Hair hair hair – facts & trivia

Hair is one of the most defining and expressive characteristics of human beings, yet how much do we actually know about this bizarrely beautiful biomaterial that is partly living (hair growth takes place in the hair follicle) and partly dead (the visible hair shaft)?

Here’s a few facts to warm us up: We have an oil (sebum) produced in our sebaceous glands that naturally keeps our hair supple and conditioned, and hair pigments (eumelanin and pheomelanin) that create our natural hair colours! Amazing!

We’ve collated some fun and factual hair-related data for your information and fascination. Apart from being interesting, you never know when this stuff could be useful - it might just pop up at your next pub quiz!

Hair stats

• Hair is the one of the fastest growing tissues in the human body, second only to bone marrow. Hair strands grow between 0.3 and 0.5mm each day, 1 to 1.5cm each month and approximately 12 to 15cm each year!
• Healthy hair, when wet, can stretch up to 30% its length.
• On average, we have between 100,000 and 150,000 hairs on our head. Each day we shed between 45-150 of these strands.
• Hair cross sections can identify your race or ethnicity. Those of Asian descent have very round shaped hair, those of African descent have very flat shaped hair and those of European descent have oval shaped hair. Gender however, cannot be identified through hair strands.
• 1cm of hair can unveil a lot about your current lifestyle, by revealing what has travelled through your blood stream within the past month, including any drugs, minerals and environments you’ve encountered.

Colour facts

• The world’s most common hair colour is black. 2% of the world’s population has blonde hair and the rarest hair colour is red (1% of the world’s population).
• In Ancient Rome, women used pigeon droppings to dye their hair blonde, in Renaissance Venice they would use horse urine (imagine the smell)! The Ancient Greeks believed that when redheads died, they would become vampires (ridiculous)!
• Scotland has the highest proportion of redheads in the world, with 13% of the Scottish population sporting red hair.
• 21% of women in the UK are unsure of their natural hair colour, and 17% of us have been dying our hair for so long that we simply don't know what our natural colour is anymore!

Styling trivia

• The word ‘shampoo’ derives from the Hindustani word chāmpo, which dates back to 1762. Shampoo originated in the eastern regions on the Mughal Empire (namely Nawab of Bengal), where alkali, natural oils and fragrances were used for head massages.
• Women spend an average of 1 hour and 53 minutes a week washing, blow drying and styling their hair. That means that by the age of 65, women have spent more than 7 months of their lives fashioning our locks!
• In 1927, Hans Schwarzkopf launched the world’s first liquid shampoo. In 1933, ‘Dopal’ the first shampoo without soap (which would become part of the L’Oreal family), entered the market.
• The UK spends approximately £4 billion pounds each year on hair products. Women alone, spend an average of £500 each year on styling products.

Image courtesy of L’Oreal