Alex Tisdale 
L'Oreal discovers how hair actually grows/Photo credit: Unsplash
Hair covers most of the human body; due to blood flow, hair can grow from just about anywhere on the body. From the eyebrows down to the toes, people always wondered how hair comes about. Scientists thought they had an inkling of how hair is created, but more recent research showed that things were completely different.
They recently discovered that the route doesn’t push hair out. Forces of moving cells pull it. Researchers from L’Oréal & Innovation and Queen Mary University of London used 3D live imaging to observe individual cells within hair follicles kept alive in lab conditions. Published in Nature Communications, it revealed that strands would move downward in a spiral from the outer roof in the same region that produces hair growth.
Reader in Oral and Skin Biology at Queen Mary, Dr. Inês Sequeira said, “Our results revealed a fascinating choreography inside the hair follicle. For decades, it was assumed that hair was pushed out by dividing cells in the hair bulb. We found that instead of it, it is actively pulled upwards by surrounding tissues, acting almost like a tiny motor.”
Further testing this idea, the team decided to block cell division within the molecule, predicting that hair growth would slow or stop; however, it had the opposite effect and grew at the same rate.
Things remained the same until the researchers decided to stop the protein; actin and growth fell by 80%. This was confirmed by computer simulations that the pulling force is linked to coordinated movement of the follicle’s outer layers, which explains the speed.
An author from L’Oreal’s advanced research team said, “We use the novel imaging method allowing 3-D time-lapse microscopy in real time while static images provide mirror isolated snapshots 3-D time-lapse microscopy is indispensable for unraveling the intricate dynamic biological processes within the hair, follicle, revealing crucial cellular kinetics, migratory patterns, and the rate of cell divisions that are otherwise impossible to deduce from discrete observations. This approach made it possible to model. The force is generated locally.”
Another tead author from the same L’Oréal team, Dr. Thomas Bornschlögl, also added, “This reveals that hair growth is not only driven by cell division —instead, outer root sheath actively pulls the hair upwards. This new view of follicle mechanics opens fresh opportunities for studying hair disorders, testing drugs, and advancing tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.”
Despite the study being carried out in the lab. It also opens the door to new clues about hair and regenerative medicine. Researchers believe that understanding how these forces work could help assign treatments that target molecules, physical, as well as the biochemical environment. 
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