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Fun Hair Facts

Hair is a remarkable tissue, having near super-power strength and incredible insulating properties! In honour of being voted a British Cool Brand for the 3rd year in a row, we’ve compiled a list of the coolest facts about hair – giving you even more reason to love your locks!

Super Strength

Healthy hair can stretch up to a 3rd of its length and swell up to 20% of its diameter, making it even stronger than a copper wire of the same diameter! Dry, damaged hair however snaps much easier than this. To optimise your hair’s elasticity, use a weekly pre-shampoo conditioning treatment.

It is the water, not oil, content of your hair that keeps it hydrated, as the molecules of the oils produced by your scalp are too large to penetrate the hair shaft itself, and simply sit on top of it. Shampooing your hair on a frequent basis therefore helps to add moisture back into dry strands.

A full head of healthy hair gathered together can support 23 tonnes of weight! Improve your hair’s strength by using a conditioning spray that defends your hair against damage and weakness.

You hair’s disulphide bonds are one of the strongest bonds occurring in nature. They can only be broken by extremely high heat and chemicals.

Hair growth & Hair Loss

Hair grows on average half an inch a month - that's 6 inches each year. If you have hair below your shoulders, your ends will be over 4 years old! Protect them with a lightweight smoothing cream.

The average number of hairs on the human scalp is 120,000, but natural blondes tend to have more, redheads less. This is because blonde hair is usually finer than densely pigmented hair, meaning there is room on the scalp for more of them!

It is natural for you to shed up to 100 hairs a day, provided they grow back. Your whole head of hair is in fact replaced every four years or so! However, as your hair grows in unsynchonized cycles you don't notice this.

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Composition & Nutritional Requirements

Hair is composed primarily of special amino acids, otherwise known as proteins. We suggest eating a portion of first class protein with breakfast and lunch to provide your hair with its daily requirements for growth.

Research shows that lack of B Vitamins, especially Vitamin B12, can speed up the hair greying process. Help sustain your intake of Vitamin B by eating B12 rich foods, such as cod, milk, eggs yolks and salmon.

Hair cells are the second fastest growing cells in the body, second only to intestinal cells. However, as hair is non-essential tissue its high energy needs are never given priority, making diet very important. Support hair growth energy requirements by eating complex carbohydrates with every meal.

Scalp Facts

Dandruff is not from a dry scalp. It in fact usually accompanies an oily scalp, so don’t rub in oil to improve it – you’ll only get oilier flakes. Dandruff is actually commonly caused by an overgrowth of a certain type of yeast called ‘malassezia furfur’, and the best products that combat it are those that target the growth of the yeast itself, such as Flaky Itchy Scalp Shampoo.

Every follicle on your scalp has an oil gland attached. And as those with fine hair have more hairs on their scalp than people with coarse hair, finer hair types frequently find their scalps get greasy quite quickly. The cure? Shampoo with a product formulated for your hair texture's unique needs.

History

The Bob, or ‘Castle Bob’ was in fact made popular by the famous ballroom dancer, Irene Castle, who cut her hair short in 1915 for convenience sake. And the bobby pin was invented specifically to hold these new shorter styles in place!

Fan of the ‘beehive’ look? During the 1950s, the beehive or ‘B-52’ was nicknamed after the B-52 Stratofortress Bomber because of its resemblance to the plane’s bulbous nose.

Hair colouring used to be relatively rare, especially as the chemicals used were often dangerously harsh. However, due to improved ingredients & changing fashions at-home hair colouring became so popular by the late 1960s that ‘hair colour’ was no longer a pre-requisite to supply on passports!