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 Dr. Lee is the founder and owner of Regrowth LLC, a company based in Los Angeles and dedicated to the treatment of hair loss. He has been developing innovative products and treating hair loss sufferers for the past 16 years. Dr. Lee is the creator of the Xandrox line of hair loss treatments.
Important Note: Due a busy schedule, Dr. Lee cannot answer any new questions at this time; however, he will be providing high quality answers to questions he receives from his own practice exclusively to Morphollica.com regularly
anonymous
2005-07-07
different types of hair
What are the different types of hair on the human body?
Hairs can be classified according to their texture and
length. There is lanugo, vellus, intermediate and terminal hair.
Lanugo hair is the soft, fine hair that covers much of the fetus and is
usually shed before birth. Lanugo hair begins to grow when the fetus is
about three months old. The fine, soft hairs grow all over the baby’s
body, except for the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet and
they all grow at the same rate, so all of the lanugo hairs are the same
length. Normally, the lanugo hairs are shed about a month before the
baby is due to be born. Some prematurely born babies will still be
covered with lanugo hairs. You are born with all of the hair follicles you will ever have in your
lifetime. The classification of human hair is not exact and basically
relates to the final length if the hairs: vellus hairs never grow more
than 1 cm; indeterminate hairs may grow to several centimeters and
terminal hairs grow beyond several centimeters. Vellus hairs are short, only one to two centimeters long, and contain
little or no pigment. The hair follicles that produce them do not have
sebaceous glands or arrector pili muscles and never produce any other
kind of hairs. Terminal hairs are the long hairs that grow on the head and in many
people on the body, arms and legs too. They are produced by follicles
with sebaceous glands and arrector pili muscles and are usually
pigmented during one’s youth. A subset of terminal hairs are the
intermediate hairs, which are not as thick as regular terminal hairs,
but do have associated sebaceous glands and arrector pili muscles.
Intermediate hairs can always be seen along the frontal hairline and
accounts for the soft, transitional look of the hairline.
In men and women who have an inherited a tendency to pattern alopecia,
the hairs in these terminal follicles gradually become thinner and
shorter until they look like vellus hairs. Richard Lee, M.D.
Regrowth, LLC
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