Hair has served an important role in human life. Although in modern times it may seem less important, the opposite is actually true. The more we learn about hair the important it becomes. Read on to learn some amazing facts about hair that you didn’t know you needed to learn.
The body is covered in hair, this is clear to everyone. Humans have around 150,000 hair follicles on their heads with around five million on their entire body. At any one time, the average adult person will have 100,000 hairs on their body. The number will vary based on the hereditary of the person as well as their hair color. Blonde haired people tend to have a higher number of follicles while red-haired people have less. The number of hair follicles you have is the same from birth to death. That is you don’t grow any new ones. You may lose some of those that you have though. This is possible for a variety of reasons such as hair removal, medical treatment, or stress.
The average human hair lasts about five years before it will fall out and be replaced by new hair. This may sound like a long time or a short time depending on what you are comparing to. Compared to other body parts five years is very short but it is long enough that your hair stores a lot of information about you. As your hair grows it stores information about you during that time. This is true as well of nails. If you notice any white marks on nails it is telling you that at the time that part of the nail was created you were lacking in vitamins or nutrients.
The hair is even more informative. It can tell us if you have taken drugs and exactly what those drugs are, it can tell if you have a medical illness or if you have the antibodies to block a medical illness. For example today people are testing hair to see if they have the antibodies to stop coronavirus.
Many people are unaware of just how strong human hair is. As it is so thin and small it seems incredibly fragile but on a relative basis, it is stronger than many metals. If you had the same amount of hair as you had copper, the hair would be able to hold more weight. If you managed to group an entire head of hair together it would have the strength to support two elephants. The average single strange can hold 85 grams.
Hair also forms a very important role in society. While in historic times hair was important to keep the body warm this is less important now because we can simply wear more clothes when we feel too cold. Hair also is scientifically used to attract a mate. Hair in the armpits releases an odor containing pheromones that can play a role in sexual attraction. If you have armpit hair you can trap the odor, if you shave it you can’t. The other main role of hair is to reduce friction. Having armpit and pubic hair reduces friction when you are taking part in certain activities and can stop you from chaffing.
Today one of the main roles of hair is fashion. People wear styles that they identify with, whether you are an Elvis fan and still rocking his hairdo, a fan of punk and wearing a mohawk, or something far more conservative. Hair has been used for signaling to the other for centuries as well. A beard is seen as a sign of virility and women are often naturally attracted to hairier males for this reason. In reality, it has actually been shown that going bald is linked with testosterone. Although it can impact men with low or high levels, it all comes down to genes.
