53 Weird, Cool and Gross Hair Facts (my personal favourite … eyelash mites)

Women love hair don’t we? Love yours or hate yours hair is serious business. Billions of dollars are spent worldwide annually on hair products. There are even eyelash conditioners. Here are some interesting and some weird stuff about hair you might not know:

1. Your hair will not grow forever even if you never cut it again. Your hair probably wouldn’t grow longer than 3 feet, 5 feet if your hair grows faster than the average human head. watch styling hair: how to grow long hair
2. Except for a few people. In the Guinness Book of Records an Indian woman has hair that is over 13 feet long. Now, really. How does she not accidentally strangle herself with it?
3. Your arm hair only grows 1/2 inch to an inch because body hair growth phase only lasts a few months, whereas head hair growth phase lasts a few years.   Thank god. Ick. Watch human grwoth facts why does pubic hair stop growing?
4. When a man loses his hair or goes bald, it isn’t actually permanent, it’s dormant. If he lived long enough it would regrow. And that would put the hair club for men totally out of business. Watch Ailesbury hair facts
5. It’s not true that baldness is inherited from Mom. It comes from either side of the family.
6. The andogen responsible for male pattern baldness is DHT or dihydrotestosterone.
7. A bizarre doctor in the states decided that wearing a regular rug wasn’t good enough. He drilled four holes into his head (as if he needed them), and attached bolts so the hair piece could be snapped into the bolts.
8.  When you pluck a hair two do not grow back to replace it.  Old wives’ tale. (Why is it never an old husbands’ tale?)
9. Humans have the thinnest body hair of all primates. Our body hair began thinning eons ago because once we
11.  stood erect on two feet only 1/3 of our bodies were exposed to the sun at a time. 
12. Head hair remains plentiful since your head is fully exposed to the sun.
13. The growth phase for hair is the andogen phase.  The dormant phase is the telogen phase.
14. Next to bone marrow hair is the fastest growing tissue in the human body.
15. Everyone’s hair has the same structure: cortex, cuticle and medulla.
16. Except fine hair or naturally blonde hair which lacks a medulla.
17. African hair absorbs light and does not reflect it.
18. Caucasian and Asian hair reflect light since the cuticle lies flat. watch tips on hair styling: how to straighten your hair
19. Asian hair is very strong and holds moisture well.
20. You can sell your hair to make wigs but it takes about 2 years worth of growth. You need at least 6 inches of hair to sell it.  No colouring, bleaching or perming.  Cancer societies are always looking for free hair donations so consider giving yours away instead of selling it. watch hairstyling tips: how to grow long hair fast
21. Between 15 – 20% of your hair at a time is in the telogen stage.
22.  The greyish appearance of hair is an optical illusion produced by a mix of coloured hair with white hair.
23. The average Caucasian person starts turning grey at the age of 34, whereas the average for Asians and Africans is 47 years.
24. A lot of dandruff shampoos are damaging to hair. They don’t remove dandruff; they coat it with wax.
25. Hair has its place in history. Veronica Lake was a famous actress. To promote safe hairstyles in a war production plant, Veronica modelled rolled 40’s style hair for women. watch 1940s fashion – womens hairstyles during the war
26. Some wartime production plants offered hair salons for women workers to use after their shifts were over.
27. Women who tried to emulate Marilyn Monroe platinum blonde hair foolishly poured bleach onto their scalps.
28. Different decades claim memorable hairstyle trends: the 1920’s was the flapper bob, the 1940’s was the Veronica Lake look; the 1950’s boasts the Gilda Girl curl (made with pin curls); the 1960’s fad was the gamin cut sported by Twiggy; Farrah Fawcett ruled the 1970’s with her layered mane; punk rockers started their mohawk were fads in the late 70s into the mid-80s; the 1980’s look was curly and wild, a la Madonna; the 1990’s the Rachel cut rocked on Friends.
29. Rapunzel rocked children`s literature with her tower-length hair.
30. The ballet Gisele is the only ballet where a ballerina is permitted to wear her hair long and loose.
31. East Indian women typically wear their hair pulled back into braids or buns. Over time this can cause female pattern baldness.
32. Ancient Egyptians kept their hair coloured black with henna.
33. Noblemen and women in Ancient Egypt often cut their hair close to their head because of the heat, but they wore long black wigs during ceremonies.
34. In the biblical story Samson and Delilah, Samson`s strength is in his mane of hair. Delilah cuts it as he sleeps, Samson loses his strength and kills himself.
35. A typical 1970s sight used to be women running around doing errands with their hair in rollers covered by a scarf.
36. In Greek mythology Thor`s wife has her long golden hair shorn off while she sleeps. Thor finds a wizard who replaces it with some sort of magic.
37. Joan of Arc cut off her long hair when she went into battle so her soldiers would regard her as an equal.
38. Ancient Greek women used curling irons.
39. During the Renaissance women plucked the entire front hair away to give the appearance of a higher forehead.
40. This same procedure was done with Rita Hayworth to remove a `widow`s peak“.
41. Marilyn Monroe`s famous platinum bob was naturally brown with auburn highlights. It was straightened with a permanent.
42. British women in the 1500s copied Elizabeth I`s hairstyle: they donned red wigs and wore pure white face paint.
43. Elaborate white curly wigs were worn by men and women in the 1700s. It took hours to style and fix the hair.
44. The fine hair on the cheeks is called lanugo hair. All babies in utero are covered in lanugo.
45. the average lifespan of a hair is 4 – 7 years.
46. Trichtollimania is the impulse to pull out one`s own hair. Some people eat it. Ick.
47. Canities is the technical term for gray hair.
48. Split ends are called trichoptilosis.  Next time you go to the salon ask your stylist to colour your canities and to trim your trichoptilosis.
49. Dandruff is heredity and is caused by rapid scalp skin cell renewal (every 2 – 7 days instead of monthly).
50. Lice does not occur because of dirt or a lack of hygiene. Lice is spread by sharing combs and hats.
51. Tiny mites live in the base of your eyelashes. They come out when you sleep to eat the cells your eyelashes shed and other debris. They help eyelashes to grow by preventing hair follicles from clogging.
52. Eyelash hairs shed every 4 – 6 weeks. They perform the same type of function as whiskers on a cat: they warn that an object (such as an insect) is approaching.
53. It is possible to get eyelash transplants.
54. The eyebrows function is to prevent sweat and water from running into the eyes.
55. Hair and skin grow from the same type of tissue.