Hot answers tagged

85 votes
Accepted

Do nails and hair continue to grow after death?

No, this is false. The University of Arkansas Medical Services debunks this myth: Hair and fingernails may appear longer after death, but not because they are still growing. Instead, a persons ...
March Ho's user avatar
  • 18.7k
60 votes
Accepted

Is a married woman in Michigan required to have her husband's permission to cut her hair?

The claim is false. For at least 171 years (93%) of Michigan's 184 year existence, married women in Michigan have NOT needed their husband's permission to do anything to their hair. Since 1850, the ...
Barry Harrison's user avatar
13 votes
Accepted

Is it possible to get a reliable match from 'microscopic hair analysis'?

In this NYT video it is said that a 2002 paper found that the false positive rate is 11% when also tested via mtDNA. The paper referenced is probably "Correlation of microscopic and mitochondrial ...
Fizz's user avatar
  • 59.8k
12 votes

Is a married woman in Michigan required to have her husband's permission to cut her hair?

There is a video of a Michigan attorney debunking that claim. While he points out correctly that it is comparatively hard to prove a negative, he has tried to do just that. See the first of the points ...
Peter - Reinstate Monica's user avatar
11 votes
Accepted

Does stress cause hair to go grey?

Evidence: A 2013 study found that hormones produced in response to stress can reduce melanocyte stem cells that determine hair color. A 2013 New York University study published in Nature Magazine ...
pericles316's user avatar
  • 22.7k
8 votes

Does trimming your hair regularly make it grow faster?

The hair doesn't know, that it's been cut. Means that the hair grows as long as the anagen period allows. It grows continuously before it eventually stops, no matter how often you cut it. The ...
Maria's user avatar
  • 91
7 votes

Does washing your hair with a coal-tar soap prevent hair loss and accommodate hair growth?

In its essence this is true. Therapeutic doses of coal tar – or Liquor carbonis detergens – are used and effective against overproducing sebum, dandruff and a range of other problems with hair. Its ...
LangLаngС's user avatar
  • 44.1k
6 votes

Does laser phototherapy treat male pattern hair-loss?

I was totally ready to say this is a complete and utter sham, however I have found two papers that seem to indicate that there is some positive effect from using the Hairmax device. A Rutgers team (...
JasonR's user avatar
  • 9,257
6 votes
Accepted

Is removing hairs from a mole harmful?

As per my comment, this was actually asked in the NY Times Science section. Q. If I tweeze out the single hair that grows from a facial mole, will it cause cancer, as my friend insists? A. “No,” said ...
JasonR's user avatar
  • 9,257
5 votes
Accepted

Do hats or ponytails induce baldness?

tl;dr- Yes, wearing hair such that it's pulled tight can cause hair loss. Wearing loose-fitting hair styles or head wear shouldn't cause as much hair loss; whether or not it causes none at all or ...
Nat's user avatar
  • 4,111
4 votes

Is a married woman in Michigan required to have her husband's permission to cut her hair?

This claim has changed over time. It may have originated as a Wisconsin story. I found some key details in the March 29, 1954 edition of the The Holland Evening Sentinel: There is a famous case of a ...
Avery's user avatar
  • 44.9k
4 votes

Do you need to "wash, rinse and repeat"?

"Repeated wash and rinse is required for most people?" – No – no need! Earliest usage or origin? Rumour has it that David Ogilvy invented this "trick" for Proctor & Gamble". But it is unlikely ...
LangLаngС's user avatar
  • 44.1k
3 votes
Accepted

Does hair fall first from the top of head because of reduced blood supply due to lack of movement?

Hair falls from the top of head first because the follicles there are more androgen-sensitive. Within the distribution of hair over the scalp, androgen-sensitive hair follicles are on top and ...
DavePhD's user avatar
  • 105k
2 votes

Does Finasteride reduce hair loss?

Separate studies are conducted on men and woman. Long-term treatment with finasteride 1 mg decreases the likelihood of developing further visible hair loss in men with androgenetic alopecia (male ...
DavePhD's user avatar
  • 105k
1 vote

Does your hair grow faster when you're sick?

This is not a very authoritative answer but skimming through this book on The Biology of Hair Growth leads me to doubt it. It talks a lot about the limited factors which can stimulate hair growth but ...
Brian Z's user avatar
  • 7,350
1 vote

Are red-heads going extinct?

Some phenotypes caused by recessive genes occur in sub-populations that tend to reproduce with other members of the sub-population. For example, Tay-Sachs disease is a recessive genetic disease ...
Andrew Grimm's user avatar
  • 38.9k
1 vote

Do dogs tend to distrust men with beards?

Dogs have some kind of facial recognition according to studies, for example http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-013-0713-0 Abstract Faces play an important role in communication ...
Markko's user avatar
  • 59

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