Is it true that hair and nails continue to grow after death?

There is an opinion among the people that hair and nails continue to grow even after the death of a person. We decided to check if this myth has scientific confirmation.

Stories about the growth of hair and nails among the dead were used not only in folklore and legends about various kinds of undead, but also in works of art: horror films, games and books. So, the characters of the comic book “Walk to Hell” (A Walk Through Hell) from Gart Ennis and Goran Suzhuki, trying to understand whether they are dead, They remembered The fact of the growth of bristles in the dead. A pathologist performed by Vincent Price from Tingler's horrors (1959) assertedthat the growth of hair and nails continues after death. And the protagonist of the novel by Erich Maria Remarca "On the Western Front without Changes" Reasoned So: “It suddenly comes to my mind that these nails will not cease to grow and after Kemmerich dies, they will grow for a long, long time, like white ghostly mushrooms in the cellar. I imagine this picture: they move around with a corkscrew and everything grow and grow, and with them hair grows on a rotting skull, like grass on obese ground, just like grass ... Is it really that really happens? .."

In a living person, nails grow thanks to the formation of new cells. Noga for a week grows About 1 mm at an average speed of about 0.1 mm per day, but on the legs they grow a little slower. The older the person, the lower the growth rate. The nail consists of a nail plate, under which there are a matrix (matrix) and a bed, as well as from the surrounding folds. Most new cells are born in a matrix located at the root of the nail, and then the old ones are replaced, moving the nail plate forward. For all this process, nutrients and glucose are needed, which cease to enter the body after death.

Hair growth occurs in a similar way: each hair grows from its own onion (follicle), at the base of which is the matrix, where old cells are divided and new ones are formed. For this division, energy is also needed, which is produced during glucose burning, and it needs oxygen, the intake of which stops with cardiac arrest and breathing.

In addition, for hair and nail growth Required Complex hormonal regulation that is not supported after death. Although there is no real growth, the myth still has a biological justification.

Most likely, it appeared due to another effect- drying The skin of the dead man after the loss of moisture and adipose tissue. Because of this, the skin at the fingertips is pulled, as a result of which the nails visually seem longer. This happens on the face, when the hairs appear through the bordered skin of the chin, even if a person was shaved smoothly before his death. To combat such a “growth” in the funeral bureaus, nail phalanxes and faces (especially men who had a thick beard previously) are moisturized by special compounds.

Note that on a popular resource "Postnuka»There is the material of a pathologist, doctor of medical sciences and a corresponding member of the RAMs of Lev as a Lion, which claims that hair and nails can still grow after death due to the simple structure of these tissues. According to the article, this process can last up to two days and depends on the conditions of storage of the body. However, there are no links to any scientific publications in the material, and the consensus of scientists and dermatologists is precisely in dehydration of the corpse, after which hidden areas of hair and nails become visible.

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. BBC. Do hair and nails continue to grow after death?
2. Snopes. Fingernails Grow after Death
3. Medium. Science Monday: Do We Keep Growing after We Die?
4. Is it true that after shaving the hair becomes tougher, thicker, darker and grow faster?
5. Is it true that from stress you can get gray in just one night?
6. The invented world of the Gekov public