Terminal hair
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In humans,terminal hairis a variant of hair that is thick and long such as that growing on the scalp, as compared withvellus hair,colloquially known as peach fuzz, growing elsewhere.[1][2]Duringpuberty,the increase in androgenic hormone levels causes vellus hair to be replaced with terminal hair in certain parts of the human body.[3]These parts will have different levels of sensitivity to androgens, primarily of the testosterone family.[4]
Thepubic areais particularly sensitive to such hormones, as are the armpits which will developaxillary hair.[5]Pubic and axillary hair will develop on both men and women, to the extent that such hair qualifies as asecondary sex characteristic,[6]although males will generally develop terminal hair in more areas. This includesfacial hair,chest hair,abdominal hair,legandarm hair,andfoot hair.[7]Human females on the other hand generally retain more of the vellus hair.[8]
These hairs are present in the large apes but not in the small apes like gibbons and represent an evolutionary divergence.[9]: 193 [better source needed]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^"What is meant by the terms vellus hair and terminal hair?".www.wfmj.com.5 December 2019.
- ^Marks, James G; Miller, Jeffery (2006).Lookingbill and Marks' Principles of Dermatology(4th ed.), Elsevier Inc., p. 11.ISBN1-4160-3185-5
- ^Hiort, O. "Androgens and Puberty".Best Practice & Research Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism,Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 31–41.
- ^Neal, Matthew; Lauren M. Sompayrac.How the Endocrine System Works.Blackwell Publishing, 2001, p. 75.
- ^Randall, Valerie A.; Nigel A. Hibberts, M. Julie Thornton, Kazuto Hamada, Alison E. Merrick, Shoji Kato, Tracey J. Jenner, Isobel De Oliveira, Andrew G. Messenger. "The Hair Follicle: A Paradoxical Androgen Target Organ",Hormone Research,Vol. 54, No. 5–6, 2000.
- ^Heffner, Linda J.Human Reproduction at a Glance.Blackwell Publishing, 2001, p. 33.
- ^Robertson, James.Forensic Examination of Hair,CRC Press, 1999, p. 47.
- ^Neal, Matthew; Lauren M. Sompayrac.How the Endocrine System Works.Blackwell Publishing, 2001, pp. 70, 75.
- ^Kane, Jonathan; Willoughby, Emily; Michael Keesey, T. (2016-12-31).God's Word or Human Reason?: An Inside Perspective on Creationism.Inkwater Press.ISBN9781629013725.