Do Men's Eyebrows tend to start growing longer as they get older?

[notfrommensa]

When I was younger, I don't ever remember being conscious about my eyebrows. There were much like the hair on my arms, just there, and basically staying the same length.

However in the last 5-10 years, I have to trim my eyebrows about every 3 weeks or so. The hairs are long enough to some of the hairs grow to over an inch long.

I have noticed many older men with very long eyebrows. Kind of like this guy. But I don't think I ever see a young guy with really long eyebrows.

[tdn]

I can't speak for other men, but I have to trim mine every few weeks. If I let them go for over a year, I could probably braid them.

This started maybe in my mid-30s.

[Rocketeer]

Yes. It's one of the long-term effects of having so much testosterone in one's body.

[lieu]

Yep, better have a look see around your ears as well.

I think it's especially prolific if you're in academia. Some of their eyebrows look like they're ready to filter krill.

[Smeghead]

Mine have started up as well. I quite like them, but then I'm going for an Evil Mad Scientist look.

[aruvqan]

Originally Posted by lieu

Yep, better have a look see around your ears as well.

I think it's especially prolific if you're in academia. Some of their eyebrows look like they're ready to filter krill.

ROFL.

Remember the old guys in the politburo pictures that came out of Moscow every few years? Talk about some serious eyebrows...

[Olentzero]

Yep, over the last couple of years I've noticed a marked increase in eyebrow length. Not uniform, unfortunately - a few here and there that like to stand out from the crowd. I trim 'em. If all of 'em started doing that I'd probably let 'em grow for a while, but as it is it looks scruffy so down they go.

[notfrommensa]

Originally Posted by Rocketeer

Yes. It's one of the long-term effects of having so much testosterone in one's body.

sort of a "male" menopause then?

[runcible spoon]

Originally Posted by notfrommensa

sort of a "male" menopause then?

We prefer 'manopause'.

[notfrommensa]

Originally Posted by runcible spoon

We prefer 'manopause'.

That sounds better than a 'womenopause'.

[Leaffan]

I have a few rogue eyebrow hairs that I need to snip. Funny, even if I pluck the bastards out, new rogues grow back in the same location.

And, yeah, I've been shaving my ears for a while now too.

[Colophon]

The first time I went to the barbers after I turned 30, as if by magic they offered to trim my eyebrows. (They had no idea how old I was, BTW)

My dad has ridiculously bushy eyebrows, and he won't let anyone trim them. They're long enough that I bet he could comb them into his hair, covering his whole forehead.

Think Dennis Healey, although my dad's hair hasn't receded at all.

[Projammer]

I noticed some of my eyebrow hair starting to grow in longer about the time I turned 45.

I plan to just let them keep growing in the event I start balding and need a combover.

[Isamu]

As others noted, it's not just eyebrows. Ear hair and nose hair also go wild and need weekly attention.

[Mahaloth]

Can anyone recommend a high quality, inexpensive, electric nose/ear hair trimmer then?

[Spavined Gelding]

I aspire to have great bushy eyebrows like John L. Lewis. Also gouts of bristly hair sprouting from my ears and big yellow teeth like an old horse. I’ve never been attractive to women before, why hope for anything else now?

[dtilque]

Originally Posted by runcible spoon

We prefer 'manopause'.

Manopause: when everything starts to get bigger, hairier and closer to the ground

Definition stolen from Red Meat

[kenobi 65]

My hair stylist started trimming my eyebrows a few years back (I was probably about 40 at the time), after she noted that a few were getting longish. She does the trim now as part of my regular every-4-week haircut.

A few years ago, I saw an older guy on the L, whose eyebrows were so out of control that he looked like Thufir Hawat from Dune.

[heterosapien]

im 27 and i trimmed my eyebrows for the first time last week. they have been connecting together to form a single brow for several years now, i shave them apart

[Olentzero]

Bushy unibrow... there's an unsettling concept.

[bardos]

Mine gave disappeared

[Khadaji]

It was a sad day for me when I first had to trim my eyebrows - another indication that I had become old.

[TerpBE]

If you're interested in studying this phenomenon further, watch the last five minutes of 60 Minutes each week.

[CurtC]

Originally Posted by dtilque

Manopause: when everything starts to get bigger, hairier and closer to the ground

Definition stolen from Red Meat

I used to have a National Lampoon article from the early 1980s, which talked about how to choose a bride. It talked about all kinds of things, but one point was that as women age, "everything gets bigger, hairier, and closer to the ground."

[kenobi 65]

Originally Posted by TerpBE

If you're interested in studying this phenomenon further, watch the last five minutes of 60 Minutes each week.

"Didja ever notice how bushy my eyebrows have gotten over the years? My barber asks if he should trim them for me. I don't let him."

[notfrommensa]

I don't know how Andy Rooney (or anyone) can stand the long eyebrows. If a get a rogue hair growing long, I am trimming it.

[oliversarmy]

As an older man [cough], my eyebrows don't seem to be getting longer, they just seem to be curlier. I also have to trim my ears, externally.

I also have to shout at kids in my yard and drive at least five miles per hour below the posted speed limit and eat dinner at 4 p.m.

I also sometimes, forget what I'm doing, but I don't think that's because of age, it just means that I hate it when the I have to mow the lawn and there's no milk in the refrigerator. Why is there no bacon in the refrigerator? Because I have to change the air filter in the furnace and where's my wallet? Has anyone seen my wallet? I have to go to the store and buy toilet paper. What?

