Our hair is one of the most expressive parts of our bodies because we are able to style and color it, giving us different looks and showing our personality. But if you think you know a lot about hair, think again. Because there’s more about our hair than just styling it. If you want to know more, here are some of the interesting facts about hair that will surprise you.
Fact #1: Hair is everywhere
Hair can actually grow everywhere in your body except for four specific places which are the on the palms of your hands, soles of your feet, and on your lips and mucous membranes. Unless stated otherwise, you can actually grow some hair in there.
Fact #2: Is it hair loss?
Many people are worried about too much hair falling out and they think that they might be experiencing hair loss problems. However, shedding a hundred fifty or less hair strands in a day is actually within the normal range. It’s because when a hair falls out, it will usually re-grow back. Each strand of our hair can do this up to 20 times in a lifetime.
Fact #3: Black is universal
Black is the universal hair color. Although blondes are famous in the movies, the entire population in the world is mostly filled with people with black hair. Only 2% of the world has blonde hair while the rarest of all, redheads only make up about 1%.
Fact #4: Cutting hair does not mean faster growth
Some people believe that cutting their hair promotes faster hair growth, therefore, they tend to cut their hair often but that is not actually true. Cutting the hair only removes the split ends that can cause your hair to become weak.
Fact #5: Hair sponge!
You will be surprised to know that your hair can be used as a sponge. How’s that possible? Well, it’s because our hair can absorb oil straight out of water. This is the reason why when there are oil spills on large bodies of water, authorities will ask for hair donations from salons because these will help them mop up the oil spills.
Fact #6: Hair is like a chemistry project
Your hair is like a chemistry project because it is composed of different elements such as, 5 percent sulfur, 6 percent hydrogen, 17 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, and 50 percent carbon.
Fact #7: Let’s get scientific
In the scientific community, grey hairs are known as canities. On the other hand, split ends are called trichoptilosis. You decide whether you want to use these scientific names now that you know them or just stick with the classic common names.
Fact #8: High speed growth
You may not be aware of it but next to your bone marrow, hair is one of the tissues in your body that has really high-speed growth. This means that it grows very fast with an average growth of 15 centimeters or 6 inches in a year.
Fact #9: Elastic hair
Our hair is actually very elastic. In fact, it can expand around thirty percent of its real length when it gets wet.
Fact #10: Hair contains important information
Did you know that our hair contains important information that can be used as forensic evidence in trials? Through our hair, even just from a tiny strand, scientist can tell what we eat or drink, and as well as what kind of environment we live in.
Fact #11: All the hair we see is dead
This might be surprising but it’s true. It’s because the only hair that is not dead is the hair that is still inside the epidermis of our scalps.
Fact #12: 100,000 hairs
That is the number of hair strands on an average human head. Each of these hairs has a lifespan of about 5 years and can re-grow up to 20 times in a person’s lifetime, with an average hair loss of 100 strands a day.
There are indeed a lot to learn about our hair more than its style, color, and texture. With these facts, we can say that the human hair is indeed amazing. Therefore, we should see to it that we give our hair the care they deserve by using safe products and by eating healthy as well.
