Renegade hair follicle

[C.H.]

This has been an ongoing mini-mystery for years and I think I've finally found the right people to bring it to.

So one day many years ago when I was 15 or 16, while making my bed, I came across a shed hair, which is no big deal, BUT, this shed hair was dramatically longer than anything that had ever come out of my head. I wanna say my hair at the time was around APL. Well this hair, when stretched out from the top of my head, reached to like mid-thigh!

How could this be possible? No one else with hair even remotely that long had been to my house and furthermore, I recognized the color and texture as my own. I inspected this hair closely--it did not appear to be stretched, damaged or otherwise out of the ordinary. I thought the most likely explanation was that multiple hairs somehow got tied together to make this one longer hair, but examinations revealed no knots. I couldn't think of any other explanation for this.

So what do you think? Has anything like this ever happend to you? Do you think it's possible that one of my hair follicles went into overdrive and actually produced this super-long hair?

[Mesmerise]

Well... to be honest, I sort of doubt it! You'd certainly have noticed it while it was in your head if it was THAT long, especially as the rest of your hair wasn't. While it's possible for one hair to grow faster than others, I think it's unlikely that it would grow so fast that it would zip down to mid thigh while the rest of your hair languished at APL.

Unfortunately, I can't think of an explanation except of a couple of hairs twisted together. Unless you had a visitor around one day who herself had hair of a similar colour to yours and perhaps that sort of length? Or, you could have tracked someone else's hair into your room... if you'd been around someone with really long hair that day, and it got stuck on your clothes.

I just don't think it's feasible that one of your hairs would grow so very long without you ever noticing it while it was on your head! Because, even if it grew fast... it couldn't grow a foot overnight :D. It would have had to be growing for some months at an unnatural pace.

[gthlvrmx]

I've had it happen and my mother too. When i had short hair, i found a hair that stretched down to the middle of my forehead when the rest barely brushed my forehead. And later when i started growing it out, i found a hair at APL when my hair was close to shoulders. Not so big as yours though!
My mother found one too before, down close to her belly button and all wiry while she had BSL hair :p
I don't know why it happens.

[pink.sara]

Maybe it was ingrowing and all coiled up inside the follicle until one day "pop" it all came out?!!!
This reminds me of changing after a roller derby practice years ago and spotting a 2 foot long head hair growing out of my team mates shoulder.... Yes, her shoulder!
Her head hair was fine and slightly corkscrew curled, just like this one. And being 2 ft long it must have been growing for ages before we spotted it! She had it zapped and it is no more but freaky hair things happen!

[C.H.]

Maybe it was ingrowing and all coiled up inside the follicle until one day "pop" it all came out?!!!
This reminds me of changing after a roller derby practice years ago and spotting a 2 foot long head hair growing out of my team mates shoulder.... Yes, her shoulder!
Her head hair was fine and slightly corkscrew curled, just like this one. And being 2 ft long it must have been growing for ages before we spotted it! She had it zapped and it is no more but freaky hair things happen!

That is such an interesting story! No question where it came from in this case.

One of the main reasons I thought it couldn't possibly be my hair is that surely I would have noticed a hair this long if it had ever been on my head. But like you said, I later thought it was just possible that it had somehow been looped or coiled within the rest of my hair in a way that prevented me from seeing it.

[Slinks]

actually .. hmmm, I don't know, my neighbour who was highly groomed (I have since moved) had this hair on his face that annoyed me one day and me being me, reached over to pick it off, brush it away, it turned out to be attatched !! good grief, how embarrassing !! lol, I said sorry but he said pull it, we were all amazed, this hair was a good 6 inches long while the rest of his hair and beard was only a short 2 inches .. it was never noticed before, we'd been friends for about 5 years ..

[jojo]

I dont understand how this ultra long hair would have gone un-noticed for such a while, where talking what 10 years to reach thigh? or am i reading this wrong?

