Hair fiber shapes as an outcome of a bending and twisting growth dialectic.

What is it about?

Asymmetric growth of hair fibers results in either bent of twisted fibers. Hair fibers' cross sections generally resemble D-like shapes and unequal linear extension along the major or minor axes of such shapes likely produce bent or twisted fibers, respectively. These two types of hair growth disturbances are in the article speculatively attributed to growth affects via the epithelial or mesenchymal cell compartments of the follicle, respectively. In this way the growth of hair fibers can be considered as a natural dialectic where the balance of hair growth contributions manifests as curvature effects. The paper reviews some likely biochemical and genetic pathways that could explain hair curvature types and provides several suggestions for their further elucidation and/or presumptive underlying causes.

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Why is it important?

Dialectics has been called "speculative-philosophy" because it confines a subject matter within well defined bounds wherein only one of usually two alternatives can occur. Speculation thus obtains a role in suggesting modes by which the alternatives may come to be, and/or antecedent pathways by which they will do so. On the one hand there is little danger in such speculations of drifting into impossible theories, and on the other hand the a-priori validity of some hypotheses may be posited. Thus conflicting hypotheses are not only acceptable, but also sought to clarify dialectic alternatives. In science, particularly, speculations regarding natural phenomena can also be empirically tested, so experiments may become aids to speculation by confirming hypotheses.

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