First Place Division 10

Column Writing

The Brackett News

Experiment is shocking

Teen Spirit

Shanae Simmons

A girl is sitting in a cold classroom in her favorite new skirt. She is shivering and reaches down to rub her legs. To her surprise, little goose bumps have risen all over her legs and she exclaims, "Oh no, I just shaved."

If you are sitting in your home, reading this newspaper, and if you are wondering where I am going with this, then wait and your answer shall shortly come.

Recently, I embarked aboard a wonderful scientific journey and the preceding was my introduction. I am not now a suddenly transformed Albert Einstein, mind you, but I feel that my discoveries will better the world as we know it.

I have masterminded the experiment of something that effects man and woman everyday. I have discovered hair growth. OK, I know that sounds a bit vague, and no, to you balding men. I have not figured away to reproduced your missing locks.

Well maybe the discoveries aren't so phenomenal, but I have discovered under which condition hair grows best. See my purpose was to see whether hair grew faster covered and protected from the environment or uncovered and exposed.

So to carry out this experiment, for an entire week I abstained from shaving my legs, and I walked around with one pant leg on and the other off. I went through cold and heat, finding myself in great discomfort at times. I sacrificed my own comfort for science.

Needless to say, I spent my days looking like a total dork. You may, have even seen me, running around in basketball games with spandex and a long white sock covering one leg, leaving the other bare, or walking around with one jean leg rolled up. Many students didn't know of my experiment and thought that I was just being' "different" as usual, and trying to start some trend.

Then the interesting part came. At the end of the week, I had to do the painful part of the experiment, meaning I had to measure my hairs. I pulled 120 strands of DNA, 120 pieces of pain, 120 tiny little hairs out of my quivering legs. Talk about torture. Not only did I pull these hairs out, but I did so slowly and painfully, guaranteeing the whole root of each follicle would be safe. After this torture, I measured each strand with a ruler.

After all was done I found out something amazing. One would think that the hair uncovered would grow faster to protect itself from the exposure, but quite the opposite happened. My hair, which was suffocated for one agonizing week, grew faster. This not only shocked me, but blew my entire hypothesis out of the water.

In the end, I guess I really didn't "better" the world in anyway, but I did make a discovery that disproves many of the theories held by common Joes like myself. Hair grows faster in warmth. So ladies, when you have your favorite new skirts on and you're sitting in a chilly room, and when you reach down to feel your legs, don't worry, those babies aren't going anywhere.