[MonaLisa]

There is something definitely in here..
I don't know how it happens, but i've seen it on other people, both male and female. it was always somewhere on face or body ( eyebrows, shoulders, nose! ) where super long hair would be, but I think it's even more likely to happen on head.
It's probably washing, brushing, styling that causes is to break or something..

[Anje]

Could be, though that is crazy long for a renegade hair! DH once had a hair on his forearm that wrapped all the way around said arm. He kept it til it shed out. It never did return.

[RadiantNeedle]

Could be, though that is crazy long for a renegade hair! DH once had a hair on his forearm that wrapped all the way around said arm. He kept it til it shed out. It never did return.

Awwh! That's kind of sad! Like a pet that ran away.. v.v

[rosek]

I don't know about yours, but I have three hairs on my body that have escaped their normal growht cycle.

There is one on the side of my knee - it grows to around six inches usually before it breaks. I can pluck it out and it will grow back in the same spot. I have another under my right eye, and a third on my earlobe. Those two usually get to two or three inches before I notice and pull them out.

They are all fine and blonde. I think its just hair that keeps growing when it should have fallen out, except they grow back just as long!

[sibiryachka]

Could be, though that is crazy long for a renegade hair! DH once had a hair on his forearm that wrapped all the way around said arm. He kept it til it shed out. It never did return.


Awwh! That's kind of sad! Like a pet that ran away.. v.v

That comparison almost made me blow coffee out my nose :p Only on LHC!

[jojo]

Funny I remember my dad having this "black head" and I am a squeezer so went to get it out and it was a black coily hair which was about 8" long, must have been there for years. Pretty gross thinking of it and the word black head makes my teeth go on edge!

[battles]

That is so gross.

:laugh:

[TheLurkingToad]

I remember finding longer than I should have hairs when I had short hair. I had always thought it was not mine but I guess it happens.

[C.H.]

That comparison almost made me blow coffee out my nose :p Only on LHC!

This craked me up, too!

[C.H.]

This has been kicking around in my mind for years. I can't tell you what a relief it is to get other opinions on it.

[spidermom]

It is possible that you picked up a shed hair from somebody else and brought it home. Sometimes I find lint in my hair a different color than anything I own. I'm pretty sure I pick it up when I'm out and about sometimes.

I once felt a hair on my shin and reached to remove it, only to discover that it appeared to be attached to my scalp (the rest of my hair was BSL). Turns out it was one hair knotted to another hair, but the knot was obvious. I'm not suggesting that's what yours was since you checked for knots and didn't find one.

[C.H.]

It is possible that you picked up a shed hair from somebody else and brought it home. Sometimes I find lint in my hair a different color than anything I own. I'm pretty sure I pick it up when I'm out and about sometimes.

I once felt a hair on my shin and reached to remove it, only to discover that it appeared to be attached to my scalp (the rest of my hair was BSL). Turns out it was one hair knotted to another hair, but the knot was obvious. I'm not suggesting that's what yours was since you checked for knots and didn't find one.

It's definitely a possibility. Though it's crazy to think I crossed paths with someone else in my town with thigh-length hair the same color and texture as mine. Thigh-length hair is so rare--on anybody!

[spidermom]

Not likely but possible. If you passed somebody with their thigh-length hair put up (one shed hair free to float in the breeze), you wouldn't have noticed.

Any way you look at it, finding such a hair on your bed was unusual.

[tinywife]

How bizarre!!
I have one long, fine, blonde hair on my neck but I always yank it out before it becomes noticeable.

[BabyRay33]

I think everyone gets these weird hairs like this, its just whether or not you notice them. My boyfriend gets them...on his neck, legs...I have found one on my shoulder too.

But they are usually finer and wispier than regular hair...at least in my experience.

But I also wouldnt be surprised if it was coiled at the root and then came out and thats what you were seeing.

Either way, it is interesting...

[Anje]

Awwh! That's kind of sad! Like a pet that ran away.. v.v
Even funnier... I mentioned to him that I had brought up his hair. He was sad when it fell out. I think he misses it.