[ProWeb]

When I take a shower and the hair on my head gets "wet", are the individual hairs absorbing water, or is water just coating the outside of each individual hair?

 

[Santiago]

When you take a shower, the water is coating the outside of each individual hair. The hair itself is not absorbing the water, but rather the water is adhering to the surface of the hair. This is because hair is made up of a protein called keratin, which is hydrophobic, meaning it repels water.