Did You Know?
Bearing The Weight of the World - Or Two Elephants - On Your Shoulders
That’s right. You don’t have to be Arnold Schwarzenegger to hold the weight of two elephants on your shoulders, but you do have to have a full head of hair. The locks of the average person (who has up to 150,000 hair follicles on their head) can support more than ten tons! That’s the approximate weight of two full-grown elephants!
Made up of 88% protein, hair gets its strength from the bonds between the hydrogen, salt,cystine, and sugar in the shaft. It covers most of the human body and comes in many colors, lengths, textures, and thicknesses, and it serves many functions for us: insulation, protection, friction buffer, and redirection of water and sweat from the body.
While we don’t recommend trying to test the elephant theory with your head of hair, we do suggest trying out one of these easy experiments at home or in your classroom!
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