• Question: hi fellow scientists , Did you know that i read 1000 hairs fall out you hair in a day is that true if so why when and how ? i will be happy to hear you repsonse from all my cool fellow scientists good bye have a nice day :)

    Asked by hannahrice2 to Judith, Gemma, Diana, Akshat, Aime on 14 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Judith McCann

      Judith McCann answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      its more like between 50-100, all the tissue (including hair) has a natural turnover, your body replaces everything sooner or later (except i think some heart cells) even your bones, so you have a completely different skeleton now from when you were born!

      you lose some hair with washing or brushing, others are pushed out by new hair growth-its normal so dont panic!! im fairly sure you only have a few thousand strands of hair to start with , hope that answers your question

    • Photo: Gemma Sharp

      Gemma Sharp answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hi hannahrice2 🙂

      Losing hairs each day is completely normal. Sometimes we might lose a few more if we’re particularly stressed or if we’re not eating properly. As Judith says, 50-100 is probably about right for hair on your head. I guess over your whole body that would be a lot more, so maybe somewhere approaching 1000 but that does seem like an awful lot.

      Although, I have really thick hair (too thick!) and sometimes I wish I’d lose about 1000 per day!

    • Photo: Akshat Rathi

      Akshat Rathi answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I think Judith and Gemma are right. The number has to be in that range. I say so because the total number of hair on a persons head is in between 100,000 to 150,000. So if you lost 1000 a day then you a person would go bald in three to five months. That doesn’t happen obviously.

      Also if the body grew 1000 hair per day to replace the ones that fall then we would never need a hair cut. But that doesn’t happen either. So 50 -100 hair falling a day seems reasonable. 🙂

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