August 2017 | Hair Loss Cure 2020

How Many Hairs on the Human Head?

Answer: The range is from 90,000 to 150,000 hairs on the average human head. This is true for both men and women.

A typical human scalp measures 120 square inches (774 square cm). According to Harvard Biological Numbers database, The color of your hair makes a difference as to how many strands are on your head:

If you are a blonde, you likely have the most hair at birth at around 150,000 follicles.

Brown haired people have an average of 110,000 hair follicles.

Black haired people, who represent a majority of the world, are born with 100,000 hairs.

And last but not least, possibly soon to be extinct redheads have only 90,000 hair follicles. Only 2% of humans are redheads.

Note that the entire human body has around 5 million hair follicles. The only areas of your body that have no hair (vellus or terminal) are the palms of your hands, soles of your feet, nipples, lips and parts of the genital regions.

Density per Square Inch

On a related note, head hair density varies significantly depending on area of scalp, sex, age and ethnicity. On average, men have a scalp hair density of 800 to 1300 hair follicles per square inch. This is equivalent to 125 to 200 hairs per square centimeter.

Women have slightly more hair per square centimeter then men, though females have smaller scalp sizes then males. The areas of the human head can be divided into frontal, parietal, vertex, occipital and temporal.

For those with androgenetic alopecia, hair transplant surgery needs to take account of the varying density depending on the region of the scalp. Moreover, hair follicular unit (grafts) can come in groups of 1-, 2-, and 3-hair units.

This article was originally written on August 27, 2017. Updated on December 9, 2023.

A few days later than usual due to the major new developments that I had to discuss in my prior two posts.

Harklinikken

— Denmark’s Harklinikken and its natural hair growth products are definitely not a miracle cure for hair loss. However, it seems like it may have some benefits per the NY Times. And the company has major expansion plans for the US market. Their product is derived from cow’s milk and various plants. Among Harklinikken’s major proponents is Ricki Lake.

— I covered Dr. Lu Le and his team’s groundbreaking discovery related to the biological processes behind both hair loss and grey hair in a post from May of this year. Now their local Dallas newspaper has much more detailed coverage of Dr. Le and his work. An interesting read.

— The first ever International Hair Restoration Conference was held in Vancouver, Canada in April 2017. During the past two months, the organizer has been releasing some interesting videos from the conference, including from the reclusive Dr. Kevin McElwee (Replicel) and Dr. Ray Woods (FUE hair transplant pioneer). Note that Dr. McElwee wrote most of the material on keratin.com (and he used to run the now nonexistent hair loss forums on that site). Moreover, he is a co-author of an interesting new paper on hair loss titled “Experimental and early investigational drugs for androgenetic alopecia“.

— Histogen’s proprietary “multipotent cell conditioned media” will be marketed by leading global cosmetics concern Allergan via the Regenica line of product. Although not related to Histogen’s main Hair Stimulating Complex (HSC) hair loss product, it is worth noting that Allergan has several hair loss products (Bimatoprost and Setipiprant) that it is also developing. Perhaps they could purchase the rights to the HSC product in the future too?

— Very interesting study from Iran. Conclusion: “Our data showed that injection of a combination of adult human cultured dermal papilla and epithelial cells could induce hair growth in nude mice”.

And now on to medical items of interest:

— US scientists make genetically modified embryo. First ever case in the US.

— Breakthrough device heals organs via touch. Extremely hard to believe, but the research comes from a reputable university. The device delivers new DNA or RNA into living skin cells in order to change their function. Video here.

— Scientists successfully make old human cells younger via lengthening telomeres.

— Some retinas are indestructible and do not need regeneration: