BBC 6 minute English-The wonders of hair

Transcript of the podcast

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript

Neil: Welcome to 6 Minute English, where today we introduce a hair-raising topic and six items of vocabulary

Tim: I’m Tim… So what’s hair-raising about today’s topic, Neil? Hair-raising means scary but also exciting

Neil: We’re talking about hair – which may be exciting for some, but definitely won’t be scary

Tim: Hair-raising is a real thing, though, isn’t it? Our hairs do rise

Neil: Yes – Tim, they do. We get goose bumps when we’re cold, scared, or excited

Tim: But other mammals do it better than us – Cats fluff up when they see other cats they don’t like

Neil: That’s true – We can’t fluff up because we don’t have enough body hair

Tim: I suppose we used to be as hairy as gorillas – if you go back a million years or so

Neil: Do you know why we lost so much hair, Tim

Tim: Isn’t it because it allowed us to sweat more easily? This meant we didn’t get so hot and tired – we could run faster and for longer – and catch more animals to eat

Neil: That sounds like a good theory. But do you have a theory on how many hair follicles the human body has today

Tim: What’s a hair follicle

Neil: A hair follicle is the organ that produces a hair underneath the skin. Now answer the question, Tim. How many hair follicles does the human body have today? Is it

a) 500,000

b) 5 million or

c) 50 million

Tim: 50 million sounds about right

Neil: Did you know that men have more than women, Tim

Tim: No, I didn’t – but it makes sense since men are usually hairier than women

Neil: On their faces – but not necessarily on their heads

Tim: Are you referring to the fact that men of a certain age can be follically challenged

Neil: If you’re follically challenged it means you’re losing your hair! Having little or no hair is called baldness. And if you’ve reached a certain age it means you aren’t young any more

Tim: Why is our hair so important to us, Neil? When we aren’t worrying about going bald, we’re busy shaving, waxing, plucking, and trimming the stuff. When I say ‘we’ of course I’m referring to people in general. Not myself

Neil: Well, a good head of hair indicates health and youth. And hair on your face – facial hair – shows when boys have reached manhood

Tim: On the other hand, going grey or losing your hair shows you’re getting older

Neil: Hair today, gone tomorrow

Tim: Bad joke, Neil

Neil: Sorry! It’s true that hair on your head shows signs of aging – but this isn’t true of all human hair. Let’s listen to Ralf Paus, a leading hair loss researcher, talking about this

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Ralf Paus, hair loss researcher

The eyebrows get stronger usually in aging men, the hairs in your nose and in your ears get stronger – and what a miracle of nature that an organ – when the entire body is aging actually grows stronger. So we may even be able to learn from hair follicles how not to age

Tim: Hmm. I’m not sure I would swap a good head of hair for thick eyebrows and nose hair. How about you, Neil

Neil: I agree! But let’s hear more from Ralf Paus about why some hair gets stronger as you get older

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Ralf Paus, hair loss researcher

The hair follicle apparently knows some tricks that the other organs don’t know. So it’s continuously regenerating itself. It goes through a so-called hair cycle and part of that we know pretty well – and that is, these stem cells that it uses to regenerate cells

Tim: So a hair follicle can regenerate cells – or grow new cells to replace old or damaged ones. But if that’s only true for eyebrows, nose and ear hair, I am not that impressed! I want hairs on my head to be able to regenerate

Neil: The important thing here is that these cells in the hair follicle may help scientists discover a way to stop other organs of the body aging… OK, I’m now going to reveal how many hair follicles on average we have on our bodies. The answer is… ۵ million

Tim: Oh. So not 50 million then

Neil: Don’t worry, Tim! It was a tricky question! Now let’s go over the words we learned today

Tim: ‘Hair-raising’ means scary often in an exciting way. For example, That ride on the rollercoaster was a hair-raising experience

Neil: Next is ‘hair follicle’ – the organ that produces a hair underneath the skin

Tim: Scientists believe that stress can affect hair follicles

Neil: A number of things can affect hair follicles actually – age, disease, diet

Tim: OK – but we haven’t got all day, Neil. So let’s move on to the next item. ‘Baldness’ – which means having little or no hair on your head

Neil: My grandfather is bald and he always wears a hat to cover his baldness

Tim: Nice example. Is your grandpa actually bald, Neil

Neil: No – he has a fine head of hair. Now, if you are a certain age, it means you are no longer young. For example

Tim: All the people at the party were of a certain age

Neil: How many of them had facial hair, Tim? That’s our next word, and ‘facial’ means to do with the face

Tim: “None of the people at the party had facial hair.” There’s your answer

Neil: That’s unusual, Tim. Lots of men have beards these days. OK – our final word for today is ‘regenerate’ which means to grow again. You can talk about regenerating a range of things, for example

Neil: The council has plans to regenerate this part of the city

Tim: “Regeneration of parts of the city is in progress.” – ‘regeneration’ is the noun

Neil: Well, it’s time to go now. But if today’s show gave you goosebumps please let us know by visiting our Twitter, Facebook and YouTube pages and telling us about it

Tim: Bye-bye

Neil: Goodbye