Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: Carolyn on 18/10/2007 23:41:43
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Today I had to get my hair cut. I just had one 3 weeks ago. I was complaining to my hair dresser that my hair grew exceptionally fast since the last cut. She told me it's because I had it cut while the moon was increasing. Since I had it cut today, on another increase, she said I could expect it to grow rapidly again, but if I wanted slow growth that I should cut it on the decrease.
We did check her books to see the dates of my last 3 cuts and compared them a moon phase calendar. The last one was on an increase and the last two were on decreases and didn't seem to grow too fast.
Is this true or an old wives tale? If it is true...why?
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The frequency of the menstrual cycle is the approximately same as the lunar cycle. So hormone levels which determine hair growth could repeatedly coincide with a particular phase of the moon, however the moon is not causing the hair to grow at different rates.
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The frequency of the menstrual cycle is the approximately same as the lunar cycle. So hormone levels which determine hair growth could repeatedly coincide with a particular phase of the moon, however the moon is not causing the hair to grow at different rates.
The moon might not, but could not the weather (which is influenced by the moon) have an effect?
Not convinced about the lunar/menstrual correlation, since while this may be true for some, it would not be commonly enough true for all to create a folk lore about it (although ofcourse traditionally people were more active around the time of full moon simply because the moonlight gave them the opportunity to do things at night that would not be possible when under a new moon).
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"Not convinced about the lunar/menstrual correlation, since while this may be true for some, it would not be commonly enough true for all to create a folk lore about it "
What?
Something doesn't even have to be true once to create a folk lore; lots of them are nonsense.
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The frequency of the menstrual cycle is the approximately same as the lunar cycle. So hormone levels which determine hair growth could repeatedly coincide with a particular phase of the moon, however the moon is not causing the hair to grow at different rates.
I suppose that's possible for some, but I don't have that pesky menstrual cycle anymore.
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What?
Something doesn't even have to be true once to create a folk lore; lots of them are nonsense.
Folklore is typically based upon valid observations, albeit often misinterpreted, and extrapolated beyond all reasonableness, but the observations themselves are usually genuine.
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Here is a selection of sort of relevant "old wives tales" can you find any justification for them?
http://www.snopes.com/pregnant/menses.asp
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Here is a selection of sort of relevant "old wives tales" can you find any justification for them?
http://www.snopes.com/pregnant/menses.asp
The fact that food prepared by a menstruating woman might be less well prepared could be because of the emotional changes that menstruation brings, and the it may cause a woman to be less careful.
Not having sex during menstruation makes perfect sense in societies where it was seen that the primary purpose of sex was procreation. It is also possible that heavy bleeding would increase the possibility of STD's being passed from the woman to the man (it may have an impact on the risk in the other direction also, but that might be more complex to asses, since the bleeding may also help wash away infectious agents).
What effects the hormonal changes in a woman might have in terms of impact upon the hair is uncertain - although the impact is more likely to be at the roots of the hair, and not along its length. It is more likely that it was simply that if a woman was confined during menstruation, it was considered little point in her making a great effort in beatifying herself (it may even be, that it was intended that when the woman reaches the end of her confinement, she would make an exceptional attempt to make herself look pretty, and it was feared that excessive beautification might be bad for you - some of the processes that were used for beautification were indeed not very healthy, and so efforts should be made to limit the process to those times when it mattered most).
These are all speculations - but since I don't believe any research has been done into why people believed as they did in these matters, one cannot really do much more than speculate why the beliefs came about. Nonetheless, everything has a cause, so one has to assume there is a cause to the beliefs too - unless you are merely going to suggest they are caused by some sort of quantum fluctuation.