Hair

This essential stuff can describe our style and even give strangers signals about us subconsciously. Even though it falls out frequently, we still have to strive to keep it clean, shiny and in tip top shape. So we shampoo it, condition it, brush it, trim it, dye it and even blow dry it so we look as sharp as can be. When we get it cut we suddenly feel so much younger and our self-confidence even goes up. Just trim it a bit, please. Get ready to hear all about hair on this week's episode of FYI! 

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this essential stuff can describe our style and even give strangers signals about us subconsciously even though it falls out frequently we still have to strive to keep it clean shiny and in tiptop shape so we shampoo it condition it brush it trim it dye it and even blow dry it so we look as sharp as can be when we get it cut we suddenly feel so much younger and our self-confidence even goes up just trim it a bit please get ready to hear all about hair on this week's episode of FYI welcome to for for your info English you got it you got[Applause][Music][Applause][Music] it hello hello hello and welcome to another exciting edition of FYI and today folks we're going to take a look at something that all of us have some have more than others but we all have it and I'm talking about hair which by the way I've heard people pronounce h it's hair in fact it sounds like another word in English do you know what word that is did you say hair Li nice job but we're not here to talk about hairs or rabbits or even animals today we're here to talk about hair and as always we're going to take a look at a a lot of idiomatic expressions we'll look at some practical vocabulary and all that jazz and don't forget about fun facts and every week you can have access to an extra episode that's right a bonus episode with tons of useful content and you can get PDF documents with all the vocabulary expressions and structures and if you're in our highest levels you can get a weekly class class with me and in this class we go over the key vocabulary of every episode plus we work on different structures and it's a way to make sure you're getting your weekly dose of English and for the students in my Interstellar level will you guys even get a monthly private class with me if you break it down and to break down Asad you'll see that it's a steal Joo if you want more information you can go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso and you can join our curious community and you've got options for all levels and all budgets and before we begin I'd like to send a shout out to all my students the ones who are working so hard and having fun in the process all while they make progress so a shout out to all my patrons especially my super duper students the ones who get a weekly class with me Lena Javier Paco Roberto Jose Maria and Mila and don't forget about my Interstellar students who get all that and a monthly private class with me so a shout out to Carman Issa Paco David and Edgard if you guys want to get more information on how you can join my Curious community go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso it's well worth it all right so let's kick off with our intro as we always do I said this essential stuff can describe our style and even give strangers signals about us subconsciously be careful with the word strangers I've had a student say to me in the past Alberto I was in The Stranger last weekend no a stranger is a person you don't know if you want to sayano you're going to say I was overseas or I was abroad but just be careful because I've heard a lot of people say abroad and it's not abroad it's abroad say it with me it's really important that you repeat the vocabulary with me especially if I highlight a pronunciation thing and as I always say if you can pronounce it right once then you can pronounce it right a million times and just be careful with that word signals too I've heard people say signals just be aware of that be conscious of it and that brings us to our next word subconsciously that means without even realizing it then I said even though it falls out frequently and we're going to find out how much hair we lose every day I said we still have to strive and to strive is to really try I think the word in Spanish is is for we have to strive to keep it clean shiny and in tiptop shape in buma so we shampoo it and be careful here it's not champoo it's sh shampoo it we condition it really easy same as you guys a I think I think you say or you sayante we use conditioner to condition our hair or you can brush it or comb it now I personally don't have enough hair to brush but we'll talk about hair styles a little bit later on another verb I used was then we trim it and this is a really really important verb because we don't go to the hairdressers and say cut my hair we say trim it and that means Rec remember you can always ask them to trim a little bit more but once they cut off too much hair it's too late so always use the word trim and we use it as a noun too today I'm going to the barber for a trim un then what's become more and more popular throughout the years is dyeing your hair no don't worry I'm not talking about La it sounds the same but this word is dye Den well for us it's the verb and the noun so you dye your hair with hair dye and you even blow dry it so you can look as sharp as can be and to look sharp is to look great to look your best then I said when we get it cut we suddenly feel so much younger and our self-confidence even goes up and who hasn't felt this phenomenon before I remember walking into the hairdressers a bit down in the dumps and then after a 20 minute session a quick haircut I feel feel like a million bucks and this is a great expression this means I feel great better than great and it's true a haircut can really really boost our self-confidence then I said the famous phrase that you need to know just trim it a bit please so are you guys ready to hear all about hair well let's start with a little history here people have always judged Us by our appearance even though they say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover but let's be honest when we see somebody we're instantly looking at their clothes their hair their facial hair we're judging them subconsciously even if we try not to so hair has always been a symbol a status symbol in fact it was a marker of identity and social status it could tell somebody what tribe you were in or what rank you had or even your occupation and I'm sure you guys know about wigs bcas well as far back as ancient Egypt