Now in all Israel there was no one to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty. From the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no defect in him. When he cut the hair of his head (now it was at every year’s end that he cut it; because it was heavy on him, therefore he cut it); he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels, after the king’s weight.
A man's annual haircut produced 2.3 kilograms — about 5 pounds — of hair.
Biology
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The cited passage
What current science says
Human hair grows about 15 centimeters (6 inches) per year. A full head of hair typically contains around 100,000 strands. Even with extremely thick, long hair, a year's growth weighs roughly 100–150 grams at most. That means 2.3 kg is about 15 to 20 times heavier than what's physically possible. You'd basically need a small dog sitting on your head to hit that weight.
What the text says
This comes from 2 Samuel 14:25-26. Absalom's hair, cut once a year, weighed 200 shekels — approximately 2.3 kg. The text presents this as a sign of his remarkable beauty.
Three honest ways to read this passage
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As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
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As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
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As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.