Noticed some strange shedding

[molljo]

For the past month and a half I've been very diligently collecting my shed hairs so I can get my hair analyzed by GooseFootprints on etsy. I've never been a big shedder, at most I can expect to lose 20 hairs a day, but it's usually about 10-15. Even with this small amount, I should have been able to collect enough in a few days since she only asks for 40-50. However, I noticed that, even though my hair is mostly medium texture, with a healthy mix of fine and coarse, nearly every single hair that actually sheds is baby fine and light colored, even though I have dark brown hair. After a month and half, only 7 mediums have shed, and one coarse. This isn't fine hairs breaking off, as they've come out painlessly with the roots still attached, so I assume they're regular shed hairs. Since I want to give her an actually representative sample, I can't give her a mound of fine, light, wispy hairs and expect results that are accurate for the hairs that refuse to come out. She says on her website that you can cut hairs at the root for a sample, which I really didn't want to do, but it'll take until the end of the year if I keep waiting.

So, my question is, does this reflect anyone else's experience? Is there any science or anecdotal evidence behind finer hairs having a shorter lifespan vs coarser hairs having a longer one? Is my hair just weird??

[martyna_22]

While reading your post, the first thing that came to mind was the shorter lifespan of these hair strands. I have lots of these around my face and they never seem to get longer, and there's nothing I can do about it. I usually shed very little as well, and these fine short strands are the most common ones that I see combed/brushed out.
So either this is normal or we're both abnormal, either way, you're not alone :)

[molljo]

That's good to hear, thank you!!

Before I started doing this, I never really paid attention to shedding, mainly because there wasn't much of it, so I think I was just surprised by the sheer amount of fine hair I have and the toughness of my hardier strands.