So once again, curious about my KP, I used a tweezer to pluck out hairs that were growing out of red spots on my skin and observed them under a light microscope in the lab that I work in. What I noticed from various hairs from various regions of my body was that there was more than one hair from each follicle. From the skin surface, the multiple hairs are not visible. Only when I pluck out the hair, am I able to see a chunk of debris attached to part of the hair which was below or right at the surface of the skin. So what I saw was one main hair shaft, which was probably rooted down at the bulb, and the debris containing many shorter hairs surrounding the main hair, bundled (glued) together by, what I assume are, dead epidermal cells. I wish I could post a photo but I don't know how to attach a camera to the eyepiece of the microscope. But I found this (pdf file) online, which is similar to what I saw.

In regions without kp (such as the back of my hand), the same phenomenon was not observed. I did a little bit of research and the name of the disorder is "pili multigemini", and it's considered to be rare. I'm just wondering, maybe it's not so rare as much as they claim. Because kp is a follicular disorder and the inflammation associated with it could very well be caused by mechanical strain resulting from the aggregation of these accessory hairs and the eventual clogging of the follicular space.

*Note: the kp I have is predominantly red, characterized by erythema and not all that bumpy.

If any of you have access to tweezers and a microscope, you might want to try this out for yourselves. Again, it may look like just one hair, until you observe it under the microscope.

I learned about Trichostasis Spinulosa, because my dermatologist felt I had it on my nose, however I can not see any hairs in the follicles, only blockage that is probably a commen blackhead. The pores on my nose get filled up with **** that can be squeezed out. Last I knew, hair can't be gently squeezed out, so yeah so much for dermatologists knowing everything I guess. I'm hoping to have him take a sample of what's blocking my nose pores to once and for all prove whether I have TS or not.

Anyways, with the research I've done on it, not many people know too much about TS. I'm actually wondering if the skin/keratin plugs hold the hairs that normally fall off when the hair's life cycle ends trapped in the pore. I'm wondering if multiple hairs can be made by a hair follicle, or these are just all the hairs that SHOULD fall out, stuck in the pore? Is this possible? I don't know but maybe someone can lend some insight into this. All I know is I can squeeze out what's blocking the pores on my nose, even though it irritates the hell out of my skin, so I doubt I have TS.

I'm sure I've noticed this before on myself. I think when I've picked at a plug sometimes more then one hair has been there, and it's usually very fine so you can't see it easily.... I'm going to investigate tonight! I don't think it's the case on every plug or red spot, but I'm sure I've seen this before.
I wonder though whether it has something to do with the hair's life cycle? Like one of the hairs is acutall dead/redundant but hasn't been able to escape the skin and the second hair has begun it's growth... what do you think?