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Hair follicle histology
Make it clearer
Seen under the microscope, the hair follicle is a structure built in layers, and all the growth of the hair happens at its deep end.
Down there sits the bulb, the widened part of the follicle. Inside the bulb is a mound of tissue called the dermal papilla, and gathered around it are epithelial cells that are still unspecialized: the matrix cells. They are the engine. They work as germ cells, meaning cells that multiply and keep turning out new material, and that steady output is what makes the follicle grow and, with it, the hair.
Around that, the hair is wrapped by the internal root sheath, made of three layers with names of their own: the cuticle and the layers of Huxley and Henle. And outside all of it lies the external root sheath, which is where the arrector pili muscle attaches, the same muscle that lifts the hair when the skin breaks out in goosebumps.
In brief
Inside the hair bulb, surrounding the dermal papilla, are unspecialized epithelial cells known as matrix cells.
Those matrix cells act as germ cells that function to grow the hair follicle and, in turn, the hair itself.
The hair is wrapped by the internal root sheath, with its cuticle, Huxley's layer, and Henle's layer, while the external root sheath serves as the attachment site for the arrector pili muscle.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology InformationHistology, Hair and Follicle. StatPearls
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