and Rome wigs were a sign of wealth and social standing and if you guys know a lot of Judges lawyers especially in England they still wear wigs and perhaps the most famous American in the world wore a wig does anybody know who I'm talking about I'm not talking about Donald Trump I'm talking about another president President George Washington wore a wig and wigs have been known since as I said Egypt and Rome the first documented use of hair extensions and wigs which are a little bit different a wig is a whole piece like a tupe and hair extensions are kind of like adding extra hair they're very popular these days well they started around 3,400 BC and at that time body hair was a big no no if you had body hair you were nobody you were a bum nevertheless thick hair on your head was seen as a status symbol and wigs and hair extensions weren't worn just by women they were worn by men as well and very important people wore wigs as well so politicians pharaohs royalty now if you wear a wig it's because you don't have another choice or perhaps it's Halloween so there's always been an emphasis on hair with defining who we are speaking of defining let's define hair we're going to do a little hair 101 loas hair is according to the internet and the internet never lies any of the fine threadlike strands growing from the skin of humans mammals and some other animals so threadlike means Uno the same way we say a thread on the internet and a strand of hair is Mea or me those are called highlights but we'll look at all the different kinds a little bit later on there are so many different styles colors and kinds of hair out there and we're going to discover them all today now here's a little trivia question for you about what percent of our total skin area do you think is covered by hair did you say 50% did you say 75% no 95% of our total skin area is covered in hair did you know that we were so hairy okay my uncle Johnny it's obvious he looks like a gorilla or looks like he's wearing a sweater when he's got his shirt off at the beach but on average 95% of our skin area is covered in hair the average head contains over 100,000 hair follicles another trivia question how many hairs do you think we lose a day and let's be honest we've all looked in the drain after our shower and said uh-oh I lost a lot of hair today well we lose anywhere between 50 and 100 hairs a day now don't worry that doesn't mean that you're balding that's natural in fact they consider balding when you lose 50% of your hair all right another question over here how much do you think your hair grows in an average day or in an average month between 3 and .5 mm per day that's about 1 cm a month and we used the word strand before strands of hair are truly fascinating things in fact a single strand of human hair can support up to 6.5 lbs of weight now I know what you're thinking Europeans what does that mean to me that means nothing well that's around 3 kilos in your language and if we look at a single strand of hair the outermost layer is the cuticle outermost isor the middle layer is the cortex and this is the source of the strength elasticity and pigment and the innermost layer is the medulla and chemically speaking about 80% of human hair is formed by keratin and another fun fact about hair it is the second fastest growing tissue in the body after bone marrow I think you call it twano marrow and the normal growth cycle of a single strand of hair hair can last anywhere from 2 to 6 years so tomorrow when you get a haircut the barber might be cutting hair that has been growing on your head for five or six years and if you noticed everybody's got these kind of spirals going on in their head and that's due to the angle of the hair follicles they call this the hair stream and this is what creates a cowlick for example a cck in Spanish as un remolino it's when your hair just kind of sticks up it looks like it was licked by a cow it makes sense or if you notice sometimes you can part your hair better to one side well that's all due to your hair stream and that's due to the angle at which your hair follicles grow another word that comes to mind when we talk about hair is your scalp and your scalp is the quo Cudo and they say it's just as important to take care of your scalp as your hair let's take a look at some colors now probably the darkest color is jet black I think you say negro aich or something like that I remember well jet black is really really black and the other side of the spectrum is platinum blonde and in between you've got brown you've got dark brown hair chestnut brown castano strawberry blonde have you heard this one I know you know the word blonde well strawberry blond is Rubio Roo and speaking of red heads do you know what percentage of the world's population has red hair naturally we're not talking about dying hair now only 4% of the world's population has natural red hair and most of them live in Scotland no I'm just kidding I'm not sure about that last part and another way we call a red head is a ginger you got to be careful with that one because sometimes people are sensitive and they may not like it so you can always say red head and where does hair get its color from it gets its color from the pigment melanin this is the same agent that colors our skin and our eyes oh and we forgot to mention gray hair you say gas we say gray hair grease and I have to say I am graying my beard is gray my head is gray but wait a second it seems to be working out for George Clooney okay what else and Shan connory well here's a little fun fact gray hair is not really gray it is the absence of color in the hair that makes it appear white or opaque and that's about it for Colors Let's Take a look at different kinds of hair you've got straight hair some people have naturally straight hair other people straighten it then you've got curly hair and some people have naturally curly hair and some people curl it isn't that funny everybody's trying to get the hairo they don't have oh and hair do is another way to say hairstyle then you've got wavy hair which isn't exactly like Curly curly is one thing conos and wavy is masas it's not really straight it's wavy my hair gets wavy when it gets long and then obviously you've got short hair long hair we'll take a look at the hair styles in a moment you've also got different textures you've got greasy hair you've got dry hair which by the way if you've noticed the older you get the drier your hair gets also if you're like me then your hair starts thinning and you start to go bald and you have that receding hairline which leaves you with a very pronounced