A root hair, or absorbent hair, the rhizoid of a vascular plant, is a tubular outgrowth of a trichoblast, a hair-forming cell on the epidermis of a plant root. As they are lateral extensions of a single cell and only rarely branched, they are invisible to the naked eye. They are found only in the region of maturation of the root. Just prior to the root hair cell development, there is a point of elevated phosphorylase activity.

The root of the hair ends in an enlargement, the hair bulb, which is whiter in color and softer in texture than the shaft, and is lodged in a follicular involution of the epidermis called the hair follicle. Bulb of hair layers consist of fibrous connective tissue, glassy membrane, external root sheath, internal root sheath composed of epithelium stratum (Henle's layer) and granular stratum (Huxley's layer), cuticle, cortex and medulla of hair.