What is hair for?

Hair - has several functions. First it keeps us warm. This is no longer as important as it was in the days of our Stone Age ancestors who were worse off for clothes and heating but a good deal hairier. There are in fact few areas of the body the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet which are not covered with fine hair.
 A second function of hair is to protect delicate parts. Eyelashes for instance prevent dust entering the sensitive eye.
 In the case of animals hair can act as camouflage. By matching the background an animal's coat helps it to avoid enemies. The northern hare even grows a white coat in winter as camouflage in the snow.
 The hair of both animals and human beings also serves to attract mates. People wear wigs and go to hairdressers to make themselves attractive to others.
 But unlike many animals we have no special sensory hairs helping us to feel our way around. A cat's whiskers are as sensitive as radio aerials. Being wider than the widest part of its body they also help it tell wheather it can get through a narrow space even when it is dark.

Why does hair grow when a person dies?

Hair - goes on growing after a person dies because the cells of the body go on working until they have exhausted their fuel supply. Human cells have been described as power plants, chemical laboratories, furnaces and factories. they are marvellous structures, which carry out the functions for which they have been designed with great efficiency. The hair follicle is composed of two layers an outer layer of cells forming the outer root sheath and an inner horny layer of horny, fibrous oblong cells. The hair grows upwards from the bottom of the follicle by multiplication of the soft cells, which become elongated and pigmented to form elongated and pigmented to form the fibre like substance of the hair shaft . The soft cells at the base of the follicle need the nourishment brought to them and all the other cells of the body by the blood stream.