Here are a few weird facts you may or may not have known about our hair:

  1. Each strand of hair can contain traces of 14 different elements (including gold).
  2. Hair absorbs oil out of the water, working as a natural sponge!
  3. Human hair is used by groups of eco-friendly volunteers to clean up oil spills.
  4. The anticipation of sex makes hair grow faster.
  5. The amount of weight an entire head of hair can support is equivalent to 2 elephants, or 2 TONS!
  6. All of the hair follicles you’ll ever have were formed when you were a fetus (at 5 months).
  7. Hair contains information about everything that has been in your bloodstream, such as medicine, drugs, minerals, and vitamins.
  8. The only thing that CAN’T be identified by hair is gender.
  9. Healthy hair can be stretched up to 30% of its length when wet. If hair does not stretch back to its original state, it’s lacking protein. If it snaps it is either over-proteinized or lacking moisture. This is called the Wet Stretch Test.
  10. The average human sheds about 50-150 strands of hair a day
  11. The most common hair color in the world is Black, and the rarest is Red (1% of the population).
  12. In 1950, only 5% of women dyed their hair. Now, that number has increased to 75%!
  13. If you counted the growth of all the hairs on an average person’s head, in one year it would equate to over 10 miles of hair growth!
  14. In a survey collected about the relationship between hair color and personality perception, these were the results:
  • Blonde: flirty, fun
  • Brown: smart, serious
  • Redheads: strong
  1. Hair is the fastest growing tissue in the body – second only to bone marrow!
  2. On average, Blondes have the highest amount of hair strands (146,000).
  3. On average, Redheads have the lowest amount of hair stands (86,000).
  4. On average, people have about 100,000 strands of hair on their head.
  5. The first hair products specially formulated for African-American hair were created by Madam CJ Walker. She was also the first African-American woman to become a millionaire.
  6. A hair follicle will replace a new strand of hair about 20 times in a lifetime
  7. A single, healthy strand of hair can withstand about 6.5 pounds.
  8. A strand of hair is stronger than a copper wire of equivalent diameter.
  9. The only part of hair that is not dead is within the scalp.
  10. The common thought that hair continues to grow after death is a MYTH!
  11. 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.
  12. Hair is composed of the following elements: Carbon (50%), Oxygen (21%) Nitrogen (17%), Hydrogen (6%), Sulphur (5%).
  13. Darker hair tends to have more carbon present than lighter hair.
  14. Each hair strand has its own muscle, nerve, and blood supply.
  15. If a man never shaved, his beard would grow to over 30 feet in his life time.
  16. On average, women spend about $800 on hair products a year!
  17. It takes only 13 days for grey hair to appear from stress or signs of aging.
  18. The longest female hair was measured at 18 feet and 5.5 inches. Xie Jiuping grew her hair for over 30 years!
  19. Chemotherapy causes the hair to fall out because it is intended to eliminate cells that replicate quickly. Since hair follicle cells grow and divide quickly, they are adversely affected.
  20. Hair can grow back after chemotherapy, but often hair can grow a different color than normal for the first few months.
  21. On average, women’s hair is half the diameter of men’s hair.