Your Miles and Miles of Hair

Every day, every hair on your head grows. It grows just a little bit, about ½ inch in a whole month, but remember, you have around 100,000 hairs on your head. So how much hair in total do you grow every day? That’s 50,000 inches a month, or almost 4,200 feet…nearly a mile of hair every month! When you figure out all that hair growth for a year, you see that while you’re eating, sleeping, running, playing soccer, or whatever else you do, you’re also a crazy hair-making machine.

Wee ones: Can you count out 5 hairs on your head with your fingers? (without pulling them out!) What do 5 hairs feel like together?

Little kids: If your hair is 8 inches long right now and you let it grow 2 inches, how long will it be then?  Bonus: If your hair is 5 inches long right now and you have 100,000 hairs, how much hair do you have on your head right now?

Big kids: If you’ve been growing 11 miles of hair a year, how much hair have you grown in your life?  Bonus: If you grow 42,700 inches of hair each month, how many feet do you grow in a year? See if you can figure out the shortcut!

Answers:
Wee ones: Count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Little kids: 10 inches.  Bonus: 500,000 inches, which happens to be almost 8 miles of hair.

Big kids: Different for everyone…multiply your age in years by 11 (you can also add in 1/2-years, 1/4-years, or months if you like).  Bonus: 42,700 feet, because you divide by 12 to get feet, then multiply by 12 for the 12 months!

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