PDA

View Full Version : Weird: What Is Going On?



Flynn
August 6th, 2009, 01:31 AM
I just found a shed -- definitely mine, it was still in the bulk of my hair, and it's both too fine and a little too long to be my boyfriends -- which was BLACK, absolutely jet black even against something else black from the roots to about 1/3 of its length, at which point it transitioned smoothly to my more normal goldy-brown. That is a transition in colour along a single hair.

I have a few black hairs in there; they are probably medium or m/c (but they look coarse to me next to the rest of my hair...!), with a slightly flattened profile, and I have no idea what's going on with them, but I've always had one or two. This one is not one of them. It is normal thickness (i.e. fine) and profile the whole way up; it is only the colour that is unusual.

I have never dyed my hair in my life.

Any clues? Has this happened to you?

Redheaded Raven
August 6th, 2009, 01:47 AM
It is either one of yours, which is most likely, or you picked up a hitchhiker! :p I have many different colors of hair o my head and not all of them have the same type or consistency. I vote for that. :D

Flynn
August 6th, 2009, 01:53 AM
It's definitely one of mine. The colour of the end, the fineness, the length and the ... er, shape (?) all match (my hairs by themselves make these very characteristic big, loose spirals).

You have ones that change along the length of a single hair, though...?

Redheaded Raven
August 6th, 2009, 02:10 AM
It's definitely one of mine. The colour of the end, the fineness, the length and the ... er, shape (?) all match (my hairs by themselves make these very characteristic big, loose spirals).

You have ones that change along the length of a single hair, though...?

Yes, absolutely!
I have also found different type and color of hair, that are growing from the same folicle. I often have more than one hair in a folicle and one will be thick and one will be finer. Then I have hair that is for lack of a better term loopy. It gets think and then fine and then thick again. Those tend to be more curly than others. Then I have hair that is lighter on the root ends than the other, and hair that is darker at the roots. I have always had strange hair. Some of my black hair had blonde roots so I cannot figure that one out at all, it wasn't dyed or anything, it just was strange. :o

manderly
August 6th, 2009, 03:38 AM
I have found many of those, I keep meaning to photograph one to show off. It's all weird and kind of kinky. It looks like a strand of my hair, but coarser, and it looks like someone flattened it every couple of inches. Very bizarre!

Gypsygirl
August 6th, 2009, 03:43 AM
Yes, I have some of those, too! :) I am blonde...but occasionally I will find a single black hair or one that is dark brown near the root and then gets redder and redder. :confused: These hairs are usually much coarser as well.

Aditi
August 6th, 2009, 03:57 AM
I get them too but very rarely right now i have spotted this one hair strand which is much more thicker than the rest of them and is competely black in color whereas my hair has medium brown color :confused:

free_hug
August 6th, 2009, 04:10 AM
Absolutely, and though its weird, it happend to me so many times already i count it as normal. A normal individual hair on my head is thin, wavy, and so light brown almost transparent. But sometimes (rarely) i shed a big fat dark and straight one.
I wish i had more of those though. I likes big hair, and will probably never have it :/

Katze
August 6th, 2009, 04:23 AM
me too. I just chalk it up to centuries of genetic fun! :D

Aditi
August 6th, 2009, 04:25 AM
Same here, it would be great if i get more of those thick dark color hair :D

RoseRedDead
August 6th, 2009, 04:38 AM
We just had a thread on this... http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=29508&highlight=head+pubes

Attack of the head pubes!

I have these too. I think it's just normal. Mine are near black and very wirey.

GlassEyes
August 6th, 2009, 05:16 AM
Happens. :shrug: Not every hair on your head will match the overall color, or even the texture.

I'm pretty certain that before I hennaed if I bothered to look I'd find red hairs on my head. :shrug: Probably coarse ones too. My beard and my father (who says he's had them, and he's the one I get my color from) lead me to believe this is true. Might not be, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Kiraela
August 6th, 2009, 07:48 AM
My hair is a dark brown that looks almost black, and I've got at least a dozen or so bright red hairs. I'm talking 'henna over white-blonde' colored. I've also got very light blondeish hairs growing at my front hairline.. I figure i'm just weird that way, though, haha.

As far as I can tell, they don't change texture or color down the strand, though.

Delila
August 6th, 2009, 10:15 AM
When I was first growing out my hair, I found a strand that at one point had been solid gray, then went back to my usual color.

talervo
August 6th, 2009, 10:21 AM
I've always had at least 5 different color and thickness of hairs. It is weird to find a dark thick one, though. Isn't there something where your hair normally changes every 7 years or so, though? Maybe it just has something to do with the hair changing after the terminal phase?

Reptilia
August 6th, 2009, 10:23 AM
I have found many of those, I keep meaning to photograph one to show off. It's all weird and kind of kinky. It looks like a strand of my hair, but coarser, and it looks like someone flattened it every couple of inches. Very bizarre!

That describes mine exactly! I thought I was just strange lol

florenonite
August 6th, 2009, 01:33 PM
My wee sister has white blonde hair and I've found black strands attached to her head before. They're fine like the rest of her hair, too :shrug: I think it's just normal variation; no one's strands are all exactly the same colour (AFAIK), so occasionally you might just get one that's totally different from the rest.

WritingPrincess
August 6th, 2009, 03:38 PM
It's a follicle that got bored. :D When I was four I had one silver hair, and recently I was combing my hair and my mom said "Oh, there's your silver!" Sure enough, I still have it. :shrug: Who said all follicles must produce uniform hairs?

Nyghtingale
August 6th, 2009, 05:26 PM
wonderful shades of color.

Rini
August 6th, 2009, 06:09 PM
Hi Flynn :waving: I noticed this when I did my microscope experiment (I'd link to the thread but I'm feeling a bit lazy this morning :o ) I have pure silver/white (mostly), some blondes, some browns and ....yes....some black hairs! I would never have known that I grow black hairs on my head if I hadn't seen the microscope pics.

Your shed sounds really interesting though! Did you take a pic of it?

UrsaMama
August 7th, 2009, 09:46 AM
I have the whole range from very fine platinum blonde through coarse dark brown/black, and even the occasional very curly - in my stick straight hair!

Flynn
August 7th, 2009, 07:56 PM
To everytone who talked about the thick, dark hairs: that was not the point. I have heaps of these and chalk them up as normal. I only mentioned them to make it clear that they were not what I was talking about, not is what I am talking about having a mix of colours. If I can have greys, I'm sure I can have every other colour too. What is bothering me is that I hace a gradient from jet black to golden brown in a single hair

@ RoseRedDead: Hahahaha, head pubes. That's a great way to describe those ones!

Delila
August 7th, 2009, 08:08 PM
[QUOTE=Flynn;712207].... What is bothering me is that I have a gradient from jet black to golden brown in a single hair


I do think it's just a normal variation within the life of a strand.

My old cat used to have hairs that were basically striped, varying from stark white to gray to black and back again along the length of a single strand. It's what gave his coat a visual pattern, kinda pretty.

I think this sort of thing just reflects the fact that whatever affects the actual color of a strand can change, turn off, turn on, etc. over the life of a strand.

The gray-at-the-tip strand I found some years ago had probably been brown at some point earlier in its life, guess that bit just got trimmed away on mine.

GlennaGirl
August 7th, 2009, 08:10 PM
It's definitely one of mine. The colour of the end, the fineness, the length and the ... er, shape (?) all match (my hairs by themselves make these very characteristic big, loose spirals).

You have ones that change along the length of a single hair, though...?

I've found "stripe-y" hairs. Or rather, a change of color from one end of the single hair to the other, and sometimes the thickness seems different. Not often, but it's happened. I have no clue what causes it!

Flynn
August 7th, 2009, 08:11 PM
Yes, I have some of those, too! :) I am blonde...but occasionally I will find a single black hair or one that is dark brown near the root and then gets redder and redder. :confused: These hairs are usually much coarser as well.

Ooh, red! That's pretty cool, actually; if my memory serves me, the range of browns and blondes are meant to be the same small set of pigments present in different amounts, and red is from entirely outside that family, and is even controlled by a completely different set of genes! That's really funky-cool.


My hair is a dark brown that looks almost black, and I've got at least a dozen or so bright red hairs. I'm talking 'henna over white-blonde' colored. I've also got very light blondeish hairs growing at my front hairline.. I figure i'm just weird that way, though, haha.

As far as I can tell, they don't change texture or color down the strand, though.

Yeah... I haven't spotted any that change in texture, and I'd never seen one that changed in colour! It really honestly looks like a dyed hair with a couple of touch-ups and then a lot of growth... it's bizarre!


When I was first growing out my hair, I found a strand that at one point had been solid gray, then went back to my usual color.

Wait... in which direction? Grey at the end, or grey at the scalp? O.o If it's grey at the end and usual-coloured at the scalp, that's really interesting!


Hi Flynn :waving: I noticed this when I did my microscope experiment (I'd link to the thread but I'm feeling a bit lazy this morning :o ) I have pure silver/white (mostly), some blondes, some browns and ....yes....some black hairs! I would never have known that I grow black hairs on my head if I hadn't seen the microscope pics.

Your shed sounds really interesting though! Did you take a pic of it?

I think I remember that one! I also think I remember you being surprised at the mix of colours overall you could see...?

