Talk:Hair

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This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Hair article.
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Hair is a former featured article candidate. Please view the links under Article milestones below to see why the nomination failed. For older candidates, please check the archive.
March 29, 2005 Featured article candidate Not promoted

Contents

[edit] Genes?

Anyone who could add something about how you inherit different hair colors (chek the eye article for tips). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 85.224.47.54 (talk) 17:19, 23 April 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Aging - Air Bubbles?

As far as i know, "air bubbles" don't affect hair color. This sentence makes no sense to me: "In fact, the gray or white appearance of individual hair fibers is a result of light scattering from air bubbles in the central medula of the hair fiber."

--I removed this section, as it is untrue. Hair turns white because pigment-producing cells stop making pigment. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 159.182.1.4 (talk) 16:08, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Image Deleted

Can someone please help? I can't seem to get the image to disappear. It is unnecessary. We all know what brown hair looks like, also it is not even a good example of a brunette colour as the lighting is strange and it is more featuring the "model" rather than a hair colour. I don't think any sort of promoting (wrong word) should be on this page and it ought to be deleted. Especially when it would be just as fine without it. Also the caption "human hair" is a bit silly.

You can edit the page yourself, however just removing the image is probably a bad idea. Even when it should be pretty obvious to most what the subject of the article look like, an image can liven up the article. If you have a better replacement that would be fine though. --fvw* 02:59, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

I tried to edit it myself but it somehow never worked. I see how it can liven up articles but the picture is just wrong imo. I will look for a replacement but the copyright thing is tricky. I think there are already enough images on the page so that it wouldn't suffer if we removed the human with the brown hair . .Thanks for your response. Papa leaf 08:21, 4 October 2005 (UTC) Sorry just learned how to sign my name properly.

Well, we do have some better pictures in this article than the one at the top, perhaps switching them around would be worthwhile? The red hair one further down seems a more appropriate one. Also, I think the pictures could stand some diversifying: At the moment all we have is head hair on women. It all depends on what kind of images we can get our hands on under a free licence of course. --fvw* 23:35, 4 October 2005 (UTC)
I agree about the diversifying. Since there are two pictures of women with straight hair in the "structures" section, I'm replacing one of them with a picture showing two men (James Baldwin and Marlon Brando) with contrasting hair structures. It's not an ideal illustration, but I think it's better than having all women and not much curly. --Allen 04:26, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Curly Hair

Someone want to talk about how the cross-section of hair determines whether it's straight or curly? --Dante Alighieri 12:14 Dec 6, 2002 (UTC) I second that emotion! I need info on curly hair, people.

Someone with more scientific knowledge than me should really add some information on curly hair and the reasons for it. This could be a start, but like I said, someone who knows more about this should probably figure out to add the informationto the article. --newsjunkie 19:38, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Dear Newsjunkie: I added scientific research on the possible adaptive significance of the various hair textures, as well as how curly hair arose. It is under the 'hair texture' section. Let me know if its clear. Thanks. Afiya27 (talk) 17:16, 10 June 2008 (UTC)

-- This has some info...cortex apparently has to do with it. BtW this Wikipedia article seems very sparse, nothing on biology, it's all about society?? what about ---cortex, cuticle, medulla?? Hairdressers, colorists please help this poor article out!

http://www.pg.com/science/haircare/hair_twh_14.htm http://www.hairboutique.com/tips/tip1471.htm

" How do you describe your hair. Do you say it’s stick straight, curly, wavy or kinky? The type of hair you have is determined by how much bend your hair has. Did I say bend? All hair has some natural bend which can range from just a little in straight hair to a lot in curly hair. Your hair type is also determined by the shape of the hair shaft. Straight hair is round while wavy hair has an oval shape. Curly hair is almost flat. "

" The centre part of the hair, called the cortex, makes up most of the hair shaft. It is the cortex that gives hair its special qualities such as elasticity and curl. The cortex is packed with strands of keratin, lying along the length of the hair. These keratin fibres are made of the low-sulphur keratins, and are compressed into bundles of larger fibres. These are held together by a mass of sulphur-rich keratins, the matrix. The fibre-matrix combination is extremely strong and resists stretching and other strains such as twisting, much as does the glass fibre-resin mixture from which many boats are built."--

Can someone give any information on how hair can be straight and fine in younger years, but come to be more coarse and curly as a teen and later?

