Hi, I'm Craig. Welcome to the salon
Did you know that people used to believe that brass instruments caused hair loss? The myth got started in 1896 when American journalists announced that they'd finally discovered what was making people lose their hair. Music
Specifically, they blame brass instruments for society's hair loss. But as most defenders of marching bands will tell you, there is zero truth to the rumor that too much sousaphone will make you go bald
And that's the first of many hair myths that the scientists at Head & Shoulders are helping us clear up in today's episode so I can condition you to stop telling hair lies
I won't be conditioning my own hair, that's for sure. Not much up there. Another common myth is that baldness only gets passed down from your mother's side of the family
That's not really the case. While your mother's side has slightly more impact on the fate of your locks
your hair is just like everything else in your genetic makeup. A mix of your parents' traits
A lot of folks think that dandruff is a modern problem and that our great-great-grandfathers
weren't really concerned with flakes and itchy scalps. But they were. In fact, one of the things that made the Greek physician Galen so famous is that in 200 AD
he made a public service announcement letting the world know that drinking bull urine doesn't
actually reduce your dandruff. Any excuse to drink bull urine. Massaging your head with warm oil is often cited as a remedy for dandruff. That's because
people think the flakes are caused by a dry scalp. In fact, the flakes and the itching
are just signs of dandruff The real culprit is a little microbe called Malassezia globosa When this microbe feasts on scalp oils it breaks them down into an irritant called oleic acid And because our scalps are sensitive they get stressed out and start shedding skin cells
more rapidly than usual. It's a vicious cycle of oil releasing, microbe feasting, and scratching
and flaking. Which is exactly what I'm like at a job interview. Over the course of history, people have had some terrible ideas on how to get rid of flakes
Back in the 1890s, snake oil salesmen used to advertise cure-alls that had cocaine in
them. Just because an ointment makes your head dangle doesn't mean it's working. If you actually want to combat dandruff, you put down that cocaine shampoo, Junior, and
get something that will stop or control the microbe from making oleic acid and irritating
your scalp. Lots of people think shampoo is a western invention. The word shampoo actually
comes from the Hindi word chompy, used to describe a cleansing head massage done with
oils. Saikh Dean Mohammed is a man who actually brought shampoo to the west in the late 1700s
and early 1800s. After working his way into British society, he began billing himself
as a shampoo surgeon and would scrub the heads of European monarchs
Once kings got into the hair washing habit, commoners were intrigued, and soon they were all about the rinse and repeat
Soon, they were all about the rinse and repeat. As we know from cop shows, you can tell a lot about a person from a single strand of hair
One thing you can't tell, however, is a person's sex. There aren't any characteristics that reveal whether you're looking at a man or a woman's
hair, though sometimes you can make an educated guess from the type of product in the locks
You've probably heard that shaving your hair will make it grow back twice as thick, but that's not true
I tried Trust me Often shaved hairs look thicker when they grow back because of the way the prickly stubble emerges but shaving your hair won actually change your hair general thickness Look at all that hair Yeah
Even on her body. Looking good, Mitzi. Looking good. There's a grooming rule of thumb that men should schedule a haircut every four weeks to look sharp
but that's not accurate for everyone because that hair grows different for different people. Okay
Not everyone can have a full head of hair. According to a French study published in the International Journal of Dermatology, or IJAD
Asian hair grows up to 30% faster than Caucasian hair, while people with origins from Central
West, and South Africa have hair that grows slower. Just because you see hair in your shower drain, it doesn't mean that you're going bald
There's a difference between hair loss, where your follicles stop generating hair, and hair
fall, where the hair breaks from all the itching and dryness because you're not giving your scalp and hair enough love
Marsha Brady popularized the idea that brushing hair with 100 strokes a day led to shinier
healthier hair. But the truth is, that sort of aggressive friction against the head actually leads to cuticle
damage and less resilient hair. And now for some ancient superstitions we'd like to disprove quickly
People with thinning hair have bad luck. That's ridiculous. I would never ever believe that
Those with thick hair will suffer in life. If you cut some hair and bury it at the roots of a bamboo tree, your hair will turn black
That's ridiculous. But if you eat from a bamboo tree, you might be a panda bear
There's a popular notion that if you pluck a gray hair, two more will grow in its place. According to dermatologists what happens to one hair follicle really doesn affect the neighbor There a strong argument for not plucking your hairs however If you keep picking at one follicle too much you can damage it to the point that it will no longer grow hair As the saying goes if you prick me do I not bleed
If you pluck me, I don't grow two into two of me
So what does cause gray hairs? As several presidents have shown in their second term, gray hairs can result from stress
But contrary to popular belief, stress isn't the only factor. Stress does contribute to your hair's graying, but genetics, pollution, and chemical exposure
all speed up the process. In fact, smoking can make your gray much faster. Just another
good reason to quit. Just don't smoke! And finally, I returned to the salon to tell you that hairstylists often claim that washing
your hair in cold water is a great trick for making your hair look shinier. The theory
is that ice cold water forces your cuticles to close so that your hair stays flat and
light reflective. But according to the dermatologist, none of that is true. Because your hair doesn't
contain living cells, it won't react to the cold water. Instead, conditioners and styling
products are a better bet for smoothing your cuticles and getting the sheen you want
Not Charlie Sheen. Nobody wants that. Thanks for watching Mental Floss on YouTube, which is made with the help of these hairy people
And thanks again to the scientists at Head & Shoulders for helping us make this episode on hair misconceptions possible
So hopefully you can brush off your friends who are constantly lying about hair
Sorry, I have to part. But come back next week