Bulletproof Hair!? USAF Researches Body Armor Inspired by Hair

This week the researchers at the University of California San Diego announced that they've received funding from the US Air Force's Office of Scientific Research to investigate why hair is incredibly strong and resistant to breaking. The findings of the study could lead to the development of new materials for body armor.

Yowzer! Talk about a benefit of having strong hair.

Yang (Daniel) Yu, a nanoengineering Ph.D. student at UC San Diego is leading the study. Apparently, hair has the strength to weight ratio of steel and it can be stretched to one and a half times its length without breaking. “We wanted to understand the mechanism behind this extraordinary property,” said Yang.

Therefore, these natural properties, among others, will be assessed to help provide insights into developing synthetic materials for a variety of applications beyond body armor.

The team of researches at US San Diego is currently conducting further studies on the effects of water on the properties of human hair. In the future, they'll study how washing hair causes it to return to its original shape. #science

Need some tips to help you dodge the bullet of a dry scalp? Read our recent blog post for additional details.

Hair Up, Game On,

Shelly