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101 Hair Facts

Posted by Pivotal Products LLC on Jun 19th 2020

101 Hair Facts

1. The average person has roughly between 100,000 and 150,000 strands of hair on their head.

2. A natural blonde usually has more hair strands on their head then dark or red-haired people. Two heads generally have 120,000 strands; brown/black-haired people have 100,000 strands, and redheads average about 80,000 strands.

3. Hair is the fastest growing tissue in the body. The only thing that grows faster is bone marrow.

4. A single hair strand has a thickness of .02 – .04 mm.

5. Everybody sheds between 40-150 strands of hair per day.

6. Crash dieting can cause a temporary loss of hair.

7. Hair is mostly made of keratin, which our outer layer of skin and fingernails are also made of.

8. In animals, horns, hooves, claws, feathers, beaks, quills (porcupines), and baleen (whales) are all also made of keratin.

9. On an average adult scalp, 25 meters of hair fiber is produced every day.

10. At any random time, 90% of the hair on a head is growing, while the other 10% is in a resting phase.

11. 40% of women have female pattern hair loss by the time they go through menopause.

12. 50% of men have male pattern baldness by the age of 50.

13. For it to be apparent that you are balding, you would have to lose 50% of your hair.

14. Most drugs cause a person to lose their hair.

15. Thyroid imbalance also causes hair loss.

16. Iron deficiency causes hair loss.

17. Humans are born with all of their hair follicles and there is no possible way to increase the number of follicles you have.

18. Hair turns grey as a result of the pigment cells in the follicle not working properly. The hair bulb slows melanin production as a result of age or stress.

19. Hair is produced in the hair shaft beneath the skin; therefore it takes 13 days to see grey/white hair after it is produced.

20. A single strand of hair can support up to 6.5 pounds of weight.

21. A whole head of hair could support up to 2 tons.

22. On average, hair grows .3 – .5 mm per day.

23. The length of the growing phase of hair shortens as you age.

24. When you are born, you have about 1000 hair follicles per square centimeter. This number drops as you age.

25. Each follicle grows a completely new hair about 20 times in a lifetime.

26. Hair structure is the same, no matter whose head it is on.

27. The outer layer of hair is called the cuticle, and its purpose is to protect the inside layers. In healthy hair, the cuticle lays flat. In damaged hair, they are more open.

28. The middle layer of hair is called the cortex, which is made of long proteins twisted together.

29. The innermost layer of hair is called the medulla. Fine hair usually does not have a medulla. The purpose of the medulla has not yet been determined.

30. Keratin is composed mostly of an amino acid called cysteine, which is what gives the hair its shape.

31. Blow-drying your hair works by changing hydrogen bonds to alter the shape. Water also changes hydrogen bonds; hence the reason women hate humidity.

32. The only part of the hair that is not dead is the hair that is inside your scalp.

33. African hair grows slower and is more fragile than European hair.

34. Asian hair grows the fastest and has the best elasticity.

35. African and African American hair structure is more elliptical as compared to European hair.

36. Women lose a lot of hair after giving birth. This is due to their hormones regulating back to normal.

37. Most shampoos are slightly acidic to restore the pH of damaged hair and smooth the cuticle.

38. Healthy hair, when wet, can stretch to 30% its original length.

39. It takes about 7 years to grow your hair to your waist, and 3 years to grow to your shoulders.

40. The only way to get rid of “split ends” is to cut them off. There is no way to completely repair them.

41. The major cause of dandruff is a fungus called Malassezia Globosa, which pushes dead skin cells to the surface quicker than normal.

42. The strength of your hair is equivalent to an iron wire. It rips after having a force equivalent to 132 lbs after stretching it 70%.

43. One sixteenth-century doctor claimed you could restore hair by applying a random concoction made of boiled slugs, olive oil, honey, saffron, soap, and cumin on the scalp.

44. Hair can absorb its weight in water.

45. “Trichotillomania” is the name of the disorder where you pull out your hair, eyelashes, and/or eyebrows compulsively. It is more common in women and usually stress related.

46. Africans, African Americans and Europeans are more prone to balding than Asians.

47. Asian hair is almost always straight and black/dark brown.

48. If you pluck one hair, a new one will start growing from the papilla in the follicle.

49. Different textures of hair have different cross-section shapes under a microscope. Straight hair is usually round, curly hair is usually oval and coarse hair is elliptical.