widow's peak and the same way we say the word hairline don't forget about the neckline I always ask my wife to fix my neckline to make it look good cuz I don't know if you guys know this but I give myself haircuts oh which brings me to another point you don't know how many times I've heard students say Alberto yesterday I cut my hair I said really I didn't know you knew how to cut hair so be careful we don't say I cut my hair which in my case I cut my hair well not me it's a machine Clippers as we call them but my wife she shaves the neckline but you don't want to say I cut my hair if you went to a hairdresser or a barber in that case you would say I got a haircut and the joke the old school joke there is did you get a haircut yesterday yeah a couple of[Laughter] them hey that joke is as old as hair itself and now we'll go on over to some popular haird now there are as many haird or hairstyles as there are kinds of people in the world as we said before it's a way you define yourself if you like punk rock music music you'll have a mohawk you call it unaka we call it a mohawk like the Mohawk Indians but let's start off with ladies hair dce one word that always comes up when we're talking about hairstyles is bangs What She Bang She Bangs She Bangs like Ricky Martin no no bangs in Spanish oo I can't remember the word now oh right fleo fleo well in American English we call them bangs fio you have bangs now if you speak British English they call it Fringe so some people men and women have bangs and others don't another popular hairstyle is the Bob and this is kind of a haircut where the hair is cut above the shoulders that's another way that we can tell the hairdress or what we want shoulder length below the shoulders above the shoulders but Bob reminds me of the cut that they all had on the show Friends oh and by the way if you haven't listened to the Friends episode of FYI you're going to love it rest in peace Chandler Bing then you've got the bun and this is uh a hairstyle where they tie it in the back and it looks like a a little bun you call this one un mono then you've got the perm which has come back all of a sudden the perm is in style again again per and when I was a kid only girls got perms but now I see a lot of these young guys walking around with perms I think the world is upside down and there's always that debate when we talk about the length of hair okay longer is nice as we said all throughout history the longer your hair was the higher you were in society now we know that's not true these days but still long hair is valued but what about the hassle the longer your hair is the more time you have to put into it you have to groom it I think the word is a we use this word a lot when we're talking about hair and to groom is to keep it looking nice and the word hassle is stress I know just with my daughter I spend 10 minutes every morning just brushing her hair to get the knots out and I try not to hurt her another thing we talk about when we talk about hair is dead ends or split ends and this is when the hair kind of dieses at the end and it kind of dries out also another option for girls with long hair who don't want to deal with it you can tie it in a ponytail or perhaps pigtails that's one on each side my daughter really loves braids and sometimes she asks me poppy can you braid my hair and I'm like that's your mother's Department I'm pretty good at combing her hair in fact a lot of times she says poppy can you do it and I said sure as I said you have to do it with TLC because everybody knows that combing Naughty Hair is not fun and as I said before there are so many different hairstyles out there but those are some of the most common ones let's take a look at some hairstyles for men my favorite one is the mullet I don't know if you know this one in Spanish but I know you recognize it it's the one that Patrick suy had well I guess everybody in the had a mullet even Mel Gibson and that's when it's short in the front and long in the back it's kind of a redneck look these days but it's an internet meme I think there's even a website mullets dcom one of my favorite styles is spiky deas I remember the first time I had spiky hair because my mother used to tell me Alberto you have to have your hair combed and nice it's got to look presentable and she used to give me a bowl cut and finally I rebelled so look at that even a hairstyle can be seen as rebellion and since my mom was kind of a control freak with my hair the day I could I had spiky hair I dyed it every color Under the Sun and for me it was a form of expression and a way to rebel against my folks so I've always liked spiky hair but now my hair is thinning especially in the crown and it doesn't look as good so lately I've been sporting a crew cut or a buzz cut where I keep it really really tight I don't shave it down all the way but I have what we call a buzz cut or a crew cut one of my favorites which is associated more with spiky hair is Bed Head Bed Head is that look like you just got out of bed I think Johnny Depp was a Pioneer with that look then you've got the com over guys don't do the comb over if you go bald on your crown don't try and comb the rest of the hair over it we know you're doing it bald is beautiful guys shave it down another very common way to wear your hair is to Slick it back I think of the guys in Greece and this is engino then you've got the fade which is very important I love the fade and the fade means that it gradually gets bushier your hair so when you're by your ears it's down very low but as you go up it fades or it tapers as they call it a tapered look is when you have more on top and the sides in the back are shaved down a little bit lower and then you've got dreadlocks which you guys call rastas but we don't call them rastas we call them dreadlocks I guess that makes sense because a lock of hair is P or B it's says over here another one that I love but I can't grow because I don't have that kind of hair is a fro a fro is a short way to say an afro well either way whatever look you like make sure you take care of your hair just like you take care of the rest of your body and we'll wrap up this episode with an idiomatic expression we'll take a look at many more in the bonus part but I'm sure you're going to recognize this idiomatic expression let your hair down I think it's even a song in Spanish so folks when you're studying English when you're listening to the podcast let your hair down relax and enjoy it I sure hope you enjoyed this week's episode and I hope you'll join us in the bonus episode of this week's[Applause] FYI[Applause][Music][Music] a