1) Each strand of hair can contain traces of 14 different elements (including gold) – look at you, Rumpelstiltskin!
2) Hair absorbs oil out of the water – working as a natural sponge!
3) Let’s follow up from Hair Fact #2 – Human hair is used by groups of eco-friendly volunteers to clean up oil spills.
4) The anticipation of sex makes hair grow faster.
5) The amount of weight an entire head of hair can support is equivalent to 2 elephants, or 2 TONS!
6) All of the hair follicles you’ll ever have were formed when you were a fetus (at 5 months).
7) Hair contains information about everything that has been in your bloodstream: medicine, drugs, minerals, vitamins
8) The only thing that CAN’T be identified by hair is gender.
9) Healthy hair can be stretched up to 30% of it’s length when wet. If hair does not stretch back to it’s original state, it’s lacking protein. If it snaps it is either over proteinized or lacking moisture.
10) The average human sheds about 50-150 strands of hair a day (unless you’re bald, duh).
11) The most common hair color in the world is Black, and the rarest is Red (1% of the population).
12) In 1950, only 5% of women dyed their hair. Now, that number has increased to 75%!
13) If you counted the growth of all the hairs on an average person’s head, in one year it would equate to over 10 miles of hair growth!
14) In a survey collected about the relationship between hair color and personality perception, these were the results:
Blonde: flirty, fun
Brown: smart, serious
Redheads: strong
15) Hair is the fastest growing tissue on the body – second only to bone marrow!
16) On average, Blondes have the highest amount of hair strands (146,000).
17) On average, Redheads have the lowest amount of hair stands (86,000).
18) On average, people have about 100,000 stands have hair on their head.
19) Hair cross-sections can be used to determine race and ethnicity:
Asian hair: round-shaped
European hair: oval-shaped
African-American: flat-shaped
20) The first hair products specially formulated for African-American hair were created by Madam CJ Walker. She was also the first African-American woman to become a millionaire.
21) Black hair is the most common hair color.
22) Scotland has highest proportion of redheads living in a country (13%), but the United States has the largest quantity of redheads living in a country!
23) A hair follicle will replace a new strand of hair about 20 times in a lifetime!
24) A single, healthy strand of hair can withstand about 6.5 pounds.
25) A strand of hair is stronger than a copper wire of equivalent diameter.
26) The only part of hair that is not dead is within the scalp.
27) The common thought that hair continues to grow after death is a MYTH!
28) The werewolf legend is believed to have originated from an abnormality called Hirsutism, which causes excess body hair or facial hair to grow in places it is not supposed to.
29) Hair is composed of the following elements: Carbon (50%), Oxygen (21%) Nitrogen (17%), Hydrogen (6%), Sulphur (5%)
30) Darker hair tends to have more carbon present than lighter hair.
31) Hair is one of the most common types of forensic evidence.
32) Hair can grow on the whole body except for the palms of hands, soles of feet, mucous membranes, eyelids, and lips.
33) In Ancient Rome, women used to dye the hair blonde with pigeon dung (ahem, thank you modern day chemistry)!
34) During the Renaissance Era in Venice, women used to dye their hair blonde with horse urine (again, thank goodness for modern day science).
25) In Ancient Greece, blonde hair was associated with prostitution.
26) During the Renaissance Era, it was fashionable for women to pluck their hairlines further back to expose more of their forehead.
27) The Ancient Greeks believed that redheads would turn into vampires after they died.
28) Ancient Egyptians were the first to remove unwanted body hair.
29) During the Victorian Era, jewelry and lockets were made from the hair of the deceased.
30) In 1705, Peter the Great instituted a ‘Beard Tax’ in Russia – this was meant to westernize Russian society.
31) Each hair strand has its own muscle, nerve, and blood supply.
32) We get goosebumps when we are cold or scared because each muscle for each hair strand contracts, causing the hair to rise.
33) The average lifespan of an eye lash is 150 days.
34) The word shampoo is derived from the Hindu-Urdu word, ‘champna’ meaning “to knead” or “to massage.”
35) A man will spend about 5 months of his life shaving.
36) If a man never shaved, his beard would grow to over 30 feet in his life time.
37) On average, women spend about 2 hours a week styling their hair.
39) It takes only 13 days for grey hair to appear from stress or signs of aging.
40) The longest female hair was measured at 18 feet and 5.5 inches. Xie Jiuping grew her hair for over 30 years!
41) Hair remains in the anagen phase (growing stage) from anywhere to 2-6 years.
42) The determining factor of the amount of time hair is spent in the anagen phase is genetics.
43) Approximately 90% of hair strands are in the anagen phase, the other 10% are in the catagen and telogen stages.
44) The anagen phase of body hair much shorter than the hair on the head, thus determining the length of the hair and rapidity of growth.
45) Chemotherapy causes the hair to fall out because it is intended to eliminate cells that replicate quickly. Since hair follicle cells grow and divide quickly, they are adversely affected.
46) Hair can grow back after chemotherapy, but often hair can grow a different color than normal for the first few months.
47) The scientific term for grey hair is “canities.”
48) On average, women’s hair is half the diameter of men’s hair
49) The scientific term for split ends is “Trichoptilosis.”
50) The harshness of ammonia causes the hair to rise to such an irreversible pH, that the cuticle will often have a hard time closing – causing fading and imminent damage.
