Getting to Know your hair cells

Hair cells play a critical role in our hearing.

When they are damaged, doctors say they act like blades of grass. When someone walks on grass, the blades initially lie down and then bounce back up. But if you keep walking that same path repeatedly, the grass will stay down. Hair cells are the same way. If you send waves of sound from the outside without an opportunity for the cells to recover, then you rip them out through excessive noise. Hair cells do not grow back.