Facts About Hair and Hair Color You May Not Have Known

Cosmetologists learn everything from the anatomy of a hair follicle, to how to consult with real clients, to picking the right hair color based on client skin tone, and everything in between. That “everything in between” includes tidbits and nuggets of knowledge you may not have known.  

Here are just a few:
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• Fine hair does NOT absorb color at a faster rate than coarse hair. Color absorbs at the same rate for all hair types, a fine hair follicle just has less space to fill up than a coarse hair follicle, causing the process itself to be finished quicker.
• You cannot apply red to ashy hair.
• Lightener can be used on hair that is too warm, too cool or too dark. For example, when coloring hair, if hair is slightly cool, you first must remove some of that coolness.
• The average color of the North American population’s hair is a level 4 (medium brown).
• Europeans/those of European decent have an average of 100,000 hairs on their head.
• Red hair is the most difficult to lift (yes, harder than black) because color can be concentrated in the cortex.
• Hair is usually made up of 12% water, but this varies on a person’s environment. In a humid area, a person’s hair can be made of up to 16% water, whereas in a dry environment it can be made up of as low as 10% water.
• Hair on the head grows, on average, at a rate of 1 mm every three days.
• The rate at which hair grows is based on how much androgen, the male hormone, a person has (yes, females have this too). But, too much androgen causes hair loss.
• Hair is pronounced dead as soon as it comes off the scalp.
• A single strand of healthy hair can support 6.5 lbs of weight.
• During chemotherapy, people lose their hair due to the fact chemo is designed to go after fast-moving cells, like hair.