Why Some Hairs Grow Darker and Thicker Than Others?
It is possible to have hair growth on different parts of your body possessing different characteristics. This difference in hair can be of color, type, or texture depending on the important factor that differs for everyone. You might have noticed the growth of dark and thicker individual hairs in some specific locations but where have they come from and why are they thicker and coarser than other hairs?
This is mainly due to two conditions, one is Androgenic Terminal hair (hirsutism in women) which is caused by a surge in androgens like testosterone, especially at puberty. The other condition is Pili multigemini is less common but causes multiple hair shafts to grow out of a single hair follicle.
“It’s probably caused by a combination of genetics and hormones that cause a change in the hair cycle,” Lipner explains. … Hair that’s packed with extra pigment also tends to be coarser than light-colored hair, which is more reason the hair growing from your mole is thicker than its neighbors.
Let’s find out more.
What Is The Reason Behind The Growth Of Dark And Thicker Hair?
A lot of men experience the growth of extremely brown and thick hair in their beards, armpits, and other private parts.
Whereas, many women claim the presence of dark brown and scratchy hair on their chin, cheeks, and arms. Many of them think regular shaving at those places can initiate the growth of such rough and thick hair that can be very irritating to have anywhere on the body.
To break this myth, we have concluded a set of reasons that can likely be the reason for making such hair grow on your body.
Androgenic terminal hair: Such thick and dark-colored hair can also be found on more than one area of the body including the arm, leg, cheek, etc. But, a majority of both men and women mostly have it around their Vellus as they reach puberty.
Also known as Androgenic terminal hair, this kind of hair can be very stubborn to get rid of easily.
At the initial stage, this hair is relatively short, fine, and uneven like most of the other hair on the body. However, when a person reaches puberty then this hair turns dark in color and thicker in texture due to the release of sex hormones.
Testosterone in men and progesterone in women are two of the most vital sex hormones that are responsible for this change in hair traits.
Since men have this hair to a larger extent than women, therefore, they often start removing this unwanted excessive hair from a very early age.
Pili multigemini: Pili multigemini is a condition that causes multiple hair shafts to grow from the same hair follicles. The condition is most commonly seen along the pubic area and on the scalps of children, but it can happen anywhere on your body where hair grows. Researchers don’t know the exact cause of the issue, but most believe it to be genetic.
Hirsutism: Besides the mentioned causes, the appearance of such abnormal kinds of hair can also result due to several body disorders. Hirsutism is a common medical condition when the body experiences vellus hair on different other body areas.
In such scenarios, these hairs grow thick and black or brown depending on how actively the sex hormones influence the growth of these hairs.
Why Do I Get Random Lone Hairs in Weird Places?
Sometimes you will notice a single strand of hair pop up randomly on your arm or along your ear. What causes these random hairs to appear by themselves like that?
According to Dermatologist Shari Lipner, these hairs are likely due to genetics and hormones which causes a lone hair follicle to have a longer anagen phase (the phase during which hair grows). This is really a mutation of that one hair strand that extends its growth phase
Should You Remove Dark, Thick, or Coarse Hair?
It’s not recommended to mess with these hairs unless they have grown excessively, covering most of your skin.
You can try different methods to remove these hairs but there’s no surety if they can re-grow in weeks or even a few days. Normally, these hairs have redundant and faster hair growth that can cause trouble if you don’t use effective hair-removing methods.
Here are a few ways that have proved effective in reducing hair growth.
Remove The Hairs by Following These Steps
If you decide to remove these hairs, you can do so by following the steps below:
- Plucking the hair with tweezers to not disturb the hair follicles from where the hair sprouts. This safe method also protects the skin from possible harmful infections.
- Going for laser hair removal or electrolysis treatments can ensure the growth of thin hair for the next time they grow. They also slow down the rate at which your hair growth cycle works.
- Try shaving these hairs with a quality razor of your choice as you remove the hair from the other parts of your body.
Why Do Some Hairs Grow Darker Than Others?
It could be due to a follicular mutation, which can be caused by trauma or stress. When this happens, the hair follicle in question has deviated from its regular genetic coding and will grow coarser and more pigmented than other hairs. This change is not reversible, so upon mutation, the hair from that particular follicle will grow in a way consistent with the mutation.
Are Lone Thick and Dark Hair Common?
Lone hairs found to be darker, thicker, and rougher than normal are not uncommon and can happen due to hormonal imbalances caused by stress or trauma, or by the mutation of a hair follicle, causing hair to grow from it differently from the usual.
Why Are Somepeople’s Hairs Thicker Than Others?
Variations in pigment levels (melanin) account for the varying degrees of hair coloration This is believed to occur due to the amount of melanin in the hair. Higher melanin levels make for darker hair and thicker strands. Lighter, thinner hair contains less melanin.
Conclusion
It has not been proven that the growth of these dark-colored and thick individual hairs can be harmful in any way. In case, IF you experience such hair growth, try to find the cause behind it and look for effective remedies to treat it accordingly.
