Growth of the Hair

1895

The hair is not like plants. It is nothing more than unsensible threads of skin, or rather papilae, as they are called, which grow in their proper places under the same conditions as the nails on the finger ends.

The hair papillae do not lie on the surface of the skin, but are sunk more or less deeply into it — more deeply as the hair is longer, so that long hairs adhere in a deep sac. The number of these hair papillae of course varies considerably with different people, but for each individual is constant and unchangeable and cannot be increased any more than can the number of one's finger nails. The number of hairs depends on the papillae; consequently if there are no papillae there can be no hair. Moreover, the number of these papillae is constant, so that the idea of increasing their number by clipping the hair must be abandoned. the growth of the hairs depends rather on the well being of all the papillae, but they are constituent parts of skin and share its fate alike in both good and evil days. — Chautauquan.