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Hair

Researchers have found that graphene could work as a hair dye.

Graphene Hair Dye Is Gentle on Your Locks. But Is It Safe?

Unlike traditional hair dyes, graphene coats the hair surface without chemically altering it

Gilbert Stuart Williamstown Portrait of George Washington

Lock of Washington’s Hair Found in 18th-Century Almanac

It was once common practice to give away locks of hair as gifts and keepsakes

Many animals, like this red sphinx cat, are bred to be hairless. Other times, animal baldness is a symptom of stress and other factors.

Ask Smithsonian

Do Other Animals Besides Humans Go Bald?

From Andean bears to Rhesus macaques, non-human mammals have hair woes of their own

During World War I, a critical shaving tool caused critical illness in hundreds of people.

World War I: 100 Years Later

How Shaving Brushes Gave World War I Soldiers Anthrax

A new paper looks back on an old epidemic—and raises fresh questions about antique shaving brushes

Clerks (right) will no longer have to wear their distinctive wigs in the House of Commons.

Trending Today

British Parliament Is Losing its Wigs

They’re itchy, formal—and part of centuries of tradition

Capt. (Dr.) Tejdeep Singh Rattan (right) checks in a patient during the triage portion of an exercise during the Basic Officer Leadership Course at Camp Bullis, Texas in 2010. Rattan was the first Sikh allowed to keep his articles of faith while in uniform in 23 years.

Trending Today

Muslim and Sikh Troops Can Now Wear Beards, Turbans and Headscarves

The U.S. Army just changed its grooming regulations to accommodate observant soldiers

Hair removal is personal—but it may be time to bring science to the party.

Bare Down There? New Study Suggests You’re More Susceptible to STIs

Your pubic preferences could be linked to your sexual health

Female workers make wigs to be exported at a hair products factory in China's Sichuan province.

The Secret History of Buying and Selling Hair

Globalization hit the hair trade centuries ago, and the business is still thriving

Trending Today

British Barber Proposes Beard Tax

Inspired by historical examples, Antony Kent wants men to pay a 100-pound fee to rock a bushy beard

How many curls can you count?

Cool Finds

A Buddha in Japan Is Missing Half of Its Curls

What happened to the Buddha of Nara’s famous ‘do?

Curly or straight, hairstyles are "a personal expression of beauty."

New Research

Curly Hair Science Is Revealing How Different Locks React to Heat

A mechanical engineer tackles the understudied problem of how to style curls without frying hair

Cool Finds

People Used to Wear Dunce Caps to Shower

“Extinguisher caps” were nineteenth-century shower caps

New Research

Pulling Your Hair Out? It Might Just Help Reverse Baldness

Plucking hair could be a counterintuitive way to fight balding, according to a study of quorum sensing in rat follicles

National Museum of Natural History physical anthropologists Lucille St. Hoyme, J. Lawrence Angel and Thomas Dale Stewart hold Hans Langseth's beard upon its arrival to the Smithsonian in 1967.

The World’s Longest Beard Is One Of The Smithsonian’s Strangest Artifacts

Kept in storage at the National Museum of Natural History, the world’s longest beard measures over 17 feet in length

Victorians Made Jewelry Out of Human Hair

Hair work went out of fashion around 1925, but it was popular for hundreds of years before that

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