Hair Mystery

[Heidi_234]

Hey guys, I have a hair mystery for you.
When I S&D or just look though my ends, everytime I spot a pale end with a big white dot, I know for sure it's a shed hair. At first I thought that those hair got so much damage (and they've been around for so long), that's why they always shed, and always pale on the end. But recently I started to examine them more closely - I looked at the other end of each pale-ended shed hair I found - instead of finding the root, I found nothing! Each and every hair. By the look of the white dot on the end, which is bigger than usual breakage caused white dots, I could only conclude that this is the root. The pale end is nothing more than a pale root, since I henna my head, my roots appear little paler.
So that explains the odd pale ends, but rises more questions - how does my shed hairs end up being up side down? When I pull them out, they go all the way from my scalp (or so it seems, as you remember I was most sure those were regular shed hairs). How the ends of a shed hair ends up in my roots, and the roots lie right next to the ends? I pull hairs like those all the time, it's not a weird one time two time thing, it's so common, and that what's weird about it.
I don't backcomb, and I can't think of any other way that could happen! Can you thing of something? Does that happen to anybody?

[Heavenly Locks]

yes!! If I run my fingers through my hair I will usually find one or two shed hairs that seem to have a 'white dot' on the end...but when I tug, they are loose and 'rootless'? I find them when looking for S&D targets too!

I never thought that they might be upside down though??

Interesting that it's not just me!

[Heidi_234]

yes!! If I run my fingers through my hair I will usually find one or two shed hairs that seem to have a 'white dot' on the end...but when I tug, they are loose and 'rootless'? I find them when looking for S&D targets too!

I never thought that they might be upside down though??

Interesting that it's not just me!
How weird is that though?

[GeoJ]

I get that too. I don't know how they end up upside down.

[Heavenly Locks]

Well...can a hair shed without leaving a root knob? Maybe it's just missing that part and the tip happens to have a white dot damage? *thinking*

[Heidi_234]

Well...can a hair shed without leaving a root knob? Maybe it's just missing that part and the tip happens to have a white dot damage? *thinking*
I thought about that too. Doesn't make more sense than upside hairs though - it means that there's damage really close to the scalp, which is hardly true for the most part. Also, for me those hairs, they are orange-red all the way to the 'root', and pale undefined color at the 'end'. It just looks like the hair was hanging upside down - if I found this hair just on the comb, I'd assume the big white dot is the root, the pale color is the yet-to-see-henna growth and the rest is the hennaed length.

[Iylivarae]

Hair doesn't shed without a root knob. The root has to be pushed out of the follicle at the end of the life cycle, so the root has to come out some way - that's why there is a root knob at the end. I don't have an explanation for the upside-down hairs, it always happens to me, too, but I really have no idea how the hair does it. It also seems as if has started when I was at about waist, before I never noticed it. (But it could also be due to the fact that I didn't pay that much attention to my hair beforehand). The only thing I could think of is: If the hair is long enough, shed hair just don't slip out at the bottom, but they stay stuck in the hair (so the "long enough" would differ with the tanglyness of the hair). For it can't slip out, but isn't attached to the scalp, the upper part of the hair falls down. The hair would then be bent, with both the root and the tip at the hairline (or somewhere close to it).

[AnneAdeline]

Huh, I find shed hairs like that a lot in my hair. I can always tell because the end is lighter than the rest of my hair.
I've never thought about them being upside-down before, but that is what happens. Strange!

[fishwich]

Once the root end comes loose, gravity and combing work harder on that end and it folds over and stays (due to static, oil, braid, etc) in your hair for a while before being removed entirely? That's my guess, anyway.

[Heidi_234]

Once the root end comes loose, gravity and combing work harder on that end and it folds over and stays (due to static, oil, braid, etc) in your hair for a while before being removed entirely? That's my guess, anyway.
Well, but combing should have pulled the whole hair out, if it's not aligned in the direction of the rest.
:confused:

[Furiana]

Well, but combing should have pulled the whole hair out, if it's not aligned in the direction of the rest.
:confused:

Yeah, I know! I get these too, and I still don't know how they got upside down. I'll have to pay attention next time: Are they doubled over, or are they totally upside down?

