Stem cells and melanocytes at the base of the hair bulb require significant blood flow, including oxygen delivery, to support active hair growth and pigmentation.

“Down at the bottom of that bulb, we have stem cells that actually give rise to the actual hair, and we have pigmented cells that pigment that hair. In addition, and this is very important, there are capillaries that go into that bulb region down at the bottom of the hair and that can serve and support the stem cells, the melanin producing cells, which are called melanocytes. So the melanin producing cells in the stem cells get a lot of blood flow that allows them to keep providing new hair or the proteins that make up hair and the pigment that goes into those hairs and those little capillaries deliver not just nutrients and things of that sort, but they also deliver oxygen because it turns out that the whole process of growing more hair is a very active process.”