Find out everything you’ve ever wanted to know about hair (and more) with our amazing hair facts selection.
Interesting Facts about Your Hair
1. Your hair, skin and eye color are determined by genes. Hair color is determined by the interaction of two forms of pigment, eumelanin and pheomelanin pigments, produced by melanocyte cells. As the melanocytes decay with age, your hair starts turning grey and later on takes on a white shade.
2. Dark hair contains higher levels of carbon than light or blonde hair.
3. Fun facts about hair growth: Hair is the second fastest growing tissue in the human body, after bone marrow. Studies show that male hair grows faster than female hair.
4. Contrary to popular belief, cutting your hair does not affect the rate of hair growth, nor its texture.
5. A hair strand’s average lifespan is 5 ½ years.
6. Your whole head of hair could support the equivalent of two African elephants. Pound per pound, it’s as strong as aluminium or Kevlar.
7. Amazing facts about human hair: Based on a single hair, scientists can determine a lot of things about you, including your diet in the last month and the environment or region you lived in. It can be used for forensic drug testing, so it can provide substantial information in an investigation. However, gender is one piece of information that cannot be revealed by your hair strand.
8. Fun facts about graying/falling hair and race: The average age at which Caucasians start turning grey is 34, whereas, for Africans and Asians, the average is 47. According to statistics, Asian people are less prone to balding than African and Caucasian people.
9. Contrary to popular belief, combing is healthier than brushing your hair.
10. For strong and healthy hair, your diet should include eggs, salmon, carrots, green vegetables, and Vitamins C and D.
11. Many dandruff shampoos actually damage your hair. Rather than remove dandruff; they coat it with wax.
Interesting Facts about Hair throughout History
1. Women in ancient Rome used an early version of modern-day curling irons. Wigs and elaborate hairstyles were a mark of social status.
2. Coconut and almond oil, honey and ghee (purified butter) were used as hair treatments in India as early as the 7th century, as was henna.
3. Fun facts about hair dye history: Ancient Egyptians dyed their hair black with henna, Romans bleached their hair with hydrogen peroxide, while medieval beauties would turn to natural concoctions and spells.
4. During the Renaissance women used to pluck the entire front hair away to make their forehead look wider.
5. Fun facts about hair hygiene (well, we say “fun”): Before the 19th century, European women washed their hair much more seldom than we do now (think less than once a month). They would only let their hair down in the evening and brush it to remove old oils.
6. When they did wash their hair, they used a lye-based soap, which would have been too harsh on their hair if used too often.
Interesting Facts about Red Hair
1. Fun facts about red hair: Red hair is a genetic mutation. It is a recessive trait and it may re-emerge after several generations.
2. Only 4% of the world population have red hair. The highest percentage of natural gingerheads in the world is in Scotland (13%), followed closely by Ireland with 10%.
3. In the Middle Ages, red hair was believed to be a distinguishing mark of witches, as were freckles, moles, warts and birthmarks. Around 45,000 women suspected of witchcraft were tortured and burned at the stake or drowned.
4. In Elizabethan England, many women would try to mimic Queen Elizabeth’s natural red hair, dyeing their hair with spices and flower extracts or donning wigs of curly red hair.
5. In the early 1600s, the folk belief in pixies (or fairies) emerged in southwest England. They were usually pictured as having red hair, as a mark of their mischievous nature.
See also:Thinning Hair Facts
Photos: Thinkstock
