From Personal Statement to Personal Problem by Devera Pine From the shaved heads of medieval monks, to the long-haired hippies of the '60s, to the spiked hairdos of today's punk rockers, hair has always made a personal statement. Hair has had sociological importance throughout the ages. In the United States, some 35 million men are losing or have lost their hair from male-pattern baldness, according to the American Hair Loss Council. Hair is made up of dead cells filled with proteins, most of which are known as keratins. The cells are woven together like a rope to form the hair fiber.
Hair color is determined by melanocytes, cells that produce pigment.
When these cells stop producing pigment, hair turns gray. Although it seems as if the hair on your head is always growing, hair actually has active and rest phases. The growth phase, known as anagen, lasts for two to six years. At any given time, about 90 percent of scalp hair is in the growth stage. Once the rest phase is over, the hair strand falls out and a new one begins to grow.