Hair

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Straight or curly, long or short, blond or chestnut brown, the hair is one of the most important features of the womanliness. Useless to say, when it is not tidy, we don’t feel at ease. When we don’t like our cut or color, we usually get irritable and impossible when someone tells us: “You look wonderfully”

Anyway, even if it is pleasure and pain, we are really afraid of losing it. POCS patients tent to lose it above all on the nape, it becomes stringy and the skin oily. A suitable hair set and color may barely hide the situation.

But here we are to try to find proper solutions.

Again let’s take a step back and find out what our hair is like and how PCOS may affect it.

Hair is composed of keratin (a fiber made of proteins very rich in sulphur amino acids, the cysteine and the cysrtine), lipid, minerals, pigment (the one that lose the color). We can see it all the time: it is threadlike and it originates from the pilifeorus follicle which are under the scalp, in the deep layers of the dermis and the hypodermis and water.

Did you know we have about 100/150 thousand strands of hair on our head? It may be thin, medium or thick, and the structure is quite complex and it is and of cuticle (outside), cortex, and marrow which is the central part.

If we don’t use a suitable product (aggressive products, aggressive coloring or aggressive perm treatments, strong brushing), the cuticle is the first part to be spoilt. The cuticle is made of several layers of cells which contain keratin (rich in sulfur), fat acids, and proteins (the same stratification as a roof covered by shingles). If the cuticle is compact, the hair will be shiny and easy to comb. On the other hand if the flakes of the cuticle are open, the hair will be crinkly and opaque.

There is no good reason why the air is oily, but on the scalp the sebaceous glands produce the sebum which oil and soften the hair. The sebum creates a film which slow the water evaporation down.

At last but not the least, the mineral salts are essential for the hair life; they are conveyed by the blood circulation in the pilifeorus follicle. They are not only responsible for the color of the hair, but an accurate test on the mineral layer of the hair may show if harmful toxic metals have been ingested (mercury, aluminum, lead… ).

Let’s take care of our hair because because it says a lot about us and it helps us with our relationship with the other people: it is a mean of seduction, it show how healthy we are and it is part of our personality.

About Stefania Cattaneo

I am Stefania Cattaneo and I am a Nutritionist Biologist. I have always been fond of sports and nutrition most of all related to the women. I work in my private office near Turin, there I see every sort of patients with really different problems and needs. Actually, I mainly deal with sports people and women who suffer from hormonal ailment linked to the Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. I'll do my best to widen your knowledge (and mine as well) about this hard, difficult awkward but fascinating topic: PCOS.