The portion of our hair visible to the outside world is called the shaft. But the story of hair really begins below the skin, where each hair is contained within a pouch-like tube called the follicle. At the base of the follicle is the root, the oval-shaped centre where hair growth activity begins. And jutting into the bottom portion of the root is the papilla, which contains the vital capillaries linking the body's blood supply to each growing strand of hair.

Hair growth occurs in three different phases.