[edit] Deleted Paragraph

I deleted this para:

"Depending on some of the above, hair may be suitable for caressing and other touching by the person him/herself or by a friend or lover, or this may spoil the arrangement."

This has no place in an encyclopedia article. It is self evident to anyone with hair and/or a lover. I know that possibly eliminates many wikipedians, but probably not the majority of people who might read it. Stay focused on the encyclopedia, stop letting your daydreams influence your editing. GRAHAMUK 11:35, 10 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I don't object to removal of such a rather lame sentence, but it certainly would be appropriate for this article to mention various intra-personal, inter-personal, sensual-sexual-selfimage psycho-socio-cultural aspects of hair! 69.87.194.9 14:31, 14 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hair grows thicker when shaved?

I've often wondered - is there any truth in the commonly stated belief that rate/quantity of hair growth depends in some way on hair length (i.e. shaving makes hair grow back thicker)? It would be nice to see some information on this in the article.

most information i've seen says that the hair only appears thicker because it's shorter at first, or else because one begins shaving right as the hair would have come in thicker anyway, it creates false causality. still, it'd be a difficult thing to prove, wouldn't it? one would probably need twins.

There's no truth to it. You also wouldn't need twins - it is reasonable to suppose that hair in the same area would have similar growth rates, so just try shaving a patch and comparing it to the unshaved "control". You'll find that when it grows back, it is indistinguishable from the originally unshaved patch.Graham 12:58, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Body hair growth cycles

Quote: head hair for practical purposes grows continuously, whereas body hair alternates regular periods of growth and dormancy

I know for a fact this isn't correct. What should I do?

I personally don't know either way, but if i was positive (as you seem to be) i would go ahead and delete the section and make not of it on the talk page (see above) --Hes Nikke

On a related note, if hair does grow in cycles, does anyone know if it is seasonal? or is it unique for different parts of the body? (eg, 3 or 4 sets of follicles all grow in offset cycles)

[edit] Copyvio image

The image used here was a copyvio from http://www.follicle.com/1.html - Texture 19:01, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)


All hair has a cycle and falls out. Head hair has a longer one before falling out but it grows continously. Body hair grows but then stops growing after a period of time and eventually drops out sooner than head hair.

[edit] Bad information

The article describes bipedal locomotion as exteremly inefficient, it is in fact the most effient a fact used to explain why humans slow sprinters but capable runing long distances. The reverse is true other animals are better runners over short distances because quadrapedal locamotion is extremely inneficient and they expend more energy very quickly, hunans can run long distances at slower speeds because bipedal locomotion is the most efficeint.

I fixed this but some misinformed person changed it back ( i just quickly went through the revision history, at least i thought i fixed this)

This needs to be fixed there is no ambiguity, the statement that bipedal locomotions is inefficient could not be more wrong.

[edit] men hair lengh

the article says:

Before the First World War men generally had long hair and beards.

is there a ref on this? Xah Lee 13:38, July 15, 2005 (UTC)

Good call Xah, I’m going to have to raise the BS flag on this one; the masculinity of short hair in western culture stems from the Roman army not the Great War.

It's true though, I mean, it had never really taken off outside of cultures that had pedo-homosexual tendencies and wanted men to look like little boys. The romans did start it but it wasn't big in the West in general until lice broke out in WW1.

[edit] Hair brushing from the ends

I've heard that it's better to brush your hair starting from the ends? Why is this? I'm sorry if this question doesn't seem related to this article; I've had trouble finding haircare-related articles on Wikipedia, and I'd be happy to be directed to more relevant ones. -- Creidieki 02:15, 18 July 2005 (UTC) It's not worth mentioning on the wiki article but i'll answer you. It's simply because if there are tugs your brush won't end up jammed half way down your hair. If there are tugs (tangled hair) and you start at the bottom you could brush them out and go up the hair, brush those ones out if you find more. If you start at the top and you have hair tangled hair at the top AND further down it is almost impossible to brush the first one out because it will get caught in the one nearer at the ends. 04:58, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] resolving deleted paragraph

I just removed the following paragraph from the article. It struck me as grossly out of place for several reasons.

