Do nails and hair continue to grow after death? No, it is a false myth

After death, nails and hair Not They continue to grow! It is one of the most popular themes in horror fiction and zombie’s stories, yet it is a false myth. It seems it was a book that gave birth to this myth, “Nothing new on the Western frontE ”by Erich Maria Remarque, in which the author describes how the nails of a companion who died in battle continued to grow during the burial. In reality, when the heart stops, no more blood pumps and therefore nutrients and hormones necessary for the growth of hair, nails and hair can no longer reach the follicles piliferous and the nail matrix. So no, do not grow actively. However, they may seem longer because of the dehydration which takes place after death: losing water, the skin withdraws causing theillusion optics of nails and hair that grow.

Death stops the growth mechanisms of nails and hair

Piliferi follicles and nail matrices are the structures where they originate hair and nails respectively. The growth process of both requires long times and for the correct functioning of the structures that generate them are necessary hormones, nutrients and oxygenwhich are provided by the blood.

At the time of the cardiac arrest that follows death, the blood can no longer circulate and in a short time these structures stop working because The right nourishment is no longer brought to them. It is therefore not possible to continue to grow hair and nails.

Because they seem to grow up

It is actually an effect due to dehydration of the skin. Dehydration is in fact one of the Cadaveric phenomena who follow the death and falls within the so -called consecutive abiotic phenomenathat is, linked to the cessation of life and which take place at a certain distance from death (at most a couple of days, not enough so that nails and hair can continue to grow).

Always due to the arrest of blood circulationno longer come to the tissues. As there is no longer a constant exchange, these naturally begin to lose liquids for evaporation: the areas most in contact with the outside, such as the mucous membranes of the mouth, eyes or precisely the skin, are the most exposed because a contact with airwhile internal mucous membranes tend to meet maceration processes.

Imagine a cut flower left in the air or a slice of orange dried: after a while loses tone, it opacies and rharters, reducing in size. In the same way, during the natural process of dehydration that follows death, the skin withdraws. In the meantime, however, nails and hair remain of the same length. It is this contrast between the narrowing of the skin and the normal size of hair and nails to create the optical illusion of seeing them grow, but in reality It is the skin that relegates.