What does the hair cuticle do?
The best way for you to understand hair is…each individual hair is like a snake. The point being, you know how a snake is covered with scales. Well, magnified, hair looks very much like that. Excessive heat and or chemicals will leave the scales (cuticle) open and away from the body of the shaft. Giving the hair a rough damaged feel. Now to basic hair/scalp anatomy. Hair is composed of keratin (protein). A cross section of the hair would show three layers – the medulla (a center core not present in everyone’s hair), the next layer is the cortex and the outer layer is the cuticle (the parts that looks like snake scales). The hair bulb (known as the root to most) sits inside the follicle and the papilla (the true root-feeds the bulb) is attached to the bottom of the bulb (appears as an indent). The follicle is surrounded by two sheaths, the inner sheath stops at the sebaceous gland that secretes oil (this gland when stimulated by brushing or running your fingers through your hair, will
