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Moon Madness
By Jennifer
Bahney
Longhairovers.com
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For thousands of years, people have
looked to the planets and stars for guidance. Queen
Elizabeth I consulted an astrologer when determining the
best date for her coronation, while average folk planned
their everyday activities around astral projections.
These included farming, starting a business, and even
cutting hair to promote growth.
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“Cutting by the phases of the moon” is an
astrological practice that continues to this day. Hair care
experts like Anthony Morrocco and Dr. George Michael believe in
the moon's effect on hair growth and promote the information to
their clients.
In his book, George Michael's Secrets
For Beautiful Hair (Doubleday, 1981), Dr. Michael wrote:
“The moon has a magnetic influence on hair
just as it does on the tides. During the first quarter of the
moon, a person on earth has an extremely opposite electrical
pull to the moon itself.. Electric static goes through the body,
through the hair, and becomes
immersed into the atmosphere. The hair
actually serves as a conductor of electricity, and breakage and
splitting are minimized.”
New Age publishers Llewellyn Worldwide,
Ltd. puts out a Moon Sign Book each year with
instructions on using the moon's phases. In their 2006 edition,
Llewellyn states, “Time and experience have proved that anything
started when the Moon is weak by sign and aspect is unlikely to
prosper.” This includes hair growth, according to Llewellyn:
"For faster growth, cut hair when the Moon
is increasing in Cancer or Pisces. To make hair grow thicker,
cut when the Moon is full in the signs of Taurus, Cancer, or
Leo.”
Llewellyn also says the moon affects the
outcome of chemical processes:
“Permanents, straightening, and hair
coloring will take well if the Moon is in Taurus or Leo and
trine or sextile Venus. Avoid hair treatments if Mars is marked
as square or in opposition, especially if heat is to be used. .
.”
Is there any truth to the theory that the
moon affects our body systems including hair growth? Scientists
and scholars are divided.
A psychiatrist named Dr. Arnold L. Lieber
published a book in 1978 called The Lunar Effect: Biological
Tides and Human Emotions. (The book was revised in 1996 and
is titled How The Moon Affects You.) Lieber's book
centers around what he calls his “biological tides theory,”
which states that the moon is
responsible for causing tides in all bodies
of water. Since the human body is 80% water, the moon's pull
affects us as well.
Another learned individual, Marilyn vos
Savant, agrees that the moon affects the human body just as it
controls the ocean tides. Savant is considered to have the
highest I.Q. on record and writes a magazine column, Ask
Marilyn, in which she
wrote,
“There are tides everywhere on Earth,
including not just oceans and lakes but also the ground we stand
on and the atmosphere we breathe. If you stood long enough,
there would even be tides in your tummy.” (Parade Magazine,
Jan. 8, 1995).
But many in the scientific community
consider these theories to be “bad physics.” In his paper,
Myths About Gravity and Tides, physicist Mikolaj Sawicki
states,
“. . .tidal effects on small bodies of
water the size of a reader's tummy. . .is negligible and
therefore impossible to observe.” Sawicki even provides physics
calculations to prove his point.
On his Web site, Skepdic.com, Sacramento
City College Professor Robert Todd Carroll states,
“The fact that the human body is mostly
water largely contributes to the notion that the moon should
have a powerful effect on the human body. . . It is claimed by
many that the earth and the human body both are 80% water. This
is false. Eighty percent of the surface of the earth is water.
Furthermore, the moon only
affects unbounded bodies of water, while
the water in the human body is bounded.”
Psychology professor James Rotton of
Florida International University, cites a scientific article
about the moon's effects to disprove the “biological tides”
theory:
“In a cogent review that appeared in the
Spring 1979 Skeptical Inquirer, astronomer George O.
Abell pointed out that the moon's gravitational pull was less
than the weight of a mosquito. Two of my colleagues, Roger
Culver and Roger Ianna, subsequently showed that the moon's
'pull' was less than that of a wall of a building six inches
away.”
Rotton was part of a research team
including professors Ivan Kelly and Roger Culver who published a
paper about the moon in 1996. They examined more than 100
studies on lunar effects and concluded that there was no
correlation between moon phases and psychiatric or physiologic
changes in the human body.
Unfortunately, no one has published a study
specifically on the moon's possible effect on hair growth. If
you believe the studies that say the moon does not affect
our physiology, then you probably don't believe that it helps or
hinders hair growth. However, if you believe that further study
is needed to prove or disprove the theory, you may well decide
to follow the phases of the moon in your quest for healthy hair.
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