7 Bizarre Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Your Hair
How much do you think about your hair? Really think about it, on a deeper level than “I should probably invest in a new hairbrush” and “God, I could do with a shower”? Probably not a lot – we’ve got more pressing things to think about, after all.
Still, there are some pretty bizarre and interesting facts about hair that are worth knowing just to impress your friends with. Here are some of the best we managed to find on the internet:
1. Hair is made up of a type of protein called keratin. This in itself is fairly expected – but did you know that keratin also makes up our fingernails, as well as animals’ hooves, beaks, claws and feathers?
Keratin can also be found in smaller quantities in our skin. It’s needed as a sort of protective shield, but the reason why it’s so different in different forms (we hardly have shell-like hair, after all) is because the strands can be arranged in different ways, bundled together and coiled up, giving them different strengths for different purposes. The amount of keratin protein used in skin cells, in hair and nails also differs, so they end up looking different too.
2. Hair tends to grow at a slightly faster rate in the warmer summer months. This is because heat can encourage blood flow to follicles in the scalp, and it can cause cuticle scales to open, stimulating circulation and encouraging hair growth.
Remember, though, that this doesn’t refer to excessive heat, like the super-heat of a straightening or hair drying tool. In general, too much heat can lead to brittle, damaged hair and split ends.
3. Ever noticed how your hair becomes stretchy when it’s wet? There’s actual science behind this: hair is thought to be able to extend 30 percent of its original length when it’s doused in water. That’s why you’re not recommended that you brush your hair straight after washing it, as it’s in a more fragile state and may easily break.
Equally, some people might notice that their hair seems stretchy all the time. This is most commonly a sign of a lack of protein in the hair, which weakens the hair, even if it naturally holds enough moisture not to break.
4. All hair that comes out of your head is dead. This is confusing to some people, but it makes sense when you think about it. That’s why your hair can’t change state or colour without an external factor playing a role.
The only "living" portion of the hair is found in the follicle. The hair that is visible is the hair shaft produces no biochemical activity and is considered "dead". Every hair on your body, for that matter, contains dead cells.
5. Men’s and women’s hair are identical in structure, so if police found a hair at a crime scene, they wouldn’t be able to use it to deduce the gender of a perpetrator. However, hair does remain trace elements, mainly through sweat glands, that might give away some information about a person’s gender.
Scientists have found that men have more active and larger sweat glands than women, which can lead to large concentrations of certain easily excreted elements. Using this theory, police could guess at a person’s gender if they had the right sample of hair to do so.
6. Black is the most common hair colour, followed by dark brown. It’s estimated that around 75 to 84 percent of the world's population has naturally black or dark-brown hair. This is because these people have a specific genetic makeup that gives their hair a darker colour. They have an abundance of one type of melanin, called eumelanin, which is associated with black and brown hair.
On the other hand, the least popular hair colour is red, with only 1 percent of the entire population having red hair. Second least-common is blonde, with around 2 percent of the population having this hair colour naturally.
7. If you’ve ever fretted over how many hairs you lose on a daily basis when you brush, there’s no need to panic. As soon as a hair is plucked from its follicle, another one immediately begins to grow.
Obviously, this situation differs if your hair is falling out due to balding. In baldness, hair may not grow at a faster rate, or it may not grow at all. This usually affects one area of the head, but can move around to the whole head over time.