I definitely have a range from a kind of dark gold-blonde to a very dark brown, but the only true blacks I've spotted are those coarse ones (and this one, of course!) and I've never seen variation along a strand like this. Even my "greys" are white the whole way along. (They're also very fine and very soft... I actually really like them!)

No, I didn't take a pic. My only camera is my brother's phone, so there's no way I can get the resolution to take a single hair. (The family camera is a film one.)

Flynn
August 7th, 2009, 08:13 PM
I've found "stripe-y" hairs. Or rather, a change of color from one end of the single hair to the other, and sometimes the thickness seems different. Not often, but it's happened. I have no clue what causes it!

O.o Thickness variation, too?! How surprising!

GlennaGirl
August 7th, 2009, 08:15 PM
O.o Thickness variation, too?! How surprising!

I know. Crazy, eh? I could see it if the thicker/coarser half were grey. I've heard that can happen. But generally they aren't. I really don't know what causes this...unless the lighter/thinner ends were a period when I wasn't eating nutritiously or something?

I also wonder whether some of them may be pregnancy-related.

Flynn
August 7th, 2009, 08:17 PM
I do think it's just a normal variation within the life of a strand.

My old cat used to have hairs that were basically striped, varying from stark white to gray to black and back again along the length of a single strand. It's what gave his coat a visual pattern, kinda pretty.

I think this sort of thing just reflects the fact that whatever affects the actual color of a strand can change, turn off, turn on, etc. over the life of a strand.

The gray-at-the-tip strand I found some years ago had probably been brown at some point earlier in its life, guess that bit just got trimmed away on mine.

So it did "revert" to coloured after a grey hiccough... Interesting thought, I wonder if it happens much, and how well-known it might be? I can imagine a lot of people being very happy about being able to turn colour back on in a grey hair! *Laughs* ;p

Hey, I guess that happens with cats all the time, doesn't it... I don't know much about cats (I love them, but am allergic to them and try to keep away), but i seem to recall the couple of tabbies I've known having exactly that pattern along a... do you still call it a strand when it's fur? O.o

Flynn
August 7th, 2009, 08:18 PM
I know. Crazy, eh? I could see it if the thicker/coarser half were grey. I've heard that can happen. But generally they aren't. I really don't know what causes this...unless the lighter/thinner ends were a period when I wasn't eating nutritiously or something?

I also wonder whether some of them may be pregnancy-related.

That wouldn't surprise me, knowing what went on with my mum's hair when she was pregnant with my brothers.

Not relevant for me at this stage, though... (to the best of my knowledge...)

mwedzi
August 7th, 2009, 10:26 PM
I once found a hair that was grey at the ends and black at the root! It's like my follicle suddenly changed its mind about producing pigment! In fact, though I definitely had more than a handful of gray hairs a year or so ago, I haven't seen them in several months, come to think of it. I know I definitely had one in the front because I kept thinking it was lint and kept trying to take it out until my brain finally accepted that it was gray hair and I left it alone. Now, it's gone!

Don't know if that story helped, but there are definitely those of us whose single strands show multiple colors.

Hmm, people's hair color can change over time, right? Maybe that follicle will start making hair the color of the base of the hair you found.

ericthegreat
August 7th, 2009, 11:42 PM
You wanna know a really scary story? While in class(this was back when I was still in beauty school), we were all chatting amongst ourselves after our lesson plan. My classmate Oxana plucked a strand out of my hair and the strand was almost WHITE. She looked at me with such disbelief and was like "Whoa your getting old!" I was even more mortified.......I was just barely 19 at the time! I know you guys can't see it in my pictures, but I do actually have several lighter strands that randomly salt and pepper my head, altho curiously enough I haven't officially gone grey just yet.

Flynn
August 7th, 2009, 11:46 PM
... That's normal. My mum plucked the occasional white hair out from my hair when I was a little kid. Everyone, regardless of age, has a white or two in there. I'll bet you could find a white on a baby with enough hair.

Flynn
August 7th, 2009, 11:48 PM
I once found a hair that was grey at the ends and black at the root! It's like my follicle suddenly changed its mind about producing pigment! In fact, though I definitely had more than a handful of gray hairs a year or so ago, I haven't seen them in several months, come to think of it. I know I definitely had one in the front because I kept thinking it was lint and kept trying to take it out until my brain finally accepted that it was gray hair and I left it alone. Now, it's gone!

Don't know if that story helped, but there are definitely those of us whose single strands show multiple colors.

Hmm, people's hair color can change over time, right? Maybe that follicle will start making hair the color of the base of the hair you found.

Hahaha, yeah, that's quite interesting that that can happen!

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see one the other way around (but I never have... I think they must drop out and grow back white on me...) but the "reverting" thing is quite surprising!

I hope more of them change their minds like that... I'd rather fancy darker hair. *Laughs*