You
may think you’re a strange person that no one will ever
understand, but give a scientist one strand of your hair and
this much will be known about you: your ethnic origin, what
you eat, if or what you smoke and even your lifestyle.
Researchers from London’s Natural History Museum say
our hair -- even though it’s just dead cells -- acts
like an Arctic ice core, trapping within its physical and
chemical structure an accurate record of whatever has been
ingested or applied to it externally. "Your hair tells
what you eat, where you live, your lifestyle, and habits,"
Emma Freeman from London’s
Natural History Museum explained to Reuters. "Your hair
is what you do."
Since
your hair only grows 0.3 to 0.5 millimeters each day, it keeps
this life diary for a long time -- months or even years. Your
hair can tell if you smoke, drink, or if you take drugs. It
can even tell your ethnic origin since different races have
different hair structures.
Some
facts about hair:
The average person has
up to 150,000 hairs on her or his head.
A single strand can
support 100 grams in weight. That means, a whole head of hair
could (in theory) support the weight of two elephants.
African hair grows more
slowly and is more fragile than European hair.
Asian hair grows the
fastest and has the greatest elasticity.
Africans and Europeans
are more prone than Asians to balding.
There is one thing
about you that your hair cannot reveal: Your gender.
