Across cultures, people have always tried to guess the sex of a baby before birth. Long before ultrasounds, families relied on what they could observe with their eyes. The shape of a belly, the cravings a mother developed, or the glow on her face. Among these traditions, one of the most interesting is the belief that a mother’s hair can be used for gender prediction.
According to this belief, dull and thinning hair suggests a girl, while glossy, full hair points toward a boy. Slight reddish highlights, some say, also mean a girl. It is an old idea, yet it continues to appear in conversations today.
Where This Hair Prediction Comes From
This belief grew in communities that needed ways to read the signs of pregnancy without medical tools. In many older sayings, daughters were thought to “borrow” beauty from their mothers while they were still developing. If a woman’s hair looked flat or lifeless, the conclusion was simple: she must be carrying a girl. If she looked fresher and more vibrant, people guessed a boy was giving her extra strength.
Hair was a particularly noticeable feature. It can change quickly and dramatically during pregnancy, so it became a natural place for people to look for clues.
Even though it sounds poetic, the idea sits in a long line of traditional gender prediction methods. Some cultures read the belly’s shape, others observed skin texture. Hair became a favourite because it was easy to see, easy to comment on, and easy to compare with previous pregnancies.
What Modern Science Says About Hair Changes
While the belief is charming, modern biology explains hair changes very differently. The key players are the mother’s hormones, not the sex of the baby.
Estrogen and Fuller Hair
One of the biggest changes in pregnancy is the sharp rise in estrogen. Estrogen slows hair shedding and keeps more hairs in the growing stage. This makes the hair look thicker and healthier. Many women feel that their hair becomes fuller during the second trimester. The effect happens whether the mother is carrying a boy or a girl.
Progesterone and Natural Oils
Progesterone also rises during pregnancy. This hormone affects the oil glands on the scalp. More oil can make hair look glossy and smooth. Less oil can make it look dry and brittle. Differences in oil production can create the impression that hair colour has shifted slightly, especially in sunlight. That includes the reddish highlights mentioned in the old belief.
These changes are natural responses to pregnancy, not the baby’s gender.
Nutritional and Lifestyle Factors
Hair can also reflect what the mother is experiencing physically. A drop in iron, mild dehydration, nausea, or reduced appetite can all make hair look thinner or less lively. Stress can affect hair growth as well. These variations happen in all kinds of pregnancies and have nothing to do with the baby’s sex.
Do Fetal Hormones Affect the Mother?
Some people wonder if boys produce hormones that might travel into the mother’s bloodstream. In reality, fetal hormones remain mostly within the fetus. Only tiny amounts reach the mother, and these amounts are too small to change her hair.
Studies comparing mothers carrying boys with mothers carrying girls show no meaningful differences in hormone levels connected to hair texture or appearance.
Why the Folk Belief Feels True
Even without scientific support, beliefs like this survive for good reasons.
Confirmation Bias
When a prediction turns out correct, people remember it. When it is wrong, they rarely bring it up again. Over time, the correct predictions feel more common than they truly are, and the belief appears to have strong evidence behind it.
Shared Anticipation and Family Culture
These traditions also give families something fun to talk about during pregnancy. Before modern imaging, guessing became part of the excitement. Hair changes, belly shape, food cravings, all of these signs helped families build stories around the unborn child. In this sense, gender prediction methods were less about accuracy and more about connection.
Visual Changes Feel Meaningful
Hair is visible every day. When a mother notices it looking different, it is natural to wonder what the change might mean. The belief offers a simple explanation that feels satisfying, even if it is not scientifically accurate.
So Can Hair Really Predict a Baby’s Gender?
From a scientific point of view, the answer is no. Hair changes are shaped by hormone levels, nutrition, stress, and the mother’s own genetics. None of these factors reveal whether she is carrying a boy or a girl.
But as a cultural tradition, the idea still has value. It reminds us how people once interpreted pregnancy, how they looked for signs in every detail, and how they used these observations to create stories and strengthen family ties.
Even if the belief is not medically reliable, it remains an interesting part of the long history of gender prediction. It shows how much curiosity people have always had about new life and how creatively they made sense of what they saw.
Old folk beliefs like this one connect the present with the past. They do not always match scientific explanations, but they reveal how people once lived, what they cared about, and how they understood the mystery of pregnancy.