Some persons of African descent have hair that if left alone will grow in tight curls and develop into a unique hairstyle known as the afro; since the development of the concept of Black Power, there has been a debate as to whether such persons should use products that straighten their hair.

My issues are:

  • Discussion of Black Power doesn't seem neccessary when talking about the structure and properties of the hair follicle. Perphaps this belongs in an section on contraversies about hair style.
  • The wording is too focued on an individual instead of the HAIR or a racial group.
  • While valid, additional information about properties of other racial hair types would make this more inclusive.

Ahutson

[edit] Non-mammalian hair?

What about hair on spiders, insects etc? It may not be formed in the same way, but it's certainly a type of 'hair'. --Calair 03:16, 8 November 2005 (UTC)


In the first paragraph it says that insect hair isn't really considered "hair" Rafi5288 (talk) 23:56, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Can hair turn gray from depression?

I don't know if this is an urban legend, but is it true that hair can turn gray or white after a period of severe depression? I've also read that hair can turn white almost on the spot because if intense fear or panic. --81.82.91.83 12:24, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

Something like this happened in the film Evil Dead 2, when a section of Bruce Campbell's characters hair turned grey after he saw a monster. I don't know if there are any real life examples. DANZIG666 18:37, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hair strength

The article says:

Hair is strong. A single strand can hold 100g (3.5oz) of weight. A head of hair could support 12 tonnes. It is equivalent in strength to aluminium or Kevlar. Wet hair, however, is very fragile.

This statement isn't very informative, and unclear. It implies (but does not say) that hair has high tensile strength; of course hair does not have high shear strength as it can break easily. Different diameter hairs will have different ultimate stresses, a range of max. stresses could be mentioned. Furthermore, kevlar and aluminum have very different tensile strengths, so that comparison does not really work. Finally, why is wet hair more fragile? This is not obvious.

I removed some of this section. This reference indicates that the tensile strength of human hair is about 190 MPa. I couldn't find a good source for data on Kevlar; while a post in this discussion thread claims 83 MPa for Kevlar-29 (one of the weaker formulations), recguns.com FAQ gives tensile strength as 2.6 GPa for Kevlar-29 and up to 4.1 GPa for other varieties of Kevlar. Obviously one of these is wrong; I'm inclined to guess the former, but until we have a good source the claim should be omitted. The article on aluminium lists a tensile strength of 49 MPa in pure form and 400 MPa alloyed; since most structural use is presumably alloyed, describing hair as 'stronger than aluminium' might be technically true but is misleading.
At tensile strength 190 MPa, and assuming circular cross-section, an 18 µm-diameter hair should be able to sustain a maximum load of about 0.05N (~ 5 grams) and a 180 µm-diameter hair should hold about 500 grams. (I'm assuming those diameters are correct.) So the claim of 100 grams seems plausible. I've left this in (with more emphasis on the variability of that number) because the section probably needs *something* that can easily be grasped by readers without a scientific background, but it would be nice to have a source for the figure of 100 grams.
Googling tells me that the number of hairs on a human head varies with hair colour, with the maximum being about 120,000 hairs for blondes. (If somebody feels like taking the time to verify these numbers, they might be useful to add to the article.) Multiplying 120k hairs by 100g/hair would indeed give an answer of 12 tonnes... but the article mentions that blonde hairs are at the finer end of the scale, so it's not safe to assume that this figure is meaningful. Removed; can be re-added if someone can find a good source. Haven't checked the 'wet hair' bit. --Calair 22:59, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
I would think the estimation of the entire head ought to go back, perhaps rounded to one significant figure (i.e. 10 tonnes). With 1 sig fig this automatically implies a degree of variability, but still gives the reader something to grasp, which is nice since 10 tonnes seems far above what anyone would expect. — Asbestos | Talk (RFC) 23:13, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
Sounds still problematic to me. You must be very clear that you are only refering to the aggregate theoretical strength of the hairs, working together in an artificial matrix. The scalp etc certainly cannot support such total tension loads. 69.87.199.92 20:22, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

