We are quite privileged to be present in day and age where science has its hands on us to proof the facts of life and find between what is right and what is wrong. It also helps uncover some of the biggest myths around the world and show a proper reasoning as to why we recognize them as the way they are.
Some people in certain part of the earth with little to no knowledge come out with a supposed concept and with their following achieve to rotate the info across the seas and manage to suck out the people’s ability to question the concept out of trust and belief.
Here we are about to recognize some of the big myths that are believed from generations and have managed to manipulate a chunk of population.
Let’s find out:
Hair Myths that are believed to be real
Hair is a sensitive subject to the people because it manipulated a lot of peoples’ idea of beauty and their inner thoughts. Since it concerns to the connection with the community, it makes us desperate to do whatever is in our hands to do for our hair to be in best shape. This desperation cause people believing in those myths.
Some of those myths are:
#1 – The more you cut your hair, the more it grows.
This is one of the biggest myths lying around in peoples’ minds. There is no connection between size of the hair and the growth of the hair.
Reason: It is popular because most people believe that those split ends cause the hair to grow no more ahead. So if we cut those slit ends it will be easier for hair to grow.
Truth: The truth is that hair grows from the roots and not from the tips. So it is baseless to say that cutting more will grow more. Although, the cutting hair thing helps eliminate split ends. But that’s as far as it gets.
#2 – Shaving your head improves the hair density.
This is also false. Shaving your head doesn’t go till the roots, rather only till the surface of scalp. Does shaving your scalp helps your hair growth, find out.
Reason: It has the same as before. Since the surface of the head is clean, your hair is extremely short within your head. So again, the size of hair doesn’t matter. Also you still have same amount of hair follicles in your scalp.
Truth: Shaving your head exposes scalp to sun in much better way so it helps the Vit D to absorb better. But the effect of it is minimal to nothing on your hair density.
Growing hair on a shaved head also feels denser because we look at a reference picture from back. And the hair on the surface is always thicker than the tips, so initially it feels like thicker hair.
#3 – Natural hair drying is better than blow drying:
The word better is a subjective term. It raises questions like ‘better than what’ or ‘better for whom’.
Reason: These myths on hair is just a belief due to the hangover of going as natural as possible and these equipments are always for the worse. When you have short hair its fine for hair to dry out naturally.
Truth: Its actually the contrary for longer hair. Blow drying will remove the moisture from hair early which if absorbed by the hair can wash off the keratin inside, compromising with the strength of the hair.
#4 – Hair gets used to the shampoo.
It is a popular belief that hair gets used to the shampoo so you should not constantly change the choice of shampoo.
Reason: Marketing teams of the well-known shampoo brands started this. It proved to be a well-placed gimmick to up the scales in their favour.
Truth: Hair, like your nails, are made of dead tissue. It cannot get addicted to any single kind of soap, or shampoo. In other words, if you wash your hair with same kind of soap or a shampoo, it won’t get dirtier faster or grow slower. On the other hand, if you keep changing your shampoo, it won’t dry out your hair or make your scalp itchy.
#5 – A dry scalp is the main cause of dandruff.
This is the most ridiculous myth among people.
Reason: Since dandruff appears to be a little flakes of your scalp tissue, it’s understandable to presume that it might be happening due to drying out of scalp and becoming flaky.
Truth: It is actually the opposite literally. Dandruff appears on an oily scalp. So when this problem appears, people think they have a dry scalp and apply more oil which just escalades the problem.
#6 – Frequent combing heals hair.
These myths on hair arose from old times when.
Reason: It was in old days when women simply didn’t have that much hygienic habits. They believed that combing of hair was a peculiar substitute for washing.
Truth: When people do frequent combing, what they are doing is they are distributing the oil and helping the oil from scalp crawl up to the tips. Oil gets distributed along the hair. As a result, it gets more and more dirty.
However, combing does nothing to the health of the hair but it can cause split ends if done frequently. Therefore, comb only when it is necessary. In this case, only a small amount of oil distributes so it makes them look shiny instead of dirty.
#7 – Proper care using market products will help your hair become thicker.
Don’t let those TV commercials fool you.
Reason: Again, marketing teams of hair product companies created these in order to boost up their sales.
Truth: The truth is, number of hair follicles and the thickness of hair is a genetic trait. Our genes govern it. Quality of care is not a factor you should rely on.
Obviously, you can keep you diet clean and nourish your scalp to help it be in its best shape, but this would not override what is in your genes. So those expensive products on those market shelves will do no good to your hair. Quality of care is not a factor you should rely on.
#8 – The more you wash your hair, the oilier it becomes.
If something works for others, it doesn’t guarantee that it will also work for you as well or in the matter of fact anybody.
Reason: You cannot generalise selective behaviour. We can’t determine something which works for small sample of population as a rule of thumb
Truth: Just like colour, thickness and shape or texture of hair, amount of oil released by fat cells is laid genetically. So, frequency of washing your hair, either it may be high or low, does not determine the condition or hygiene of your hair.
Therefore, it does not tell how dirty your hair is going to get. However, proper care will calibrate your sebaceous glands and your hair will get dirty on a slower pace.
#9 – If you tear a grey hair, you will get 2-3 in its place.
This myth is a processed after the myths of shaving or cutting you hair to improve hair growth.
Reason: According to this logic easiest explanation to hair density problem is that you never tear your hair off quite often. Start tearing your hair to growth back volume and density.
Truth: The colour of hair has nothing to do with the density of hair. As a matter of fact, it even does not depend on care and proper nutrition. It depends on the number of follicles which is purely a genetic trait.
Tearing out might even destroy that follicle and you might end up growing nothing there instead of 2-3. You keep your diet in place to make the existing follicle healthy and growing.
#10 – Taking cold shower improves hair density.
These are more of a speculation than the myths on hair, and no proper source tells the truth.
Reason: We believe that cold shower will cure the cuticles off and therefore it will provide smooth hair.
Truth: Hair is made of dead tissue. Temperature has no effect on dead tissue. However, people think that it sends shock signals to the roots and as defence mechanism it grabs on to the hair. But if that so, it will be for a very short span of time which will have no effect on hair quality.
#11 – Hair ends can be recovered.
Popularly believed by people due to information passed on by media.
Reason: Reason behind these myths on hair is again our marketing team of hair product companies. They have a lot in their bag to uplift their sales.
Truth: Yes, you can close split ends with the help of special masks and oils, but it is not possible to cure them. To get rid of them, you need to only cut them time to time.
CONCLUSION
Everybody knows that saying, desperate times take desperate measures. But in order to get out of desperate problems, you should not slip out of logic. Not just in case of hair but in any area of life, we should not let govern the myth roaming around to alter the lifestyle we choose to live in.
We have debunked many myths related to hair. Constant researches made in hair through science and technology resulted into this. Soon enough we will be able to cure baldness within weeks which is quite difficult today. But not so long !
