It's a Fact - Where our research department answers your questions

It’s a Fact

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Q: Is it true that when you shave, your hair grows back thicker?
A: No, the hair doesn’t really grow back thicker – it just looks like that way, explains Dr. Ronald B. Vender, director of the Dermatology Centre, a clinical research facility in Hamilton, Ont. When hair is cut or shaved, the cross-section at the cut is thicker than the tip, which has thinned due to such factors as washing your hair, exposure to the elements, wearing a hat, etc. "So while it seems at first that the hair is thicker," says Vender, "as the hair grows in length, it becomes tapered due to natural weathering."

Q. How did the British legal tradition of wearing wigs start?
A: Until the end of the 17th century, British lawyers went bareheaded. Charles II introduced wigs—a French fashion—to English society around 1660, says John Papadopoulos, librarian at the University of Toronto’s Bora Laskin Law Library. The English legal profession initially disapproved of wigs, which were becoming part of “polite society,” but by the 1680s judges and lawyers were sporting them.

At first, the faux coifs were a natural colour and sometimes worn with a lock of the person’s real hair at the forehead, but they quickly became larger and more stylized. By the 1720s, legal wigs were white or grey, and powdered. By mid-century, they had become legal custom. During George III’s reign, wigs fell out of fashion, and by the end of the 18th century, only lawyers, coachmen and bishops wore them.

There are three styles of wig worn in court: the full-bottomed version for formal occasions; the bob wig, which has fuzzy sides and a pigtail at the back; and the tie wig, featuring a frizzy crown, rows of curls at the sides and back, and a pigtail. All are made of whitish-grey horsehair. Since 1868, judges usually allow wigs to be taken off during very hot weather.

Some of the places where wigs are still worn by the legal profession are the Commonwealth Caribbean, Malawi, Seychelles, Botswana, Australia, Gambia and Mauritius.

Q: Why is a circular tray that spins around called a "Lazy Susan"?
A: Some references date the expression to the beginning of the 20th century. The earliest documented use is from 1934, possibly a copywriter's creation. The device might have been named for a servant it replaced, "Susan" being a common name for servants at that time. "Lazy" might refer to the hostess rather than to the servant, though, or to the ease of rotation in bringing the desired section of the tray to a position directly in front of the guest - who could be lazy as well.