I am so not a vain woman. I do my hair and makeup in the morning and I don't look at either for the rest of the day. Just not my style. Which brings me to why I chose this topic today. I am pretty fair skinned person who has very little leg hair and it is pretty blonde so I rarely have to shave.
That is until I got my cast (actually have lost count on how many casts on my ankle and leg I have had after 6 surgeries over a span of 3 years). Now I shaved both legs with a 5 bladed razor a day before my last surgery on May 6th. I have not shaved since. My left leg hair (the one not in a cast) has barely grown and one could never tell it needed shaved. The right leg in the cast - whole different story!
The hair on my right leg is dark and over an inch long. I am sure I can braid it. So curious me got to thinking. Do they put Miracle Grow in the cast material? Why does my leg hair not only grow faster but change to a dark color when I am in a cast? It goes back to normal after I am out of the cast after about 1-2 weeks. What causes this?
Some people say that being cold causes leg hair to grow faster, supposedly because when cold, the body and all things in it regenerate faster to produce or accumulate heat. Ok not me since I have an internal temperature at HOT HOT HOT. The only time I get cold is if the temperatures are at least 20 below zero.
But this is actually not true. The only reason your hair looks longer in cold weather is because one tends to get goosebumps and your hair seems to stick out of said goosebump a bit more. Get rid of the goosebumps and your hair is back to normal.
In reality, hair is like an iceberg. A hair shows only its tip; your true adversary, the root or follicle, lurks below the surface. Follicles follow a repeating three-phase life cycle — hair growth, hair death, rest. The growth phase lasts about 6 weeks; the resting phase, up to 6 months. Only about 30 percent of your follicles are sprouting hair at a time. The rest are hibernating until a new growth cycle begins
So the reason why the skin under a cast seems to grow faster is because it does. It is subjected to tiny amounts of friction as the cast moves. The friction is not enough to rub away hair, but it is enough to stimulate the hair follicles in the skin to produce new hairs. As the skin is subjected to its normal wear and tear, the excessive hair will gradually disappear (which is why it disappears after a week or so). There is really no Miracle Gro in the cast material.
A cute fact: The longest leg hair is 16.51 cm (6.5 in) long and belongs to Wesley Pemberton (USA), as measured on the set of ‘Lo show dei record’, in Madrid, Spain, on 9 February 2008.
