Does hair take up nutrition when it grows?

The older generation often says that long hair will absorb nutrients from the head and make people stupid. This makes women who like to keep long hair very confused, and some even think that dry and split hair is caused by malnutrition. Is this really the case?

After a person's hair "breaks out of the skin" from the hair follicle, it becomes a hair shaft, which is the part of the hair exposed on the surface of the scalp.

The hair shaft is made up of dead keratin cells. It does not undergo metabolism and of course does not consume nutrients. That is to say, only healthy hair follicles need to consume certain nutrients when growing hair, while other parts of the hair do not consume nutrients. Regardless of whether the hair is long or short, healthy hair follicles will grow hair "regularly and quantitatively". Therefore, growing your hair long does not increase the nutritional needs of your hair. Moreover, compared with the nutritional consumption of body development, brain development, and fetal gestation, the nutritional needs of head hair follicles are negligible. As for the view that hair is close to the brain and that being too long will deprive the brain of nutrients, leading to dizziness and decreased intelligence, it is even more ridiculous. The hair follicles on the head are nourished by the blood vessels in the scalp, while the brain is nourished by the anterior, middle and posterior cerebral arteries. The two blood supply channels do not affect each other.

Some people have dry, yellow, and split hair, which may be caused by factors such as environment, sun exposure, and frequent dyeing and perming.

Cutting hair short cannot fundamentally solve the problem. The key is to strengthen hair care and maintenance. For example, reduce the number of times you perm or dye your hair, use a hair dryer less often, and wear a hat under the scorching sun. In terms of diet, you can eat more foods that are good for black hair and blood. For example, black rice can directly or indirectly regulate the body's metabolism, promote black hair, and also nourish hair follicle cells; peanuts are rich in cystine and methionine, the main components of hair, and can also be used as a nutritious food for hair care.