Does your hair grow when you die?

Answer 1

No. When you die, your body dehydrates and the skin shrinks. This gives that appearance that your hair is actually growing (it looks longer).

Answer 2

It is not true that fingernails, toenails, or hair continue to grow
after death. Nails and hair may appear to be longer because of the desiccation of the surrounding flesh, but actual growth has not occurred.

"We dehydrate after dying. Our flesh dries and, in so doing, pulls
away from nails and hair. Thus, though the nail on our big toe, for
example, remains the same length as before, the toe it is seated upon shrinks. Because we are accustomed to nails and hair growing, not hands, feet, and heads shrinking, we perceive this change as an increase in one rather than a decline in the other.

To quote the respected forensic anthropologist William R. Maples:
It is a myth that fingernails and hair continue to grow after death.
What really happens is that the skin may retract around them, making the hair and nails prickle up and jut out more prominently. Erich Maria Remarque, in his novel All Quiet on the Western Front, imagines a dead friend's nails growing in weird, subterranean corkscrews after his burial. It is a powerful, disturbing image, but it is pure moonshine. No such thing occurs."

Snopes Urban Legends Reference Pages: Coffin Nails
http://www.snopes.com/science/nailgrow.asp

"The skin around the hair and fingernails will desiccate (i.e., lose
water) and thereby shrink. When the skin shrinks, it retracts, making hair and fingernails look longer, as if they'd grown.

Think of it this way: a fifty foot tree grows in ten feet of swamp
water. The visible part of the tree is 40' tall. A few months later, a
drought causes the water level to drop five feet. Now the visible part of the tree is 45' tall. Did the tree grow in a drought? No, but you can see why people would think it did."

The Straight Dope: Do hair and nails continue to grow after death?
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhairgrow.html

"Many people believe that a person's hair, fingernails and toenails
continue to grow after death. Despite what you may have read or seen in the movies, this is false. Once a person has died all growth of the hair and nails ceases. After death the body dehydrates and the skin around the hair and nails will recede a little making it appear as the deceased's nails and hair have grown. However, it is only an optical illusion. The nails and hair remains the same length as before but more of it is exposed due to tissue shrinkage."

About Dying: Do Hair and Nails Continue to Grow After Death?
http://dying.about.com/od/faqs/f/nailGrowth.htm

My search strategy began with visits to The Straight Dope and Snopes, two of the Web's very best sites for separating fact from myth. I also used this Google search string:

Google Web Search: "fingernails and hair continue"
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22fingernails+and+hair+continue%22

I hope this is helpful.

Answer 3

It is commonly claimed that hair and nails will continue growing for several days after death. This is a myth; the appearance of growth is actually caused by the retraction of skin as the surrounding tissue dehydrates, making nails and hair more prominent.

So my answer is no.

Answer 4

No - its a common misconception that hair and fingernails grow.

The truth is that as your body decomposes your skin shrinks, and so the hairs and fingernails look longer, when in fact they were the same size on the skin has come away from them.

Answer 5

When you die, your skin shrinks. This gives that appearance that your hair is actually growing.

Answer 6

Your hair and your fingernails continue to grow for a short time after death.

Answer 7

No, and neither do your fingernails. Your flesh begins receeding (due to decay) and it appears as though your hair and nails continue to grow.

Answer 8

apparently your hair and fingernails continue to grow for 2 to 4 weeks after death. Your brain also continues to make natural growth hormones for 3 weeks after death.

Answer 9

It does, but slowly, as do fingernails. That's coming from personal experience - when I was at Medical School I dissected a cadaver over a period of 10 months.

Answer 10

no it does not. Neither does your nails. It appears to though because when the body decomposes it will make everything "like your hair and nails" to appear longer.