Part 2: Hair of the Body

Imagine checking into a 5-star hotel (okay, first imagine your the kind of person who can afford a 5-star hotel) and finding a pubic hair on the toilet seat or in the bathtub. Imagine your indignation at being subjected to such a disgusting sight and all it implies. Perhaps you’d demand a free night’s stay and the immediate termination of the housekeeping staff. Never mind that you yourself have left a trail of hundreds of the little pluckers in every restroom – and a lot of other places, no doubt – from here to middle school.

When a new human being begins its journey through the birth canal, it is covered nearly entirely by a fine coat vellus hair. While developing in the womb, however, the fetus has a different coat of hair called lanugo. Just prior to full term, lanugo is shed and replaced with downy vellus hair. The presence of lanugo is a sign of premature birth. Vellus hair is commonly known as peach fuzz. Sometimes boys are teased about having peach fuzz on their faces instead of a manly growth of real facial hair – a feat they are unable to perform until after puberty. Sometimes long after.

As a person ages, some vellus hair is replaced with terminal hair, which is longer, thicker, and darker. On the head, this happens either prior to or not long after birth. At the onset of puberty, vellus hair on other parts of the body is replaced with androgenic hair. This change is triggered by androgens in both males and females. Androgens are hormones that stimulate or control male secondary sex characteristics. The most commonly known androgen is testosterone, which is produced in abundance in the testes in males. In females, testosterone is produced to a much lesser extent in the ovaries. The adrenal glands of both males and females also produce testosterone. Androgens are the precursors to estrogen, the primary female sex hormone.

The hair follicles that produce facial hair in males, and pubic and axillary (armpit) hair in both sexes, are especially sensitive to androgens.

The extent and patterns of androgenic body hair differs in males and females. It also differs with geography and ethnicity. Genetics too, plays a role. Males – in addition to having facial, axillary and pubic hair – have androgenic hair on the arms, legs, chest, abdomen, back, and buttocks. Androgenic hair on females is usually limited to the forearms, axillary and pubic regions, and legs. Both sexes have eyebrows. Excessive body hair on the face, chest, and abdomen in females is known as hirsutism. This condition is linked either to a higher than normal production of androgens or a hypersensitivity of follicles to normal levels of androgens.

What people do with hair of the body differs within and across cultures. It’s common for males to shave their facial hair. Some wear beards and mustaches either full or neatly trimmed. Some religions, Sikhism for example, may require that men not shave their facial and head hair. In some countries women shave the hair on their legs and under their arms according to fashion and convention. In other countries they don’t. Male athletes – swimmers and cyclists come to mind – also may shave their legs and chests. It’s not uncommon within our own culture, although you wouldn’t notice it day to day, for men and women alike to shave or otherwise remove some or all of their pubic hair. Islam prescribes that both men and women remove their axillary hair, pubic hair, and hair around the anus about every 40 days for reasons of cleanliness. For another reference to this, click here.

I’ve had a mustache – except for maybe three days – since I graduated from high school in 1969. The one time I shaved my mustache – sometime in the 70s – I just couldn’t bear to look in the mirror, I was that appalled at how my face looked without it. I’ve had a beard of varying lengths and styles most of my adult life. I’ve been bare-chinned several times over the years, as well. The only thing that bothers me about not having a beard is the irritation from shaving every day and the annoyance of having to do it.

When my daughter, Kathryn, was about five, she went with her mother to visit her grandparents for three weeks. While they were away, I cut my hair and shaved my beard. When I picked them up at the airport, Kathryn would not approach me, nor would she speak to me. Only when we got home, and I showed her some of the things I’d done in her bedroom that we had discussed before she left, did she acknowledge that just maybe I was her father and not some crazy person she should never get into a car with.

As I’ve aged, I’ve noticed several changes in my androgenic hair. Like the hair on my head, it is turning gray, although there are plenty of places where it is still dark. The hair on my legs is thinning, but everywhere else it is more abundant. In many places it tends to grow longer than it had when I was younger. My chest in particular. I get these long wisps of gray hair poking out of my collar. Occasionally I snip them with a scissors. My beard is nearly white, and these days I keep it trimmed close.

Judging by the condition of my head hairs and body hairs, as well as the condition of several other of the 32 parts of this body, I do believe I am aging. I do try, however, not to take it personally.

If you are coming to this blog for the first time and are wondering what this series is about, please read the Introducion to the 32-Parts Project listed in the sidebar.