RE: wet hair

Wet hair is indeed more fragile when it's wet. Hair is made of tiny protein molecules which are all connected to eachother in a chain. However when hair is wet, there are water molecules inbetween. This results in water-water bonds & water-protein bonds. Those are obviously less strong than a protein-protein one (dry hair) That's the layman's version. You can look up in depth facts easy enough if you want. I don't think it's particularily worth mentioning in the article though. Good to see that silly hair weightlifting part was removed. It should stay out imo.

[edit] Aquatic Ape Hypothesis

The fourth paragraph under "Human Hair" should be rewritten on the basis that a debate on the merits of AAH is innapropriate.

The objective of this paragraph, and the succeeding ones, should be to inform the reader as to what the scientific consensus is on the origins of human hair. It is sufficient to state those theories and give any links which are needed to expand upon them. A detailed debate, particularly one which deals with matters other than hair, is not appropriate. Moreover, a theory with little or no scientific credibility should not be evangelising in this space. (One of the tactics of ID is to position itself in a debate with credible evolutionary theories on the basis that ID will thus itself gain scientific credibility. The use of AAH here smacks of the same ruse.)

The debate has also caused the English to become a little clunky and disjoint. A rewrite would fix this.

I propose to rewrite paragraphs 4 & 5 as detailed below, and I shall leave a few days before I do so for comment and debate. A link to the AAH wiki entry should be added to the list of links in the "See Also" section.

Proposed Text:

Several theories have been advanced to explain the apparent bareness of human body hair. All are faced with the same problem that there is no fossil record of human hair to back up the conjectures nor to determine exactly when the feature evolved.

Savanna theory suggests that nature selected humans for shorter and thinner body hair as part of a set of adaptations, including bipedal locomotion and an upright posture, for a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle on the African plains. There are several problems with this savanna theory, not least of which is that cursorial hunting is used by (other) animals that do not show any thinning of hair.

Another theory for the thin body hair on humans proposes that Fisherian runaway sexual selection played a role here (as well as in the selection of long head hair). Possibly this occurred in conjunction with neoteny, with the more juvenile appearing females being selected by males as more desirable; see types of hair and vellus hair.

The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis posits that sparsity of hair is an adaptation to an aquatic environment, but it has little support amongst scientists and very few aquatic mammals are, in fact, hairless.

Steve 11:51, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

Agreed; I think a 'see also' is adequate here, and the AAH article seems to cover the relevant material. --Calair 12:17, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Where are the men?

Just a quick thought while browsing: there seem to be an awful lot of good pictures throughout this article, but I am somewhat surprised and interested to note that there are none displaying the hair styles of men. Perhaps a small task would be to find some in Commons and put them in! --Chromakode 06:01, 1 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] How often wash?

How often should one wash one's hair? Every day? Every two days? What about people who never wash their hair and who maintain it naturally takes care of itself over time? etc. --Sonjaaa 05:04, 4 March 2006 (UTC)


Hmm http://beauty.about.com/cs/oilyhair/a/howoftehairwash.htm --Sonjaaa 05:30, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Question

How long does it take hair to grow back if you pull it out? (OK, so it will probably vary from person to person and depending on what type of hair, so how long would it take, on average, for facial hair to grow back when pulled out?)

[edit] Gray Hair

What about people's claims that stress causes an increase in Gray hair? Is there any truth to this claim? 71.250.9.119 14:03, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

grey hair is not only in old people. my friend has strands of grey. what i have also noticed is that this seems to be more common with black. i haven met a white person who has strands of white hair.Angelofdeath275 03:07, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

It may seem more common on black hair simply because in contrast it is easier to distinguish. White hair on blonde is much harder to find, and brown hair similarly difficult.

