Selamat Hari Raya

Everyone at ekaeke would like to take this opportunity to wish all our wonderful Muslim friends and all other Muslims in the world a Selamat Hari Raya AdilFitri. May all of you have great joy, love, hope and health always. And Peace on Earth.

Henna, Indigo And Amla

Let nature take care of your hair!

HENNA, INDIGO AND AMLA

Lawsonia Inermis
(Henna)

Henna, otherwise known as Lawsonia Inermis, comes from a plant of the privet family, and has been known for 5,000 years for its superb hair conditioning and colouring properties. No other substance, whether natural or synthetic, will strengthen the hair and give it shine as effectively as HENNA. Henna contains "lawsonia". This substance provides the well-known conditioning and colouring properties associated with Henna Powders.

Henna Powder colours the hair in two ways; by penetration and by staining. Henna molecules have a chemical affinity with keratin (hair) molecules, and thus the pigment can pass freely into the hair. The penetration of lawsonia imparts colour and condition into the hair. It closes and strengthens the outer cuticle of the hair, thus giving the superb shine and conditioning effect, which is the unique feature of Henna.

People have used Henna, Indigo, and Cassia Obovata, to dye and condition their hair for thousands of years. These are all safe, natural, and make your hair beautiful and healthy. If you don't want to use dangerous para-phenylenediamine and formaldehyde products that are in commercial hair dyes and conditioners, use Henna, Indigo and Cassia Obovata to dye your hair.

Use Henna to dye your hair red or auburn beautifully, safely, naturally

Use Indigo to dye your hair black, beautifully, safely, naturally

Use Cassia Obovata to condition your hair, beautifully, safely, naturally

Do you want Cassia Obovata to condition your hair? Get it done at ekaeke!

Do you want Henna to give safe colour to your hair? Get it done at ekaeke!

Do you want to Indigo to give your hair a nature black colour or rid of gray hair? Get it done at ekaeke!

Emblica Officinalis
(Amla)

If you have a box of brown powder marked "Amla" (also called "Amalaki" and "Indian Gooseberry"), you have a box of the powdered dried fruit (perhaps with some twigs, leaves and bark mixed in) of the Emblica Officinalis tree.

Medicinal properties -

The medicinal properties of Amla have been widely mentioned by many experts. The fruits are diuretic and laxative. They are useful in the disorders associated with the digestive system and are also prescribed in the treatment of jaundice and coughs.

Amla is one of the three ingredients of the famous ayurvedic preparation, triphala, which is given to treat chronic dysentery, bilousness and other disorders. The plant is considered to be an effective antiseptic for cleaning wounds and it is also one of the many plant palliatives for snakebite and scorpion-stinging.

The leaves of Amla are used as mouth-wash and as a lotion for sore eyes. An ointment is made from the burnt seeds, and the oil obtained is applied to cure skin infections.

Amla powder is tan and has an acidic astringent smell like a combination of raw cranberries and oak tree bark. If you make a simple paste from the powder, it does not stain the hands but adds a cool brown tone to the hair colour. Emblica Officinalis is one of the Myrobalan species, all of which are used in tanning and natural colouring.

The paste is an excellent conditioner which makes hair glossy and silky, enhances waves and curl, and leaves a clean, healthy scalp. When you scrub your face with the paste, your skin feels firm and tight.

Use for Hair:

Mix Amla powder with Indigo powder when dyeing hair black with Indigo to add gloss and curl to Indigo dyed hair.

A Suggestion - Use for Skin:

Mix Amla powder with hot water to make a paste that is about the consistency of yogurt. Let that sit for fifteen minutes. Use the paste as an exfoliating, astringent scrub for your face.

Indigofera Tinctoria
(Indigo)

Indigo is the color on the spectrum between about 450 and 420 nm in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet. Color scientists do not usually recognize indigo as a significant color category, and generally classify wavelengths shorter than about 450 nm as violet.

Indigo and violet are different from purple, which cannot be seen on the electromagnetic spectrum but can be achieved by mixing blue light with red light.

Where does Indigo Comes From?

Regardless of its origin, all indigo has the same chemical structure. The majority of natural indigo is obtained from plants in the genus Indigofera. These plants, native to the tropics, yield more natural dye than other indigo bearing species. Indigofera is a large genus including over 350 species mostly found in tropical and subtropical countries, not all of which bear Indigo. The primary commercial Indigo species is Indigofera tinctoria, native to India and Asia. In Central and South America the two species Indigofera suffructicosa and Indigofera arrecta are the most important native dye bearing plants of the genus.

go back to www.ekaeke.com

Hair Follicles

A hair follicle is part of the skin that grows hair by packing old cells together. Attached to the follicle is a sebaceous gland, a tiny sebum-producing gland found everywhere except on the palms, lips and soles of the feet. The thicker density of hair, the more sebaceous glands are found.

Also attached to the follicle is a tiny bundle of muscle fiber called the arrector pili that is responsible for causing the follicle and hair to become more perpendicular to the surface of the skin, and causing the follicle to protrude slightly above the surrounding skin. This process results in goose bumps (or goose flesh). Stem cells are located at the junction of the arrector and the follicle, and are principally responsible for the ongoing hair production during a process known as the Anagen stage.

