Lady Godiva's Parlor

I am very grateful to the owner of The Long Hair Site (TLHS), who has graciously granted me permission to resurrect portions of TLHS for use and preservation at Lady Godiva's Salon.

Hair Science

Basic facts

• Hair is actually dead material when it leaves its root.
• Hair consists mainly of keratin, a protein, which is also responsible for the elasticity of fingernails.
• A single hair has a thickness of 0.02 - 0.04mm, so that 20 - 50 hair strands next to each other make one millimeter.
• Hair is strong as a wire of iron.  It rips after applying a force equivalent to 60kg, only after it stretched itself for about 70%.
• The average scalp has 100,000 strands, or just fewer than 1000 per square inch.
• We are born with all our hair follicles.  Some are programmed to grow pigmented hair (as on our scalp) and can grow several feet long.
• The trait for baldness can be passed down through paternal or maternal genes.
• Hormone imbalance and crash dieting can trigger temporary hair loss.

Structure

The root of a hair strand sticks in a follicle in the skin.  The strand is pushed out of the follicle about 0.35mm per day, making an average growth rate of 1cm, or half of an inch, per month.  However, the growth rate is very much related to the individual person, meaning his or her age, heredity, diet, overall health, stress levels, etc.

Healthy hair has an average lifetime of 2-6 years.  After a rest period of three months, the single hair falls out, and a new strand starts to grow out of the follicle.  The lifetime depends on circumstances and person, too, as noted above.

The lifetime of hair is responsible for the maximum hair length that a person can have. Waist length hair takes about 6 years to grow from a short hair cut, periodic trims included.  If a person's hair has a life cycle of 2 years, that person will not achieve a waist length mane.  If a person's hair has a life cycle of 12 years or more, that person may be able to attain floor length hair.