These facts will help you understand why your hair is the way it is.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on August 7, 2020. It has since been updated.
Close your eyes for a minute and try to imagine yourself without your hair. Hair is that part of the body that accentuates your natural beauty. You must have come across numerous things talking about the types of hair and how to take care of it. But today, you're going to learn about the most interesting facts that will blow your hair - sorry! - mind away. So, without much ado, let's begin.
1. Hair is made of keratin, the same protein building block which is responsible for the formation of fur, horn, hooves, claws, feathers, and beaks of animals, according to Luxy Hair.
2. A healthy hair strand can stretch up to more than 30% of its original length when wet.
3. The heat helps stimulate circulation which helps in encouraging faster hair growth in a warmer environment.
4. The hair outside is dead and one inside the epidermis is the one we should be caring for. Which is why it's important to watch what you eat!
5. Red-colored hair is the rarest and found only in about 1% of the world population. 2% have blonde, and black is the most common hair color.
6. Each hair strand can support up to 100g of weight. That means if an average person had 100,000 to 150,000 strands of hair, the entire head can support the weight of two elephants!
7. The change in the shape of the hair is due to the change in its hydrogen bonds.
8. The water present in the air causes the change in hair texture, making it silky, frizzy, or puffy. Explains why we hate humidity.
9. It doesn't matter how frequently you cut your hair. You know what they say about trimming your hair every six months to make it grow more? That isn't necessarily true. But if you have split ends, hair growth will be compromised. So if you notice dry and damaged ends, it would be better to chop it off.
10. Our hair contains 50 percent carbon, 21 percent oxygen, 17 percent nitrogen, 6 percent hydrogen, and 5 percent sulfur, according to Style Caster.
11. Scientists can figure out what you ate, drank, the environment you lived in, etc., from your hair strand as it contains information on the contents of your bloodstream.
12. Once a hair is plucked from its follicle, another one begins to grow.
13. With the exceptions of palm, soles, eyelids, lips, and mucus membranes, hair can grow anywhere else on the entire human body. That is crazy!
14. The gender of a person cannot be identified by the hair since both have men and women have identical hair structure.
15. Apart from the bone marrow, hair is the fastest growing tissue in the human body.
16. The contraction of hair follicles is the reason for goosebumps from cold and fear. It makes the hair and the surrounding skin bunch up.
17. Trichoptilosis is the scientific term for split ends. Nah-uh, not going to try saying that.
18. Balding is visible only after the scalp loses over 50% of the hair.
19. A single hair can live up to five years.
20. 90% of the hair on your scalp is growing while the remaining 10% is resting, at any given time.
21. An average person has more than 100,000 hair on the head and about 4.9 million more in other places, according to Discover Magazine.
References:
https://www.luxyhair.com/blogs/hair-blog/10-fun-facts-you-may-not-know-about-hair
https://stylecaster.com/beauty/weird-hair-facts/
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/20-things-you-didnt-know-about-hair