Dancing with the Stars is on? OK, I'll turn on the radio.

[KayeFrancis]

Originally Posted by notfrommensa

When I was younger, I don't ever remember being conscious about my eyebrows. There were much like the hair on my arms, just there, and basically staying the same length.

However in the last 5-10 years, I have to trim my eyebrows about every 3 weeks or so. The hairs are long enough to some of the hairs grow to over an inch long.

I have noticed many older men with very long eyebrows. Kind of like this guy. But I don't think I ever see a young guy with really long eyebrows.

No. It's just that vanity decreases and we forget to trim.

[wmfellows]

There is evidently a real phenomena at "a certain age" of increased / changed hair, I'm sure rather than flimsy anecdote someone knows of actual science on this.

[Tom Tildrum]

It's actually the skin on one's head shrinking.

[robcaro]

I am not a hairy person. I have almost no hair on my legs, arms and body, but my head has lots of hair and my eyebrows need trimming each month. My beard is quite heavy and sometimes I get some hairs growing on my ears.

[kasuo]

By 30 I started to notice the lengthiness of my brow hair, especially a particular grey one that keeps growing in the same spot that I keep plucking. Nose hair are now starting to escape my nostrils, threatening friends and loved ones.

[Rocketeer]

Originally Posted by wmfellows

There is evidently a real phenomena at "a certain age" of increased / changed hair, I'm sure rather than flimsy anecdote someone knows of actual science on this.

Post number 3 was a scientifically accurate post.

[sunstone]

To add to post 3's scientific bent, long term testosterone has some interesting effects on hair, but those effects vary with the part of the body involved.

For example, parts of men's scalp have hair that will both become less robust and have a shortened cycle of growth and shedding. If you examine the scalp on the top of a "bald" man's head, you will find very fine hairs...in some cases nearly microscopic. This sort of skin has hair follicles that are influenced by male hormones to change from robust hair with a long growth/shed cycle. Note that for all practical purposes, all men have skin/hair follicles in the lower parts of the scalp that do not respond in this fashion, and the hair appears to be normal.

And then we have the other parts.....ah yes! The hair follicles in the nose, eyebrows, back, chest all will respond to differing degrees to testosterone (it may take some time for the cells that produce the hair itself to actually respond)...resulting in hairs apparently appearing in profusion where we thought there were none. Therein lies the mistake. Those hairs in the ears, nose, back, eyebrows and so forth were always there, but were not responding to testosterone and remained their wimpy preadolescent selves until being awash in male hormones.

BTW, since women have the same hairs present on their bodies, after menopause we might think that women would grow hairs, as there are male hormones produced by the adrenal glands in females...which are no longer overwhelmed by female hormones. Therefore Granny may grow a stray hair here and there.

Hopefully this helps.

[brossa]

Something was irritating my eye a few weeks ago. After rubbing at it a while, I finally looked in the mirror to see if I had a stray eyelash in there. No, it was a big bristly eyebrow hair that had flipped down and was strumming across the tips of my eyelashes, like a spider testing his webbing. Time for another trim.

[AHunter3]

Do Men's Eyebrows tend to start growing longer as they get older?

As the men get older or as the eyebrows get older?

[Shodan]

I wouldn't mind so much if they all pointed in the same direction. They don't - every one is a free spirit, seeking its own path.

The hairs on my scalp fall naturally into place - why can't they follow this good example?

And the barber wanted to wax them. No, Just no.

Regards,
Shodan

[elfkin477]

Originally Posted by sunstone

BTW, since women have the same hairs present on their bodies, after menopause we might think that women would grow hairs, as there are male hormones produced by the adrenal glands in females...which are no longer overwhelmed by female hormones. Therefore Granny may grow a stray hair here and there.

Actually, those stray hairs on women appear a lot sooner than menopause - around 30 for a lot of us just like the reports in this thread of bushier eyebrows in men (an age in women that marks the first significant decline in fertility). I think you only notice them on older women because after a couple of decades they say screw it and stop bothering to tweeze them out.

[jasg]

Eyebrows are not mentioned, but Cecil has commented on manly growth of hair in ears and nose....

[wmfellows]

Originally Posted by Rocketeer

Post number 3 was a scientifically accurate post.

Yes, but bare bones and lost amidst a sea of wanker IMHO anecdote that so often drowns out interesting response in GQ.

Originally Posted by sunstone

To add to post 3's scientific bent, long term testosterone has some interesting effects on hair, but those effects vary with the part of the body involved.
... Those hairs in the ears, nose, back, eyebrows and so forth were always there, but were not responding to testosterone and remained their wimpy preadolescent selves until being awash in male hormones.

BTW, since women have the same hairs present on their bodies, after menopause we might think that women would grow hairs, as there are male hormones produced by the adrenal glands in females...which are no longer overwhelmed by female hormones. Therefore Granny may grow a stray hair here and there.

Hopefully this helps.

Thanks, I knew this much actually, although thanks for putting it down eloquently here. The item that I am curious about is the science around the timing / emergence. It would appear the 30-40 year mark kicks it off as an observable phenomena (yes surely something of just a visible tipping point, but); it would interesting to read any science around the whys or understanding of the tip over. I also recall an interesting book advancing a popular science human as neonatal chimp hypothesis but perhaps that was mere popular science.