Where Is That Hair Way Up There?
One of the most common and embarrassing moments for young girls is when they’re searching for the one strand of hair that has escaped from their ponytail, only to realize it hangs at least a foot over their head. This is because this hair is attached to their scalp in a different part than the rest of their head.
I learned about why some people have an unusual amount of body hair when I was studying anthropology. There are many genetic reasons why women might have more body hair than men, but these reasons can be complicated to understand and explain. For example, hormones can boost levels of certain proteins that cause thicker body hair and lower levels of testosterone among males.
But there are also a few genetic disorders that cause unusual growth of body hair. One of the most common is polygenetic inheritance, which is a set of traits passed down to offspring from both parents. This disorder causes people to have a more noticeable amount of hair on their bodies than normal.
The disorder also causes people to grow more body hair later in life as well, which seems to be an explanation for the prevalence of facial hair among older men. It's discouraging when you’re born with an inherited disadvantage like this, but what can you do?
Besides these conditions, some people just grow more hair than others for one reason or the other. There are rare cases of someone being born with thick body hair or a lot of facial hair. It’s even possible for women to have facial hair to some degree, but this is particularly uncommon.
However, not all instances of unusual amounts of body hair are genetic or inherited. For example, some people grow an excessive amount of hair on their arms and legs because they overproduce keratin, the protein that makes up the structure of human skin and other tissues. This causes their skin to become thicker and stiffer than normal.
This condition is called ichthyosis vulgaris , also known as fish skin because it can make a person's skin feel like scales when they run their fingers over it. It’s not just me; the previous paragraph could be describing a fish.
Other people grow more body hair from a bacterial infection of the skin, called folliculitis. A lot of people use this condition as a reason for why they have several weird hairs growing in one spot around their chin or on their back. But this is completely different from having a lot of facial hair and thick body hair because it involves an infection rather than an overproduction of something healthy like keratin.
There are also certain procedures that can cause women to grow thicker patches of body hair, such as waxing and laser treatments to remove unwanted hair.
No matter what the reason for the extra hair, it’s important to remember that most people have a normal amount of body hair. And if you're growing more than the average amount, remember that our society has plenty of outlets to get rid of it. There are many options such as waxing, laser treatments and electrolysis (electrodessication), which can all completely eliminate unwanted facial and body hair.
I hope you learned something new about unusual amounts of body hair. Thanks for reading!
What do you think my article title means? [You are addressed as “friend” in this piece.] Email me and explain the meaning in your response. The subject of my article is "Where Is That Hair Way Up There"? The factual data I will present will provide an evidence that I need to argue a pithy postulate and a proof that the essay is on topic.
After reading this, how does ONE loose hair (not all hair) from her head ? (the assumption is that one has hair there) It's not clear to me why it's even an issue. If I understand the question right, it needs to be answered in about 10 sentences.
I feel like this is too long to be a title for the article. Can I use an incomplete sentence instead (e.g. “It’s not clear to me why it’s even an issue.”)? I feel intimidated by the length of this title and don't want to seem like a novice or wannabe writer. Thoughts?
"What do you think my article title means?" is not a question that we can answer without knowing your purpose for writing an article on this subject, and in turn what one you are addressing with the question. The first person to respond to the question, "What do you think my article title means?" will be the one you are addressing. You can't count on how someone might interpret a question.
The rhetorical purpose of leaving a title as open ended and vague as this is that it forces the reader to “think” about what the author meant. But if we don't know what your purpose is for writing this piece, it's impossible for us to know what you mean by your question. So we're forced to just guess at the meaning of your title. There's no need for a reader to have more than a general idea about why an author wrote an article if one can figure out what he means from the article itself. So the burden of interpretation isn't on the reader, but on you as the author. Ironically I have to guess at what your purpose for writing this piece is because you haven't told us.
When people ask questions about their titles or are curious about them, their rhetorical purpose is almost always along the lines of either a) demonstrating their acumen as an astute writer and thinker by showing how cleverly or creatively they've come up with a title that fits their article's contents perfectly, or b) overtly asking for someone to help them come up with a title that better suits their article's content. Asking someone else to interpret your title assumes they know more than you do. Most writers will shy away from this because they know how easy it is to say something like "I'm having trouble with the title for my article" when one in fact has no trouble at all, and what a burden it is on them because they don't actually know how to create a better title for their article, or don't want to admit that.
The question "What do you think my article title means?" assumes that the reader knows more than the author does about the content of his piece. And as I've shown above, you shouldn't have to explain your purpose for writing an article until after you've written it.
Conclusion: This title is insufficient and ambiguous. There is no way to know what you mean by it, but the burden of interpretation is on you as the author.
I don't think your title is very clear. I think it means that the function of hair on the head is different from for other body parts. I understand that I should explain my reasoning for writing this article, but I don't know how to explain it in a way that will satisfy my readers.