Roots

You still have time to press the BACK button.    Don't read if you get affected by root talk.  You have been warned........... get out NOW, don't be tempted to read if you know you get affected.   Please!

Just for the strong guys (of whom I'm not one)......

Ok,  here goes..........

As promised, the following is a summary and interpretation of some of the information that people have sent about the anatomy of hair pulling. What follows is a concensus description of what pulling is like for those people who find that pulling a big root relieves a feeling of pressure. There are probably other types of pulling, so the following probably does not apply to everyone. But it would be reasonable to assume it applies to the extent that one pulls while looking for big roots. The following ASCII fixed-font diagram summarizes what people have said that they find at the ends of their hairs. This is approximately to scale for scalp hair, with each character about 1/64 inch long (so the three hairs ends below are about 3/8 inch long in real life). Presumably, the diagrams would be similar for brow, lash, pubic, or other hair, with appropriate scaling. (Special thanks to the ASCII artist who sent in a vertical diagram; you know who you are.)

The ideal big root:                             Sometimes, though:                         But most often:

   /WWWWWWWWWWWWW\        /WWWWWW\

DD|HHHHHHHHHHHHHSSSSS*R DD|HHHHHHHHHHHHHSSSSS* DD|HHHHHHHHHHHHHSSSSS*

  \WWWWWWWWWWWWW/         \WWWWWW/

D = dyed color of hair, hard hair

| = skin outer boundary

H = natural color of hair, hard hair

S = natural color of hair, soft hair

* = natural color of hair, inky "dot"

R = red "dot"

W = wet waxy translucent coat, crunchy?

Placed up against anatomical diagrams of the hair follicle, this all makes excellent sense, and people are to be commended for the accuracy of their observations:

The "D" part is regular hard hair that is outside the outer layer of the skin, called the epidermis, which is dead skin. This hair can be dyed.   Inside the skin, past the "|" part, the hair is regular hard hair "H" of natural color (including white) that is protected from dye, but still is surrounded by dead skin. Somewhere after about 1/16 inch into the skin, the hard hair is now surrounded by living skin, the dermis, and it is near the top of the dermis that the sebaceous glands empty their sebum into the follicle. This is also where the wet wax "W" starts, approximately at the sebaceous gland. The wax plug is about as thick on either side of the hair as the hair itself, and because it is hard and wider than the follicle opening, it forms a type of seal at the upper end of the dermis. Presumably, this traps sebum in the follicle, forcing it downward and inward, rather than up and out. Because of its shape, because of size, because it firmly adheres to the hair, and because it is a firm one-piece near-solid, it provides more than ordinary resistance to pulling. This is something that pullers seem to learn to recognize; they pull harder on these hairs, and sometimes it even makes a sound as it pulls past the epidermis, which is clearly heard directly through the bones of the skull.  Still further into the skin, the developing hair "S" has not yet turned hard, or keratinized. This soft part of the hair ends where specialized cells, the melanocytes (literally, "black cells") make the hair pigment;  they are exactly the color of the hair, but heavily colored, hence the smearable "ink" at the "dot", the "*". (White hairs generate no pigment, so they have no "dot"). At the very tip of the hair is the dermal papilla, the developing cells from which all other components of the hair develop, within a tiny depression richly supplied with blood vessles "R" (similar to the pulp of a tooth). Presumably, if the waxy coat has completely filled the  follicle, it provides enough length and leverage from the rest of the exiting hair to rip out the blood vessels themselves. In the case of a less developed wax plug, it appears to start in the same place at the top of the dermis, but it extends down only partially, sometimes exposing the soft portion of the hair and the inky "dot", but not providing enough extraction power to pull out the blood supply. In many cases, there is no waxy plug at all; these hairs also only have a hard part, a soft part, and an inky "dot", and are felt to be a poor substitute for the wax.   Some additional things people have noted.  The root, if it has any smell or taste at all, is basically oily, probably due to the free fatty acids in sebum, which also appears to coat the outside of the wax, making it appear wet or greasy. The "crunch" that people often note appears to be due either to the hair itself, or more likely, to the hard waxy coat itself which resists being bitten. People have noted that the crunchier hairs tend to be wider and have more blood, and that the best such roots are extracted with the dermal papilla still intact within its depression in the end of the bulb of the root, where it can be made to pop when bitten, giving a momentary tangy taste, presumably that of blood. The crunchy wax may be composed of 10-hydroxy hexa/octadecanoic acids; this is the major component of "grave wax" or adipocere, a hard waxy greyish-white soap-like decomposition of standard body fat, and which is known to be a major byproduct of the yeast Malassezia. This wax appears to discourage bacteria, which partly accounts for the lack of inflammation in the filled follicle (and this would be good for the yeast, too), but its firmness provides constant pressure against the pressure-reporting Merkel cells surrounding the dermal part of the follicle. This wax can be pealed off the hair with a fingernail, but is not easy to smear, unlike usual body grease. Despite the firmness of the yanking necessary to remove this plug, there is no pain; one of the other known byproducts of Malassezia is hexanol, an anesthetic. Malassezia also produces gamma lactones, which are described in the catalog of a perfume manufacturer as having smells that are described as "sweet, creamy, fatty, oily, coconut" (gamma- octa-to undeca-lactones).  The acting of pulling seems to be best summarized as follows. Pulling can start visually, due to the noticing of a hair of unusual color, size, or shape; presumably some of these distortions may be attributable to theaction of a microorganism in the follicle. But often, large or kinky hairs are noted tactilely during combing with a comb or with the fingers. This initiates a blind (non-visual) hair hunt, with the probing finger attempting to touch a hair whose movements, due to the stiff wax plug, are rigidly transmitted via the wax plug to the pressure cells. Confirmation of the irritating hair is given if the hair appears to resist a casual pull. At this point, the hair is firmly grasped and firmly yanked, the effort being prepared for with the holding of the breath. The feeling of pressure is relieved approximately in proportion to the size of the plug extracted. The root, wet with sebum on the outside of what is now a cool waxy coat, is visually examined to verify its extent, is touched to the lips to gauge its wetness, is held under the nose to smell and taste the volatile oil components and yeast byproducts, and bitten to explore the blood of the dermal papilla. These actions are similar to the royal treatment an extracted sliver is given once it is removed from a finger. There is little in the above description that would discriminate pullers from non-pullers. That is, it is well known that nearly everyone has Malassezia; in fact, it is viewed as a good thing, since Malassezia is a fairly benign yeast, and having it live on the skin keeps more malevolent yeasts away. Thus, nearly everyone should have some waxy plugs in their hair, and some non-pullers may even have tons. What may set pullers apart, however, may be an allergic reaction to one or more of the digestive proteins that Malassezia uses to generate its food and its protective wax.  If that is the case, then although there still is no pain, there is an irritation or itch that focusses attention on the hair, and the hunt is on.  In the meantime, non-pullers just occasionally stare at their comb some mornings and wonder why some of the hairs stuck in it have funny roots. It may only be through the careful avoidance of those things that favor yeast growth, that some pullers can approach such a indifferent attitude towards their hair. Again, as ever, this may not have anything at all to do with your own particular kind of pulling. I would be grateful, however, for people's comments and suggestions.

John