Grey hair is also sign of stress, correct? If you are stressed enough, you can get grey hairs, right? :D Unintended Disaster 04:54, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Balding prevention

Is it true that if you brush/comb your hair a lot, the stimuli to the hair follicles will keep them active longer and thus prevent or delay hair loss? 71.250.9.119 15:07, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Baldwin/Brando photo

What is the relevance of the Baldwin/Brando photo in the 'Structure' section? --Calair 05:28, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

That was me; I was editing due to the discussion above at Talk:Hair#Image_Deleted. Before, most of the pictures were of white women and I added several pictures of men and non-whites to try to diversify the pictures. I put the Baldwin/Brando photo in the Structure section because it discusses common differences between the hair of people of African and European descent. It's not a great illustration, but it was the best I could find on the Commons. I'm not attached to it; feel free to replace it with something better or to just remove it. --Allen 02:44, 13 April 2006 (UTC)
Ah, right. I think image size is part of the problem here. Looking at the large version, the distinction between different hair types is much more visible there than in the smaller version appearing on this page.
Perhaps it would be possible to crop the image more tightly, so it can be shown at a better magnification here? --Calair 02:53, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rate of Growth

"The rate of growth is approximately 1.25 centimeters, or about 0.5 inches, per month." Not only is this statistic uncited, but it's in centimeters per month, which is a variable measure of time. I don't have the expertise to fix this, but, as an amateur hair enthusiast, I am interested. [Oops. I didn't sign my post.Alex Dodge 18:33, 6 May 2006 (UTC)]

[edit] Cultural attitudes

I think this section could be expanded somewhat. Lines like Mostly women had to be hairless as a sign of their virginity. are very unspecific. In what culture? At what time?

>In Western societies it became a public trend during the late twentieth century, particularly for women, to reduce or to remove their body hair is also rather unspecific. Does it mean all Western societies? Are the armpits of Continental Europe as smooth as British and US ones?

And what about religious requirements? Sikhism is obviously relevant and Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 11, is really interesting, particularly as it claims that in some sense male hair is naturally short and women's long. Desmond Morris (in Bodywatching I think) thinks he probably got this idea from Roman soldiers. It certainly doesn't seem to square terribly well with Hebrew tradition - indeed, for Samson long hair was a source of strength.

Anyone know a bit more than I do about this? Garik 14:52, 10 May 2006 (BST)

Actually men's hair is generally thicker than women's, and generally has a greater terminal length. Which means that Paul was wrong, the opposite of what he claimed is almost always true, it sounds like he was trying to impose his personal preference. ~Anon

[edit] Explanation/verification comments

I made a quick run through the article, trying to improve its grammar and organization as much as I could for now, and found the evolutionary and historical discussions somewhat incomplete. I inserted comments where I felt some clarification or additional information was needed (the savanna theory is not even described, so the objection about cursorial hunting in apes seems a non sequitur). I also commented out the paragraph about long hair as a traditional mark of weakness as lacking details of this idea or the rationale behind it, and in any case sorely in need of citation to verify it. Lusanaherandraton 03:24, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removal of unwanted substances?

Hi, I just stumbled across this article, and the paragraph near the top about the removal of unwanted substances from the body struck me as a little suspicious, I've never heard of hair being useful for that, and I've certainly never heard of moles growing hairs specifically to dispose of dangerous chemicals. Source, anyone? Kupos 22:40, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Agreed; that paragraph immediately struck me as absurd pseudoscience. I tried to find some sort of scholarly verification, but I only found people citing this entry. It needs to go. Macaria 03:31, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Hair - a means for the body to remove crap

I'd like to add a little paragraph about how growing hair is an excellent way for the body to purge crap. Commonly referred to as 'toxins'. Hair may also serve as insulation, or as a means of showing social status, or a brief history of your health -- but first and foremost it's a crap-removal mechanism.

Look at men who eat meat every day. They have thick black hair all over their bodies. Obviously because they're so full of shit. Literally, not metaphorically.

