Individual human hairs grow from a small opening in the skin called a follicle. Follicles are found everywhere on the skin except for the palms of your hands and soles of your feet. Hair follicles contain sebaceous glands, which produce the natural oil found on hair. As this oil makes its way to the surface of the skin, it mixes with other elements from the skin and environment.
Sebum
The highest concentration of sebaceous glands is found on the face and scalp, according to "Textbook of Aging Skin." These glands excrete a waxy, oily mixture called sebum. Sebum is a mixture of fatty acids, wax esters, electrolytes and squalene. Sebum moves from the sebaceous gland into the hair follicle, where the oil provides protection to your hair, giving it a glossy look.
Sweat
Sweat glands open into skin pores from where the sweat reaches the surface of your skin. According to "Anatomy and Physiology," sweat is 99 percent water. The other 1 percent contains electrolytes, mainly sodium chloride, proteins, amino acids, glucose, urea and a natural antibiotic called dermcidin. In the article "Dermcidin: A Novel Human Antibiotic Peptide Secreted by Sweat Glands" -- published in 2001 in "Nature Immunology" -- dermcidin was found to be effective against the bacterias Escherichia coli, Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus aureus, as well as the yeast Candida albicans.
Debris
Sebum carries dead skin cells out of the hair follicle and onto the surface of your skin. Cholesterol is present in trace amounts in sebum because it's part of the structure of these dead skin cells. On the surface of the skin, sebum and sweat mix to form an oily coating that protects the hair and skin from dehydration. This oil mixture attracts and mixes with dust and dirt found in the environment. Hair oil also contains traces of the hair care products you use, such as hairspray and gel.
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