Does Eating Bread Crust Really Give You Curly Hair?

It's a lesson kids are often told: If they eat their bread crusts, they'll get curly hair. This food myth seems to be told to encourage kids to eat their crusts —  the most nutritious part of a piece of bread. But in these days, when the majority of kids are desperate for dead-straight hair, this lesson may backfire. But is there any evidence to suggest that eating bread crusts will give you perfect, bouncy ringlets anyway?

Sadly, there is no medical evidence at all that can connect eating bread crusts to having curly hair. One person once tried it out by eating as many bread crusts as he could for a two-week period, but he reported no change in hair form. Whether your hair is straight or curly is entirely dependent on your genes, and what you eat isn't going to alter your genetic make-up.

So, if there's no science behind it, where did this myth originate? Apparently, this story began being told more than 300 years ago in Europe. At the time, famine and starvation were common, and the lack of food eventually led to hair loss. The poor were the ones who couldn't afford to buy bread, and so it eventually came to be believed that the healthy, wealthy people with perfect curls had those ringlets because they could afford to eat crusty bread. So there you have it: Eat your crusts because it's good for you. But it's not going to make your hair curly, so you don't need to worry about that.