Interesting hair facts

A collection of some interesting, quirky bits of hair trivia. Enjoy!

• Hair is dead protein once it has appeared from your scalp.
• Hair is a reflection on the overall condition of your body. A healthy strand of hair should stretch by about 30% before it breaks.
• Each hair on your body comes equipped with a tiny muscle that can make it stand upright.
• The average number of hairs on the head is 100,000.
• Hair is the fastest growing tissue in the body, second only to bone marrow.
• Asian hair grows the fastest, has the greatest elasticity and, and is least prone to balding.
• Hair is present all over the body-except palms, soles and some parts of genitals.
• Average rate of hair-growth is 0.37 mm/day.
• The average uncut scalp hair length is about 25 to 100 cms. Though in exceptional cases it may be as long as 170 cm.
• Hair grows faster in warm weather.
• Female hair grows more slowly than male hair.
• Male hair is denser than female hair.
• 90% of scalp hairs are growing and 10% are resting.
• It is normal to lose 100 hairs per day from the scalp.
• Elderly people have slower hair growth and diminished hair density. Over 50% of men by age 50 have male pattern hair loss. And over 40% of women by the time they reach menopause will have female pattern hair loss.
• In ancient Egypt, the priests plucked every single hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.
• Humans have about the same number of hair follicles as a chimpanzee has.
• Trichotillomania (TTM), is a problem characterized by the repeated urge to pull out hair fibers mainly from the scalp, though the focus can also be on pulling eyebrows, eyelashes, beard, nose, pubic or other body hair. It is a condition in which the affected individual plucks or pulls out their own hair resulting in bald patches. The general causes of Trichotillomania may be anxiety disorders or mood problems.
• Traction alopecia is also a hair-pulling disorder. But here the cause may involve things like tight hat bands or tight braids. If bands are used to tie tight pony tails, or cornrow hair styles are used then the roots of the hair are pulled on (traction). And when the traction continues for a long time and the same hair is repeatedly stressed, then the hair sheds off and the follicles in the skin can become damaged. The hair may eventually stop growing leading to permanent scarring alopecia. Traction alopecia is a substantial risk in hair weaves, which are usually worn either to conceal hair loss, or purely for cosmetic purposes.
• Uncombable Hair Syndrome (UHS) is a rare disease in which the hair grows in silvery-blond or straw-colored, stands out straight from the scalp and is impossible to comb. Affected hair is dry, curly, brittle, and progressively uncombable, eventually taking on a “spangled” or shimmery appearance, most likely due to the reflection of light off the irregular surface of the shaft and only scalp hair is affected. It is normally seen in early infancy and childhood and is most likely to disappear as a person grows up.