What is the white bulb at the end of shedded hair?? anyone??

[templemonk]

Hi. i have a question. i would really appreciate if you share your knowledge..

when my hair falls out, i notice there are two kinds.
one with smooth end ( i can't tell which end used to be connected to my skin) , and the other one with white root type of thing hanging at the end (the end part is where it used to be connected to my scalp)
whats the difference?
can someone please explain ??

thanks in advance!!

 

[hbdale309]

Re: Can anyone tell me the difference btwn these two?

The white bulbs are sebum. The others just came out without the sebum.

 

[hbdale309]

Re: Can anyone tell me the difference btwn these two?

the hairs without any kind of bulb can also be caused by hair breakage.

Use a protein based once-a-week leave in conditioner. If it's really bad then also add a protein based shampoo and conditioner to your daily routine.

 

[templemonk]

Re: Can anyone tell me the difference btwn these two?

thanks for replying.
sorry i'm gonna have to ask newbie questions.
what is sebum? and what does that mean that i lose hairs with sebum. am i supposed to have sebums on my hair?
please explain in detail if you can.??

 

[hbdale309]

Re: Can anyone tell me the difference btwn these two?

thanks for replying.
sorry i'm gonna have to ask newbie questions.
what is sebum? and what does that mean that i lose hairs with sebum. am i supposed to have sebums on my hair?
please explain in detail if you can.??

sebum is the oil from the glands around your follicles. It's used to moisturize your scalp to keep your hair from drying out. Yes, you are supposed to have them.

Some people say sebum can cause more dht so, just in case, try and wash your hair everyday and use nizoral.

 

[Bryan]

Re: Can anyone tell me the difference btwn these two?

The white bulb at the end of some shed hairs isn't sebum. I think it's part of the material that the hair follicle uses to "cement" the hair in place.

Also, sebum is completely insignificant as a moisturizing agent. Below is a brief commentary on sebum by a group of dermatologists in a medical journal article:

"Sebum Secretion and Sebaceous Lipids", Stewart et al, Dermatologic Clinics -- Vol. 1, No. 3, July 1983 (BTW, the "Kligman" they refer to in the text below is Dr. Albert M. Kligman, MD PhD, one of the most famous names in the history of dermatology):

"Sebum is an oily substance that is secreted onto the skin surface from glands located in the dermis. Although a number of useful functions have been proposed for sebum, proof that sebum performs any of them is lacking. In furred mammals an essential function of sebum is to supply 7-dehydrocholesterol, which is converted to vitamin D by the action of sunlight and then ingested by the animal as it grooms itself. In man, however, the location of 7-dehydrocholesterol has been shown to be the epidermis rather than sebum. Sebum may act as a waterproofing agent for fur, but humans obviously have little need for this function. Kligman has specifically disproved the notions that sebum improves the barrier function of skin, that sebum helps to regulate the water content of the horny layer by forming emulsions with sweat, or that sebum on the skin surface is fungistatic or antibacterial.(21) Kligman regards the human sebaceous glands as 'living fossils' that lost their usefulness to our species as we lost our fur.(21)

(21) Kligman, A. M.: The uses of sebum? In Montagna, W., Ellis, R. A., and Silver, A. F. (eds.): Advances in the Biology of Skin. Volume 4. Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1963."

 

[templemonk]

Re: Can anyone tell me the difference btwn these two?

thanks for replying.
sorry i'm gonna have to ask newbie questions.
what is sebum? and what does that mean that i lose hairs with sebum. am i supposed to have sebums on my hair?
please explain in detail if you can.??

sebum is the oil from the glands around your follicles. It's used to moisturize your scalp to keep your hair from drying out. Yes, you are supposed to have them.

Some people say sebum can cause more dht so, just in case, try and wash your hair everyday and use nizoral.

so then, what does that mean when i lose hairs without the white thing?

 

[templemonk]

Re: Can anyone tell me the difference btwn these two?

The white bulb at the end of some shed hairs isn't sebum. I think it's part of the material that the hair follicle uses to "cement" the hair in place.
."

Bryan, i Know that you are one of the well repected guys in this forum for wide range of knowledge. can you please answer me? what is the difference? why some hairs have white bulbs and some don;t? how is it supposed to be?
sorry for such a newbie questions, and thanks for your time!

 

[Bryan]

Re: Can anyone tell me the difference btwn these two?

As hbdale309 suggested, I would generally expect a hair without the white "bulb" to be a broken hair; the end with the bulb probably broke-off from the rest of the hair.

 

[elvis123]

Re: Can anyone tell me the difference btwn these two?

f*** off bryan you sound so full of sh*t all the time...

get those reading glasses off that book, it doesn't make you look more knowledgeable....if that is what you are going for

 

[Jokerman]

Re: Can anyone tell me the difference btwn these two?

Yeah, Bryan!!!

Quit trying to help people out with your peer reviewed articles and scientific studies.

Masturbation causes hairloss. Everyone knows that.

 

[templemonk]

Re: Can anyone tell me the difference btwn these two?

whats up with these angers? at least he tried to answer my question. can you guys answer my question?

 

[elvis123]

woah woah no anger here, me and bryan go way back, we beef all the time, ain't that right bryan?? :woot:

 

[Ian Curtis]

Sometimes a white thingy falls off,probably the follicle or whatever, and it has 2 hairs stuck to it! It must be some sort of double your shedding :woot:
I think I once found a 3 haired thingy, not so sure it was for real.

 

[cuebald]

I decided to do a test a few months ago when I saw these "bulbs".
I got some tweezers and plucked ~25 hairs from my left moustache, most of which had this "white bulb" on them when they came out.
Well, they grew back, which leads me to believe that hairs with this "bulb" on them aren't dead and won't grow back, which is what I was concerned about before.
The stuff must be designed to be as expendible as the keratin etc itself.
I also noticed it's the same shade as my skin itself is, very pale, translucent white.

 

[raj47]

i just want to ask the this topic creator how do you felt about this shedding and
i can say from my shedding most of them are tiny and unhealthy hair or thin regrowing hairs..
when it comes to its bulb most of them are burned like browny bulbs on its ends

 

[Lion Reborn]

You know its funny because I was about to make a thread asking about bulbs. I recently went through a big three shed 4 months into my treatment and at first only small thin hairs were falling out but near the end a few thick hairs fell. Although most of them were naked (no bulb) some had the bulb attached. Personally I though it was better for the ones without bulbs to fall out because that white stuff may be important (haha im a bio major at UC Davis and I dont know dick about hair anatomy). Anywho I think that sheds suck but atleast they grow back. maybe. hopefully... im gonna go cry now.

 

[Joey Ramone]

lolz

 

[GNUist (formerly FC)]

For fucks sakes this is nt the first time this got asked on here... It's just an anchor-like thing that keeps hairs attached. All hairs have them, notthing to do with shedding or balding. How the f*** do you think hairs stays attached ?

 

[Oknow]

Anywho I think that sheds suck but atleast they grow back. maybe. hopefully... im gonna go cry now.

lol