50. The first liquid shampoo on the market was called “Dop” and came out in 1952.

51. 90% of right-handed people grow cowlicks in a clockwise direction.

52. Hair is stronger than a copper wire of the same diameter.

53. The size of a hair follicle determines the thickness and length of hair.

54. The hair follicle contains its own muscle, nerve and blood supply.

55. Hair grows the fastest during the summer, sleep, or between the ages of 16 to 24.

56. Dark hair contains higher levels of carbon than light hair.

57. 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.

58. The growing stage of hair lasts between 3-5 years on average.

59. Scientists can tell what you ate or drank, or the environment you live in, by examining a small piece of your hair.

60. Hair is composed of 50.65% carbon, 20.85% oxygen, 17.14% nitrogen, 6.36% hydrogen, and 5.0% sulfur. Hair also contains trace amounts of magnesium, arsenic, iron, chromium and other metals and minerals.

61. Every inch of the human body is covered in hair besides the palms, soles of the feet, and lips.

62. The average lifespan of a strand of hair is 4-7 years.

63. The natural part is caused by a condition called a hair stream. It refers to the effect that is created when hair follicles slope in the same direction. When two hair streams slope in opposite directions, a natural part occurs.

64. The average man spends 5 months of his life shaving

65. Facial hair grows faster than any other type of body hair.

66. The scientific term for grey hair is “canities.”

67. The first hair dye was invented in 1907 by French chemist Eugene Schueller and it was called “Aureole.”

68. If a man never shaved his beard, it would grow to over 30 feet in a lifetime.

69. Many store-bought hair colors contain random metallic salts. These salts accumulate on the hair shaft and can cause breakage or severe discoloration if colored or permed by a professional hairstylist.

70. The first men’s hair product was called “Brylcreem”, was produced in 1928, and was made of mineral oil, beeswax, and water.

71. On average, women’s hair is half the diameter of men’s hair.

72. The process of removing unwanted body hair dates back to the ancient Egyptians.

73. Traction Alopecia, is the term used when pulling the hairs at the hairline to tight.

74. Relaxer is use to make curly hair straight and a Perm is use to make straight hair curly.

75. The scientific term for split ends is “Trichoptilosis.”

76. Madam CJ Walker invented the first African-American hair products and became the first African-American woman to become a millionaire.

77. Body hair is generally shorter because the growing phase is a lot shorter than that of hair on the scalp.

78. The earliest form of chemical hair removal dates back to the ancient Turks, who used a concoction known as “rusma”. Rusma is a combination of yellow sulfide of arsenic, quicklime, and rose-water.

79. The growing stage of hair is called “anagen,” and the resting phase is called “catagen.” When hair goes into the “telogen” phase, it will shed.

80. Human hair and fingernails continue to grow in death.

81. Scientists have discovered that people with a higher IQ, have more zinc and copper in their hair.

82. Marcel Grateau invented the curling iron in 1875 France.

83. The purpose of hair is to act as a thermal protection, due to our head lacking the thermal insulation fat layers.

84. Every hair follicle is completely independent of neighboring follicles.

85. Less than 4% of the world’s population has naturally red hair.

86. Research shows that hair becomes drier with age.

87. European hair produce more natural oil from the scalp than Africans and African Americans.

88. Gender is the one thing that scientists cannot identify by a strand of hair.

89. Almost all hair extensions come from people of the Chinese and Indian heritage.

90. Natural hair dries faster than Relaxed hair.

91. Men tend to grow hair faster than women.

92. Stress can make dandruff worse.

93. The first hair relaxer was invented by Garret Augustus Morgan, Sr., who was born in 1877 in Paris, Kentucky.

94. The average American woman spends between 10-23 thousand dollars in a lifetime on unwanted hair removal.

95. The color of hair depends on how much melanin each strand has. Furthermore, there are two types of melanin: eumelanin and pheomelanin.

96. Cutting hair does not influence how fast or slow it will grow, which a lot of people seem to believe.

97. For whatever reason, studies show that men without hair on their chests are more likely to get cirrhosis of the liver than men with hair.

98. The human body has approximately 5 million hair follicles which is the same as that of other great apes.

99. Alopecia is the medical term for hair loss.

100. In 2004, the longest hair ever documented was measured. It belonged to Xie Qiuping from China and measured 18.5 feet long -taking a whopping 31 years to grow.

101. The word “shampoo” comes from the Hindi word “champna” which means “to knead”.