Look at moles. Definitely a sickly part of the body. And they often have long, gross hairs growing out of them.

Look at women. Made of sugar and spice and everything nice. Their hair growth is under control.

Anyone here not think I'm a crackpot? Or should I come back and try again next year?

—Chris 21:41, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

my first reaction is that crap is usually removed at the other end of the body, but if you have reliable sources then let's hear it. Pete.Hurd 22:24, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
It is true that hair does contain a fair record of the toxics that one is exposed to, but it would be an absurdly inefficient mechanism for excreting such. The article should not favor such a theory unless someone has some very strong evidence for it. 69.87.199.92 20:22, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] It is pretty obvious that people have lost their hair because of clothes.

The obvious theory for people losing hair is clothes. Else Nordic types would be hairy as all hell. Why is that theory missing here? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 01001 (talk • contribs)

Just cite your sources and add it to the page, unless it's a theory you just made up in your head.--Sonjaaa 17:48, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

It's not all obvious. Tailored clothing is thought to be 20,000 years old (Klein 1999: The human career: Human biological and cultural origins, U Chicago Press, p536) scraped hide clothing about 300,000 years old (Toth and Schick 1993: Making silent stones speak: Human evolution and the dawn of technology. Simon and Schuster. p161). Mutation of the MC1R gene associated with the loss of human body hair is about 1.2 million years old (Rogers et al 2004. Genetic variation at the MC1R locus and the time since loss of human body hair Current Anthropology 45:105-108). There are several theories in the scientific literature to explain the loss of body hair, please don't just put made-up stuff into Wikipedia, eg. You should be familiar with WP:OR by now. Pete.Hurd 19:18, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
The theories expressed in this article are logically full of crap. There is no way in hell, mammals, i.e. man, can survive without fur and without clothes when the temperature is low. Mammals have fur to keep themselves warm, and the only possible explanation for man's lack of fur is clothing. Also, WP's OR policy leaves something to be disired as proved by this article. Apparently nonsense has been verified, but it is not true.01001 21:02, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
Humans evolved on the Africa savannah. In that environment, for a species that runs a lot, fur is a liability. Also consider that the original humans had skin that we'd nowadays consider "black," and that people generally didn't live long enough for cancer to be a serious issue, thus there wasn't intense pressure to invent clothes either. I suspect, though I don't have sources, that advanced clothing technology followed rapidly upon humans' migration to colder climates. 68.43.173.32 (talk) 00:48, 23 March 2008 (UTC)
Wikipedia in a nutshell: it's what User:01001 feels is "pretty obvious" versus peer reviewed science... Pete.Hurd 06:06, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
Yes, and Lamarckianism fell out of fashion 150 years ago! -- Samir धर्म 06:30, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The theory for man losing their fur is very poorly written.

After reading this article and the cited articles more carefully, it is pretty clear that this article has missed the boat. The cited articles all concede that clothes, fire and shelter make it possible for man to have shed his fur. This is known and all the rest is pure conjecture. But the obvious reason and the one stated in the anthropology 101 textbooks as I remember is that sweating is a very effective temperature control mechanism. So man has lost his fur to take advantage of this. Further as stated in the cited articles, clothes offer a much more flexible temperature control system than fur. Also, as stated in the articles fur can become infested with parasites, which is a further advantage of hairlessness.

This article is missing the forest through the trees, missing the important points and focusing on some very far fetched theories.01001 05:34, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

Also, the cited articles are not the best. One of the articles mentioned Darwin's thoughts here which would certainly belong in this article. This article really points out some serious problems with WP OR policy, as truth is more important than verification, whereas WP OR puts verification before truth. This article is basically reflecting one not very well written verified source, making for a rather weak article.01001 05:43, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

I thought one of the main theories about our hairlessness was to combat parasites. I am surprised to see that not even mentioned in the article. 69.87.199.92 20:36, 17 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hair in insects

I've noticed that some insects, like moths, are quite hairy. What is this hair made of, is it made of chitin or something else? Gary 14:52, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Listcruft

