Take a look at the cosmetics section of any store and you’ll see the most populated and diverse area happens to be hair care. We have an obsession with having those great locks although for many, trying to get the perfect ‘do can be a frustrating struggle.

On this week’s show, we take a closer look at the nature of our hair by starting off with an historical perspective. We speak with anthropology doctoral student Tina Lasisi who has been exploring how our hair came to be and why we may have such a hard time getting it to do what we want. Whether it happens to be genetics or the climate, our historical roots may be more important than the ones on our scalp.

We next move on to another historical issue with hair although this one is far more unnerving. It’s head lice. We speak with John Marshall Clark at the University of Massachusetts Amherst about our relationship with these little creatures including the origin of the word, nitpicking. We also learn why lice are resistant to treatments and what the future holds for those with those annoying itchy pests.  

In our SASS Class, we’re going to head back into the shampoo aisle to learn about the effects of these products not on our hair but our skin. Our guest teacher is Sandra Skotnicki and she is a dermatologist and the author of the book, Beyond Soap: The Real Truth About What You Are Doing to Your Skin and How to Fix It for a Beautiful, Healthy Glow. She’ll explain that our efforts to make our hair silky smooth may be making our skin unhealthy.  

If you enjoy The Super Awesome Science Show, please take a minute to rate it on Apple Podcasts and be sure to tell a friend about the show. Thanks to you, we won the Canadian Podcast Award for Outstanding Science and Medicine Series. Let’s keep the awesome momentum going together! 

Twitter: @JATetro
Email: [email protected]

Guests:

Tina Lasisi
Web: https://anth.la.psu.edu/research/research-labs/jablonski-lab/tina-lasisi
Twitter: @TinaLasisi

John Marshall Clark
Web: https://www.vasci.umass.edu/research-faculty/john-marshall-clark   

Sandra Skotnicki
Web: https://drsandyskotnicki.com/
Twitter: @DrSkotnicki

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