[Heidi_234]

Yeah, I know! I get these too, and I still don't know how they got upside down. I'll have to pay attention next time: Are they doubled over, or are they totally upside down?
Me too... I'm pretty sure they weren't doubled over, but you'll never know...

[Silverlox]

Could it be that when you groom your hair, it gets stuck in the comb/brush, but when you make the next stroke some of them get "deposited" back again? Upside down this time?

Honestly, I have no idea as I've never heard about it before. I tend not to examine my sheds that closely. :eye:

Basically, I'm just guessing wildly. :silly:

[Kiraela]

I've noticed it too, but only when I brush frequently, not comb. I think Silverlox might be on to something, here! Maybe one of us could do an expirement to find out? I lost my comb, so I'm of no use there until I can find a new one, though...

[Heidi_234]

I've noticed it too, but only when I brush frequently, not comb. I think Silverlox might be on to something, here! Maybe one of us could do an expirement to find out? I lost my comb, so I'm of no use there until I can find a new one, though...
I guess I can try to clean the comb after each stroke and see if the upside down hairs stop to appear. That could be a nice experiment. :)

[MadHatter]

I get those weird upside-down hairs, too. I think Silverlox has a good explanation, though.

[Iylivarae]

Could it be that when you groom your hair, it gets stuck in the comb/brush, but when you make the next stroke some of them get "deposited" back again? Upside down this time?


At least for me, this can't be. I only use a comb, and I always remove the hair that was stuck in the comb.

[Pierre]

I get them too, sometimes. Think of the hair as a snake with its head at the root. A hair can't stretch like a snake, but it does have scales, and the movements of the hairs around it can make it slither.

[JamieLeigh]

Wow. Does that mean when you S&D and you trim off the white dots, you could actually be trimming off the roots of shed hairs? :confused: Why do I feel like suddenly I've been wasting a lot of time.....? lol

[Darkhorse1]

The hair isn't 'upside down'. Most likely, if you can't find the root, the hair is broken OR, the root, to my understanding, thins before it falls out--thus making it probably very difficult to see to the naked eye. I read this somewhere, but where?? I first thought that myself, but later looked really closly and found that it had either broken, or the root wasn't easy to see :)

[spidermom]

My hair does all kinds of weird things, but it's never flipped around 180 degrees.

[Darkhorse1]

My hair flips around like that in heavy winds, but it's still attached to my head.

My guess:
1. It's broken hair
2. The root isn't visible to the naked eye
3. You've turned it around by accident.
4. It's a mystery.

[Heidi_234]

Wow. Does that mean when you S&D and you trim off the white dots, you could actually be trimming off the roots of shed hairs? :confused: Why do I feel like suddenly I've been wasting a lot of time.....? lol
If you pay attention, you'll see the difference. Those white dots do look different (not to mention the pale root/or/end, unless it only pale on my hair because I henna). Next time, when you S&D, try to look closely, and if you suspect one of those white dots might be this maybe-upside-down hair like mine, try gently pull it. It will glide out easily if it's shed, and you'll feel it if it's not.
I might have trimmed off tons of white dots like that before spotting the phenomenon, so don't feel too bad lol. At least they are very easy to spot once you know they exist.


My hair flips around like that in heavy winds, but it's still attached to my head.

My guess:
1. It's broken hair
2. The root isn't visible to the naked eye
3. You've turned it around by accident.
4. It's a mystery.
1. Some of those hairs are as long as the longest hairs I have! There's very little chance it was broken, because it means it was even longer, and I trimmed just a week or so ago.
2. I can understand that - but why every single hair like has pale end and big white dot? Every. Single. Hair.
I actually know they are shed by the look of the root. Haven't come across a pale ended white dotted hair which is not shed yet. I wish I had pictures, they really stand out, they really don't look like breakage caused white dots.
3. The hair fiary who like to do little knots in my hair did it, I didn't!
4. :p It's mystery until somebody comes up with a logical explanation! Drives me crazy! :justy: :lol: