19 Facts You Thought Were True But Are Actually Total Bullshit

Surprise, your mum lied to you.

1. Shaving your hair doesn't actually make it grow back thicker.

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Shaved hair only looks and feels thicker because it no longer has a tapered end. The sharp, blunt edge of the hair is also what gives it the "stubbly" feeling.

2. Your hair and nails don't continue to grow when you die.

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People think that this is the case because when you die your skin shrinks, which makes your nails and hair look longer.

3. Dyeing your hair doesn't actually make it turn grey faster.

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Grey hairs happen when the melanin pigment, that gives your hair its colour, deteriorates. Hair dyes don't affect this biological process, but lifestyle, stress, and other factors can.

4. If you touch a baby bird, its mother won't disown it.

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Birds can't actually smell all that well because of their small olfactory bulbs, so your scent won't make the mother bird abandon its young.

5. Daddy long leg spiders are actually venomous.

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The seemingly harmless daddy long leg is in fact venomous but its teeth cannot break through human skin.

6. And touching a frog or toad doesn't give you warts.

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Despite their warty-looking skin, both frogs and toads do not cause warts. Warts are actually caused by the human papillomavirus or HPV.

7. If a vagina is loose, it doesn't mean they've slept with a lot of people.

@stephanie_sarley / Via instagram.com

Naturally, vaginal muscle relaxes and expands when aroused, and afterwards it tightens back up. No amount of sex can make the vagina stretch out permanently.

8. And what you think the "vagina" is, isn't actually the vagina at all.

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It's called the vulva which encompasses the mons, the clitoris and the clitoral hood, the labia, and the urethral and vaginal openings. The vagina is what connects the external genitals to internal: the cervix and uterus.

9. Sleeping with wet hair doesn't give you a cold.

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Simply put, colds are caused by viruses.

10. The Great Wall of China can't actually be seen all that well from space.

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The naked eye can't see the Great Wall, even from a low orbit, because of its design and colour. The only images where the Great Wall is sorta visible, were taken with a zoom lense, and even then it's still hard to see.

11. Lightning can strike the same place more than once.

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Lightning hitting the same spot doesn't do anything to the electrical charge of the storm.

12. Defibrillators don't do anything to start non-beating hearts.

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Flatlined hearts cannot be started by the shock of a defibrillator. For a heart to beat and give life, there must be the right chemical balance of electrolytes. Defibrillators are used to reset and correct irregular heartbeats, like ventricular fibrillation, in the hopes that the cells reorganise into a regular heartbeat again.

13. And CPR isn't meant to revive a non-beating heart either.

NBC

While the common belief is that CPR is used to revive someone, it's actually used prevent brain damage by pumping oxygen through the lungs. For the most part, without an effective electric shock, the heart won't start beating regularly again.

14. If you ask an undercover cop if they're a cop, they don't actually have to tell you they are.

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Undercover cops can help you commit a crime, because they're exempt from some criminal laws, but can't force or convince you to do one. So not only do they not have to tell you who they are, you probably won't even know.

15. You don't have to be rich to adopt a child.

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Depending where in the world you are, the adoption process can be expensive, but you don't necessarily have to be ~rich~ to adopt. You must, however, be financially stable enough to provide for the child.

16. If you swallow gum, you won't be stuck with it in your stomach for seven years.

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While it isn't digested like other foods, gum eventually just passes through your body. It rarely stays in your stomach for seven days, so forget about seven years.

17. And consuming sugar doesn't make children hyper.

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The common idea is that giving children too much sugar makes them hyper, but really it's just the thought of sugar making them excited. There have been no links between sugar consumption and hyperactivity.

18. Washing your hands with soap doesn't kill germs, it just washes some away.

FOX

Soap removes bacteria from the hands but doesn't actually kill them.

Bacteria cling to and thrive on the oils on your hands. Soap helps remove these oils and, in turn, washes some of the bacteria away.

19. And no, you won't get cancer because you stood too close to your microwave.

Universal Pictures

The radiation used in microwaves is non-ionizing, meaning that it can't really change the molecular structure of our bodies.

H/T Reddit