Have you ever thought about how your hair grows? It’s a pretty interesting topic! Let me tell you a fun story. Once, my niece Catherine, who was just three years old, decided to give herself a haircut. She cut off the front part of her hair! It wasn’t the best haircut, but don’t worry, her hair grew back. Hair grows, but it takes time.
Someone named Seth asked a great question: “How does hair grow?” You might have a favorite hairstyle, like braids or bangs. Have you ever seen really long hair? There’s a woman named Xie Qiuping from China who has the longest hair in the world. Her hair is longer than a school bus! But how does hair grow so long?
Let’s think about what we know. We know hair grows slowly, just like trees. Trees grow slowly too, but they don’t need to be watered in the shower! So, how does hair grow?
Take a look at your hair in the mirror. Each piece of hair comes out of a tiny hole in your head. Underneath your skin, there’s a little round thing called a follicle. This is where the magic happens!
Follicles are like tiny factories. They use nutrients from the food you eat to make hair material. As more hair material is made, it piles up and pokes out of your head. That’s what you see as your hair! The part of the follicle under your skin is alive, which is why it hurts if you pull your hair. But the hair you see is not alive, so cutting it doesn’t hurt.
If you never cut your hair, it would get really long, but not as long as Rapunzel’s in the story “Tangled.” In real life, each hair stops growing after about five years and falls out. Then, a new hair grows in its place. This is why we don’t have hair that grows forever.
You’ve probably seen this with pets too. Dogs and cats shed their fur, which means old hair falls out and new hair grows in. It’s a normal process for all living creatures.
Some people can grow their hair longer because their hair stays on their head a bit longer than most. This gives it more time to grow. There are many other questions about hair, like why some people go bald or why hair comes in different colors. These are all interesting topics we can explore another time!
Hair grows from tiny round things in your head called follicles. Follicles use nutrients from your food to make hair material, which piles up and becomes the hair you see. Thanks for asking such a great question, Seth! Remember, there are mysteries all around us, so stay curious and keep learning!
Hair Growth Observation: Over the next week, observe your hair and the hair of your family members or pets. Use a ruler to measure a small section of your hair at the start and end of the week. Write down any changes you notice. Discuss with your family why some hair might grow faster than others.
Follicle Factory Craft: Create a simple model of a hair follicle using craft materials like paper, pipe cleaners, and clay. Use the pipe cleaner to represent the hair and the clay to form the follicle. As you build, think about how the follicle uses nutrients to “build” the hair. Share your model with the class and explain how it works.
Hair Growth Story Time: Imagine you are a tiny hair growing out of a follicle. Write a short story about your journey from inside the follicle to becoming a full-grown hair. What do you see and feel? What adventures do you have along the way? Share your story with a friend or family member.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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(phone rings) – Hi, it’s Doug. Have you ever cut your own hair? Well, this is my niece, Catherine, when she was about three years old. That’s when she decided to cut off the very front part of her hair. Let’s just say it wasn’t the best haircut. Now, she claimed her imaginary friend made her do it. Eventually, her hair grew back, but it took a while. Hair doesn’t grow very quickly.
Someone named Seth has a question about hair. Let’s give Seth a call now. (phone rings) – Hi, Doug. – Hi, Seth. – I have a question for you. How does hair grow? – That’s a great question. You’ve probably thought a lot about your hair. Maybe you have a favorite hairstyle, like braids, bangs, or a quiff. That’s when you brush it upwards and back. You may have even seen Xie Qiuping’s hair from China. According to the “Guinness Book of World Records,” she holds the record for the world’s longest hair. Her hair grew 18 and a half feet long. That’s longer than a school bus. Or, there’s Tyler Wright. His record-breaking Afro is almost one foot high.
But how does hair even grow this long? Before we answer, it may be helpful to look at what you already know about hair. You know that people have different hairstyles. You know that your hair grows; otherwise, you wouldn’t have to cut it. You also know that it grows slowly, really slowly. Imagine taking a walk outside. Besides hair, are there any other things in nature that grow slowly? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
Okay, you ready? I’m not sure what ideas you may have come up with, but one thing I thought of was a tree. Trees also grow really slowly, like our hair. Could it be that the growth of our hair has something in common with a tree? Like, does our hair grow because we water it in the shower? Well, not really. Our hair would still grow if we didn’t get it wet, but in some ways, it is like a tree.
Take a look at your hair in the mirror. Hold a piece of your hair in your fingers and look closely at where it meets your head. It’s kind of hard to see, but each piece of our hair is coming out of a tiny hole, and each piece of hair has a part of it that goes underneath your skin a little ways, just like a tree has a part that goes underneath the ground, the root. Does each piece of our hair have a root? Well, you can’t see into these holes very easily, but using microscopes, scientists can look down under your skin into the bottom of that hole. It turns out, in each hole, there’s a little round thing called a follicle. That’s where all the magic happens.
You see, scientists have discovered that just like the roots of a tree soak up water and nutrients from the earth, a follicle soaks up nutrients from the food you eat and turns that into the material that your hair is made of. As the follicle creates more and more hair material, it begins to pile upwards in a column, eventually poking out of your head. That’s what each strand of hair is: the piled-up hair material made by each follicle. The bottom part of each follicle is actually alive, which is why it hurts when you pull a piece of hair out. But the part that you see, the hair material that piles up, is dead. So you can cut it and it doesn’t hurt.
But what would happen if we never cut our hair? Would it just keep growing and growing, like Rapunzel’s hair in “Tangled”? Well, it would probably get really long, but even though your hair would grow a lot, it would never get as long as Rapunzel’s. There’s a reason she’s a made-up character from a story. In real life, each hair on your head stops growing after about five years. Then it falls out and gets replaced by a new hair. So each hair on your head doesn’t keep growing forever because we shed our hair.
You’ve probably noticed this in pets too. If you own a dog or a cat, I bet you’ve seen lots of fur around the house. That’s because it’s normal for living creatures to lose each hair after a certain amount of time. Old hair falls out and new hair grows in. It’s happening constantly. But you may be wondering, if we’re always losing each hair, why is it that some people are able to grow their hair so long?
Remember earlier when I said each hair on your head stops growing after about five years and falls out? That’s true for most of us, but scientists have found that for some people, their hair stays on their head a little longer than it does for the rest of us. That gives it more time to grow. There are so many other questions you might be wondering about hair now, like why do some people go bald as they get older? And why do people have different color hair? All great questions. Maybe we can explore these in another episode.
So in summary, hair grows from tiny round things in your head called follicles. The follicle gets material from your food and turns it into hair material. As the follicle creates more and more hair material, it begins to pile upwards, eventually poking out of your head. That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Seth, for asking it. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next week.
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