Trivia #6: Hair

Today, we will be covering a very girly-girl topic: Hair!
Women-- and some men-- pour copious amounts of time and effort into maintaining their hair, spending thousands of dollars every year to keep their hair glossy and healthy. There are even conditioners for eyebrows. But what do you really know about hair?

1. Out of all the hair types, Asian hair retains moisture the best; it also grows the fastest, has the greatest elasticity, and is the strongest compared to other ethnicities.
2. You lose 60-100 strands of hair every single day.
3. In warm weather, hair grows faster. 
4. In humidity, hair lengthens. 
5. Amongst the primates, humans have the thinnest body hair. Our hair began thinning centuries ago, back when we first stood upright. Because we only exposed a third of our body at any one time to the sun when we stood erect, the only place where hair remained plentiful is on the top of our heads.
6. A single human hair can support 6 1/2 pounds of weight.
7. On average, a man spends two years of his life shaving.
8. We have small mites that live in the base of our eyelashes. At night, they come out to feast on the debris and dead skin on and around the lash. This is actually an example of commensalism ( a relationship that is mutually beneficial); the mites prevent the follicle room clogging up, and we provide them with a delicious feast of cells every night. 
9. Male hair grows faster and more dense than female hair.
10. Hair is technically dead, the only part that's "alive" is the bit that's in your scalp.

Fact Number Eight seriously freaked me out. Just a warning to our curious readers out there: do not google "eyelash mites".

Well, at least they're doing things beneficial to us (yay commensalism!)

Last times false fact was "Spider curry is a delicacy enjoyed by nomads. It can be described as somewhat crunchy and spicy." 

Try to guess which fact is false this time! Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

--Aki

Source 1, Source 2, Source 3

This entry was posted in Interesting, Science, Trivia.