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Legendary Locks: Can Hair Act as a Sixth Sense, Protecting us from Danger?

Humans have always styled their hair in a multitude of creative and symbolic ways, and the various cuts, colors, and presentations reflected across the ages are nearly unlimited. But does hair serve us in more ways than providing simple warmth and good looks? There are some who believe that hair is directly associated with sensory power , and it serves as an extension of our nervous system.

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Featured

 Tying together the strands of history

A handful of museums around the world use over-the-top displays of tenderly-treated tresses to detail how hair has acted as an important cultural signifier through time.

 Unraveling the History of Human Hair

On the surface, our hair types are simple enough. Like fingernails, hair is made mostly of the protein keratin. It can survive for millennia under the right conditions—think Ötzi, the 5300-year-old iceman whose clothing, body, and hair were all preserved when he was frozen in a glacier. In warmer, wetter, more acidic environments, hair can degrade within weeks.

Articles of Interest

A brief history of the good, the bad, and the ugly side of hair extensions

From clip-ins to weaves to glue-in flowing locks, hair extensions have long been the secret of celebrities and mired in controversy.

A Hair Mystery: Curly Hair Gone Straight

Some people have straight hair and want curly hair. Others have curls and straighten them out. But for a few people, their hair actually changes shape and texture on its own — and not just because of the weather. Scientists don't know exactly why this happens, but it probably has to do with a combination of genetics, hormones and body chemistry.

A Hairy Issue: Beards Through History

There is a reason you may be seeing more beards these days on TV or the street. It has nothing to do with a resurgence of Victorian aesthetics, a mass outbreak of folliculitis or the conquest of the U.S. by hipsters. The embrace of cheek-fuzz is actually part of a world-wide hair-a-thon to raise money for cancer charities.

Diversity of Hair Types

To characterize the diversity of hair types worldwide and identify their various properties, L’Oréal researchers have studied several different parameters: the shape of the hair shaft, the structure of the hair fibre components, the growth of the hair follicle and its pigmentation. They have drawn on techniques from biology, chemistry and biophysics, using optical and digital microscopic imaging.

Hair and the course of human history

The hair on our heads is just the departure point for this wide-ranging book by Kurt Stenn, M.D. The former Yale pathologist and dermatologist moves from the evolution of human hair to hair’s effects on culture, psychology, and global trade. By the end of Hair: A Human History, a reader might even be convinced that hair makes the world go ’round.

Hair Samples Used to Trace Movement

Scientists have developed a new tool for tracking a person's movements — hair analysis. Researchers have discovered the link between drinking water, which varies from one region to another, and human hair, which acts as a geographic marker.

Here's a better way to talk about hair

Humans have scalp hair. But why is human scalp hair so varied? As a college student, Tina Lasisi wanted to find out. Eight years later, Tina is one of the few biological anthropologists in the world studying the evolution and morphology of human scalp hair.

How fast does hair grow?

First of all, it's important to note that everyone's hair growth rate will vary due to many factors—think genes, hormone levels, age, and more. That being said, there is an average rate of hair growth for humans. "Although it may be hard to believe, most people's hair grows at the rate of half an inch per month," explains Shab Reslan, a trichologist...

Human Hair History

Zsofia Kollar (she/her) is a designer, researcher, published author, the founder of Human Material Loop, a material science company focusing on the utilization of human hair for various industries, as well as a tutor at the Royal Academy of Art, the Hague.

Human Hair – An Evolutionary Relic?

So, even though hairs have no longer survival value in Homo sapiens, when seen through Darwinian eyes, yet they do serve useful functions and are not completely vestigial!

Is There A Limit To How Long Hair Can Grow ... And 7 Other Hair Questions Answered

Why does your hair stop growing? How come your hair looks different when you travel? Your hair has its own set of rules about health, and we spoke to experts to find the answers to common hair health questions so you can keep your locks beautiful and healthy.

Our Tangled World of Hair

Natural. Curly. Straight. Processed. Silkener. Dreads. Good hair. Nappy hair. Wigs. Today we’re exploring the world of hair, a billion-dollar industry.

Scientists discover why our hair thins as we age

Supposed hair-loss cures abound — everything from magnetic resonance imaging to enzyme blockers are marketed to men and women who lose their hair as they age. But the underlying mechanism behind hair thinning has never been sussed out.

Soon There Will Be Unlimited Hair

New uses of stem cells and 3-D printing could make baldness obsolete (for the wealthy).

The Big Question: Why Does Hair Grow in Some Places But Not Others?

TWEEZE, SHAVE, CHEMICAL cream, wax or electro-zap: Humans have come up with a pharmacy's worth of ways to deforest their bodies of natural hair. Yet, to evolutionary biologists, humans are amazing not because they have so much hair, but because they have so little. Whereas our ancestors once sported full-fur suits, Homo sapiens today are almost embarrassingly naked.

The Function of Human Hair

There is an entire industry dedicated to the removal of hair. Every day, women and men alike spend time and money to remove hair from their faces, arms, legs, head, and so on. Yet hair serves some important functions depending on its location.

The Human Hair, and the Cutaneous Diseases Which Affect It...

The fundamental principle of Dr. Perry’s treatise is, that the hair is ever in danger of being killed by much cherishing. He regards it as a delicate vegetable, growing in a tender soil, and amply supplied by Nature with the elements needed for its support and development. The skin of the head should not, he tells us, be subjected to any rough treatment, neither should it be exposed to sudden alternations of temperature.

The Secret History of Buying and Selling Hair

Globalization hit the hair trade centuries ago, and the business is still thriving.

We finally know why stress turns your hair white

Once those strands turn gray, they never go back.

Why Did Humans Lose Their Fur?

Millions of modern humans ask themselves the same question every morning while looking in the mirror: Why am I so hairy? As a society, we spend millions of dollars per year on lip waxing, eyebrow threading, laser hair removal, and face and leg shaving, not to mention the cash we hand over to Supercuts or the neighborhood salon. But it turns out we are asking the wrong question—at least according to scientists who study human genetics and evolution. For them, the big mystery is why we are so hairless.

Why do we grow more hair on our heads than on our bodies?

Humans are the oddballs of the mammalian class. Hippos and naked mole rats aside, nearly every other mammal has fur covering its body. Humans are practically naked, besides the hair on our heads. So why are people mostly hairless apart from our head hair?

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StatPearls

While some have argued that human hair is a vestigial evolutionary remnant, in reality, human hair serves many psychological and physiological functions. Human hair grows at a rate of 0.35 mm/day, and around 100 hairs are shed daily.