It is no secret that we love to obsess over our hair. It is indicative of our health at times and a status symbol at other times. Here are some interesting facts you didn’t know about your hair:
- People with blond hair have a greater amount of hair than people with red or dark hair.
- The word ‘shampoo’ comes from the Hindi word ‘champi’, meaning massage or kneading.
- Your hair act as thermal protection. Your head lacks the fat layer for thermal insulation.
- Every month, your hair grows about 1 cm. It also reveals a lot about your behavior and environmental factors during the month.
- African hair grows the slowest and is the most fragile (0.9 cm per month). Asian hair grows the fastest and has greater elasticity(1.3 cm per month). African and European people are also a lot more vulnerable to balding as compared to Asian people.
- For two-three months after giving birth, women experience major hair fall. This is because during pregnancy, there is a massive production of the hormone oestrogen which puts the follicles in their growth phase. On giving birth, follicles go into the loss phase due to restoration of hormonal balance. This leads to hair fall.
- Cutting your hair is not going to result in a faster growth rate.
- A single hair strand is capable of supporting a weight of up to 100 gram. If our scalp were strong enough, our hair would be able to support up to 12 tons, which is the weight of two African elephants!
- The hair is a very elastic substance. It can stretch up to 30% in length without any damage. This elasticity is higher in lighter colored hair.
- Hair is the second fastest growing tissue in the human body. The bone marrow is the fastest growing tissue.