The average growth rate of hair follicles on the scalp is .04 cm per day.

Certain species of Demodex mites live in the hair follicles of mammals (including those of humans) where they feed on sebum.

Contents 1 Structure 1.1 Papilla 1.2 Matrix 1.3 Root Sheath 1.4 Hair Fiber 1.5 Other Structures 2 Hair growth phases 2.1 Hair growth cycle times 3 Extraction 4 Additional image

Structure

Papilla

At the base of the follicle is a large structure that is called the papilla. The papilla is made up mainly of connective tissue and a capillary loop. Cell division in the papilla is either rare or non-existent.

Matrix

Around the papilla is the hair matrix, a collection of epithelial cells often interspersed with the pigment producing cells, melanocytes. Cell division in the hair matrix is responsible for the cells that will form the major structures of the hair fiber and the inner root sheath. The hair matrix epithelium is one of the fastest growing cell populations in the human body, which is why some forms of chemotherapy that kill dividing cells or radiotherapy may lead to temporary hair loss, by their action on this rapidly dividing cell population. The papilla is usually ovoid or pear shaped with the matrix wrapped completely around it except for a short stalk-like connection to the surrounding connective tissue that provides access for the capillary.

Root Sheath

The root sheath is composed of an external root sheath (Henle's layer), a middle layer (Huxley's layer), and an internal cuticle that is continuous with the outermost layer of the hair fiber.

Hair Fiber

The hair fiber is composed of a cuticle that is continuous with the root sheath, an intermediate cortex, and an inner medulla.

Other Structures

Other structures associated with the hair follicle include arrector pili muscles, sebaceous glands and apocrine sweat glands.

Hair growth phases

Hair grows in cycles of various phases: anagen is the growth phase; catagen is the involuting or regressing phase; and telogen, the resting or quiescent phase. Each phase has several morphologically and histologically distinguishable sub-phases. Prior to the start of cycling is a phase of follicular morphogenesis (formation of the follicle). There is also a shedding phase, or exogen, that is independent of anagen and telogen in which one of several hairs that might arise from a single follicle exits. Normally up to 90% of the hair follicles are in anagen phase while, 10–14% are in telogen and 1–2% in catagen. The cycle's length varies on different parts of the body. For eyebrows, the cycle is completed in around 4 months, while it takes the scalp 3–4 years to finish; this is the reason eyebrow hairs have a fixed length, while hairs on the head seem to have no length limit. Growth cycles are controlled by a chemical signal like epidermal growth factor.

Hair growth cycle times

• Scalp: The time these phases last varies from person to person. Different hair colour and follicle shape affects the timings of these phases.
  • anagen phase, 2–3 years (occasionally much longer)
  • catagen phase, 2–3 weeks
  • telogen phase, around 3 months

• Eyebrows etc:
  • anagen phase, 4–7 months
  • catagen phase, 3–4 weeks
  • telogen phase, about 9 months

Extraction

Hair follicles are extracted from a donor patch of a patient’s head during a hair restoration procedure.

Additional images

Cross-section of all skin layers.

Baldness Treatments

It is easier to prevent the apparent 'aging' and falling out of healthy hairs than to regrow hair in follicles that are already dormant. There are products that have good success rates with regrowth. Preventive treatment, in three double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized studies, 72% of the balding men on placebo had lost hair compared to baseline by 24 months.

The prospective treatment of hair multiplication/hair cloning, which extracts self-replenishing follicle stem cells, multiplies them many times over in the lab, and microinjects them into the scalp, has been shown to work in mice, and is currently under development, expected by some scientists to be available to the public in 2009-2015. Subsequent versions of the treatment are expected by some scientists to be able to cause these follicle stem cells to simply signal the surrounding hair follicles to rejuvenate.

Interestingly, placebo treatments in studies often have reasonable success rates.

While treating hair loss most successfully is a multi-faceted, ongoing experiment for the individual, there are three principles, sometimes called "The Three P's" that are considered important to help produce success and avoid the somewhat common mistakes that can sabotage treatments. The Three P's are: proven treatments first, take pictures, and be patient. The average hair loss treatment takes a minimum of 6 months to begin working, and sometimes up to 24 months to truly see optimal results. Treating hair loss takes time because of hair cycles. The process of hair loss is the process of "miniaturization," which takes many years. Hairs grow in, cycle into dormancy, and then grow in again several months later. Each time they re-emerge, they do so thinner, shorter, and less pigmented. In time, they become so small that they are no longer noticeable. This can take many years. New hairs only grow in a 2 or 3 year cycle, which is why it can take a year or more to be able to detect the success of a treatment.

This difficulty can be increased because it is speculated that many proven treatments often cause initial periods of shedding, as some resting hair follicles are ejected and a new cycle of growth begins, hopefully with a thicker follicle. Discontinuing all treatment will cause a period of shedding, likely to one's non-treatment baseline, but probably not worse.