say "revive" hair follicles can now be judged to be unreliable.
Relationship between hair follicle and alopecia
Experts from Kefayuan Hair Transplantation Hospital reminded that early male hair loss is not terrible or obvious, but the hair in the shedding period will become thinner and softer, and the amount of early hair loss will not be too much. Many hair friends can easily regard it as a state of mild hair loss, and once a large number of hair loss occurs, it proves that a large number of hair follicles have shrunk and no longer have the ability to grow hair.
The process of hair loss and hair follicle atrophy caused by androgen production can be simply summarized as follows: androgen is reduced to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) under the action of 5α reductase. However, dihydrotestosterone can stimulate hair follicles carrying genetic genes, which will make male hair follicles lose their basic physiological functions, thus shortening the hair cycle, softening and shortening the hair first, and then shrinking the hair follicles completely, losing any hair growth ability.
Something mistaken for a "hair follicle"
Some hair friends with serious hair loss often find a white cystic structure at the root of the fallen hair, and wonder if it has fallen off with the hair follicle. Actually, it won't, because hair follicles are deep into the dermis and it is difficult to fall off spontaneously. The reason why the roots of fallen hair are wrapped by white objects is mostly due to the accumulation of oil in pores.
When the hair falls, the grease accumulated around the hair also falls, but it looks a bit like a capsule. But it's really not a good symptom to have fat particles in your hair. This situation shows that your scalp is oily, and the oil stays along the pores and forms at the hair roots, which may affect the growth of hair.