Common preconceptions : My hair asked the full moon

A lot of legends exists about the moon. The moon when she's full, is a great inspiration for books and film series, such as Harry Potter, allocating the transformation of a human being into a were-wolf to her.If the moon has an impact on our behaviour, what about our hair ?

Excitation, insomnia, anger….for us, the moon is responsible for all our pains. In the 16th century, a famous doctor, Paracelse, said that the full moon increases madness. His idea had such an impact that until the 19th century, in hospitals, they separated the mentally ill from the “lunatics” - the origin of the word comes from there- which means ill people victim of dementia the nights of full moon.  

Nowadays, it is said that the moon is responsible for our excessive behaviour, such as mood swings, car accidents, suicides, crimes, etc. Be that as it may, an idea remains : the one that the moon acts on our body and particularly on our hair growth.

This belief can be explain by the fact that the moon is connected to Man by her cycle : in deed, its cycles are the same as ours. Moreover, our body is 75 % water and the moon is responsible for oceanic tides, so it is normal to link up this two phenomenons.  

From believes to science

In 1996, Ivan Kelly, James Rotton and Roger Culver, famous psychologists, concluded, after a long study, that no connection can be established between the moon and our behaviour.

Regarding the hair, the full moon is actually helping to invigorate it and encourages its growth, but it is not necessary to cut it the same night as the moon shows up, because if you do it a week before you'll have the same effects. The full moon is in a growing period, permitting the sap to go up the plants and also to irrigate our hair from ends to root, and so the growth is stronger and faster.

To encourage a faster and stronger growth, it is advised to cut one's hair when the moon is coming up (when she is high in the sky), attracting the sap to her, making it come up.

People who want their hair not to grow too fast, shall cut it when the moon is declining, so a week before the New moon, as it makes sap go down the roots.

Maachi Djelani, a “full moon” hairdresser

Some hairdressers say that a full moon night is the best moment to do a lunar hairstyle, and so it is advised to do it the morning of the third day before the full moon. But more and more hairdressers say that a full moon night is ideal, as Maachi Djelani does. Nicknamed the “full moon” hairdresser or the ware-wolf hairdresser, this nocturnal artist welcomes his clients during full moon nights and works outside.

According to him, hair that has been cut during the full moon grows two to three times faster than other cut normally (about 2,8 centimetres per month instead of one). For twenty-five years now, the number of clients who come to his salon increases, so much that sometimes he has to close his salon or deny them access. They all want to have their hair done by this expert and he sometimes has to close at 4 a.m.

Chloé Khieffer for LiveCoiffure.com

►Discover the first episode of our file “common preconceptions”: African hair is harder to do 

►Discover the second episode of our file “common preconceptions”: Asians have less white hair