The list of famous people known for their hair is listcruft. I think it should be deleted. Does anyone have any dissenting opinions? Gary 20:56, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

I have moved the list here instead of deleting it completely. Now it is free to grow to monumental proportions without messing up the Hair article. Gary 01:35, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Aquatic Ape Hypothesis revisited

I thought I'd changed this back in February but for some reason either I forgot, or something went wrong. As per my comments of 21 Feb 2006, I now propose to rewrite paras 3 through 5. Though some edits have been made to that section in the intervening period, I don't think they've contributed anything substantial nor solved the problem of clunky English. The new para 5 seems superfluous. It just expands on the Fisherian hypothesis, though with some useful references. It would be better just to add these to the links section. Consequently, I propose to keep the wording that I proposed earler. Your comments would be appreciated.

Proposed new text:

Several theories have been advanced to explain the apparent bareness of human body hair. All are faced with the same problem that there is no fossil record of human hair to back up the conjectures nor to determine exactly when the feature evolved.

Savanna theory suggests that nature selected humans for shorter and thinner body hair as part of a set of adaptations, including bipedal locomotion and an upright posture, for a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle on the African plains. There are several problems with this savanna theory, not least of which is that cursorial hunting is used by (other) animals that do not show any thinning of hair.

Another theory for the thin body hair on humans proposes that Fisherian runaway sexual selection played a role here (as well as in the selection of long head hair). Possibly this occurred in conjunction with neoteny, with the more juvenile appearing females being selected by males as more desirable; see types of hair and vellus hair.

The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis posits that sparsity of hair is an adaptation to an aquatic environment, but it has little support amongst scientists and very few aquatic mammals are, in fact, hairless.

[edit] gray hair area

I have a question, why the gray hair started in the area close to forehead and spreading up toward the areas behind ears?69.157.248.3 02:00, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hair Pairing

I have noticed that about 1/4 of the hairs on my leg (at least where I was looking) are 'paired', that is they appear as two hairs which protrude very close together (from about one to four hair-widths apart). They are very clearly paired and seperate from random distribution. Actually, looking at them now it looks as though about half are in pairs! Some pairs are made up of roughly equal-looking hairs, some have one long and thick hair shared with another short thin one. I did a little searching of 'hair pairing' and 'double hairs'; found nothing on the former, and the latter search brought up "double hairs in in various arthropod parasites", which wasn't all too comforting! Please tell me I'm normal... Many of my arm hairs are paired aswell.

Sir Spike 16:54, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I found a few places that mention 'double hairs', but only in reference to hairs which protrude from the same opening. These 'paired hairs' which I describe definately don't do that! Yeck!

Sir Spike 17:05, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I think that's normal. I have that myself, and I have seen it on several other people. I wouldn't worry about it too much! 194.82.121.38 00:44, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge

It has been suggested that Head hair be merged into this article. To reach a consensus on what to do, leave a note on Head hair's talk page, not this one. Kamope · talk · contributions 01:34, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Nostril hair different?

Mention if hair inside the nostrils and further inwards is of different structure then the standard issue hair or not. Jidanni 20:31, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Advantages and Disadvantages of hair

It might be interesting to mention some of the more logical reasons for why someone might want their hair cut (be it body hair or otherwise). Within hot climates, it might be argued that a clean-shaven beard ensures that the body can more easily maintain lower temperatures (under the assumption that, for example, it takes a significant amount of energy for the body to reduce its temperature in hot climates). There may also be issues concerning hygiene (when considering body hair).

It might also be a good idea to point out that parasites and mites, etc... would certainly have a harder time surviving in the locality of one's hair if one were well-shaven. Surely, either this article, or an article that could be made to link to it, could state some of the advantages and disadvantages associated with having a hair-cut.

In mosquito ridden environments, it is a good idea to note that a thick blanket of hair can reduce the number of mite and mosquito bites that one receives. If one also has an anaemia-based/sickle-cell based mutations (I think that these aid in protecting against malaria), then it is the case that hair is quite advantageous. This paragraph doesn't contradict the paragraph above (different mites/parasites are referred to, I think).

Can anyone else think of any more reasons? Aside from cultural reasons – why do people get their hair cut anyhow?

ConcernedScientist 13:48, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re-cycling Hair

Given the amount of hair that an (industrious) barber could collect during the course of a week – what possible uses might be suggested for that hair? For example, there are some uses that I have seen on television for hair : As a collecting agent for oil spills. Hair is very good at aDsorbing pollutants and chemicals from the environment and probably would have some useful applications here. As a fuel. Dry hair is meant to burn quite well. Is some form of hair useful for starting camp fires (I reckon that this is why Rambo had long hair). For the creation of wigs. Though, given some of the points in`` The Advantages and Disadvantages of hair, I can't think why you would want hair to begin with.

ConcernedScientist 13:48, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

A friend of mine 'donates' his hair when it's cut to some people who turn it into wigs for people who've lost their hair due to chemotherapy. PolarisSLBM 00:05, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Metallic

Our hair's metallic. That should be in the article. Is all hair metallic? Cat hair doesn't look very metallic. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.72.21.221 (talk) 05:28, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sugar Puffs

Has anyone else noticed that burnt hair, in particular that found on the forearm, smells like Sugar Puffs? Hold a lighter to your arm and see for yourself. Can anyone explain why? DANZIG666 18:46, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

I'm not trying that, as I shave bi-daily and my forearm hair is quite short. However, it might be because you apply scented deodorant, and anti-perspirant to your armpit. Shampoo to your head. So that could be it. Anyways, this isn't the best place to ask. Here you discuss the article, not the topic. --Puchiko 14:32, 2 October 2007 (UTC)--Puchiko 14:32, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] cosmetology & Shampoo cocktails

Does anybody remember how to do "shampoo cocktails"?

Please respond Debbie Willems email: debbiewillems@sbcglobal.net

Thank you Debbiewillems 16:44, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Practical Purpose

This article doesn't seem to list any practical reason for having hair, or why people would have more hair on their heads than elsewhere. I was under the impression it was insulation, or to help reduce the amoutn of thermal loss from one's skull (and therefore their brain, keep brain from freezing). PolarisSLBM 00:08, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Dealing with Hair Loss topics

What if we were to include information on types of hair loss and what causes it. Such as illness, hair pulling disorders, cancer treatments, and what people do to cope or compensate. Then the inverse situation of those who have hair ("virgin" healthy, no chemical treatments, no blow dryer) and would like to donate or sell their hair to those without. Maybe a list of sites used to donate or sell hair could be cited or included. What do you think?

Thank you.

--RileyMM (talk) 18:40, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

We don't need commercial links on this page. Thanks, OhNoitsJamie Talk 18:42, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Hair growth rate

Just wanted to know where in the article it would be suitable to put a statement on the growth rate of human hair? Rafi5288 (talk) 00:35, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Evolution as a Fact?

I find this article very informative; however, I don't believe that it is acceptable to phrase everything from the standpoint that evolutionary *theory* is a fact, when it cannot be proven and is indeed still a theory. Whether or not the majority of readers believe this theory does not make it a fact, nor does it mean it should be presented as such. I'm not advocating the statistics and things related to evolution be removed, but simply that they be stated in such a way that it demonstrates evolotion as a theory and not a fact (ie, "proponents of evolution believe that [blah blah blah]..."). 38.99.158.10 (talk) 21:53, 24 April 2008 (UTC)D

[edit] Growth rate

I was wondering why the growth rate of the hair on the head isn't specified in the article? --BiT (talk) 19:33, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Diameter/size/structure

There is little discussion of the diameter of various hair types on this page. The width of a (human) hair is one of the standards for small sizes, and I saw only the most cursory discussion of dimensions stated in this article. Additionally, some hair types are not circular in cross section, but rather more ribbon-like. I would encourage anyone with the knowledge of hair metrology to provide these basic parameters for various hair types (human and otherwise) to this mostly anthropological article. -Walter B. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.131.232.129 (talk) 00:37, 24 May 2008 (UTC)