“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
Matthew 10:30
This verse reminds us that God knows not only our hearts and thoughts but everything else about us too. How many hairs do you think you have on your head? You probably have about 100,000, although each of us does not have the same number. Blond people usually have more, and redheads have less.
If you could look at a strand of hair under a strong microscope, it would look like a tightly packed tiny rope covered with fish-like scales. A cross section of the hair would show two layers surrounding a central core. The outside layer is called the cuticle. The second layer, making up 85% of the thickness, is called the cortex and is made up of the cells that provide color and sheen. The inner core is called the medulla. The whole hair structure that we see is called the shaft.
This shaft starts to grow in a bulb-like growth, known as a follicle, just underneath the skin of the scalp. The bottom part of the follicle holds the papilla which contains an artery that nourishes the root of the hair.
As the shaft grows, it pushes upward. It is made up of dead cells which are forced up as new, living cells are formed in the follicle. In about ten weeks an inch of this hair appears, and in an average lifetime about 25 feet of hair will have grown. Even though it is dead, each shaft (strand) keeps its shape and luster and is helped in this by an oily lubricant secreted by the follicle.
Nutritious food helps your hair, but worry, stress and strain hurt it and may cause some hair loss. It is quite normal to lose as many as 75 to 100 hairs a day. They have served their purpose, and the follicles will send out new replacements.
Analysis of hair can show whether the body is getting the right amount of minerals, such as iron, copper, chromium, zinc, etc., which God has wisely provided in certain foods. Laboratory tests show how much of each mineral is present, although, because of the hair’s slow growth only the condition of a few months back will be revealed. Aside from this, most medical authorities question whether any disease can be determined through the hair.
Baldness and graying are the result of aging. High fever, drugs or serious illness may also cause baldness, but most bald people inherit the tendency from their parents, and there is no way to help this.
Now, how about straight or curly hair? Round strands make straight hair; oval strands become wavy hair; flat strands make kinky hair. But there are many variations of this as well.
Like all parts of the body, the hair that adorns our heads is one more wonderful work of God’s creation. Incidentally, the Bible encourages long hair for a girl or a woman, but speaks of long hair on a boy or a man as “a shame unto him” (1 Cor. 11:14-15). It’s something to think about if we want to please the Lord. A good verse to remember is, “Them that honor Me I will honor” (1 Samuel 2:30).
MAY 26, 1996
“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
1 John 1:7
ML-05/26/1996