# Why does the sun burn your skin and not your hair?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sun-burn-your-skin-and-not-your-hair/186880>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 7, 2003, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sun-burn-your-skin-and-not-your-hair/186880 "2003-07-07T23:10:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lestat915](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lestat915](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lestat915)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sun-burn-your-skin-and-not-your-hair/186880/1 "2003-07-07T23:10:35Z")

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I have an extremely bad sunburn, but i wondered why does the sun only burn your skin and not your hair? Why doesn’t it singe your hair? Why does it lighten your hair?

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**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2003, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-sun-burn-your-skin-and-not-your-hair/186880/2 "2003-07-07T23:14:59Z")

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**Moderator’s Note:** Linking to original thread [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=195991).