# Any correlation between facial hair and sex drive? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 29, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-correlation-between-facial-hair-and-sex-drive/319126 "2005-08-29T17:28:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-correlation-between-facial-hair-and-sex-drive/319126/1 "2005-08-29T17:28:38Z")
I have heard that one cause of facial hair in women is due to testosterone. I have also heard that it is testosterone that is responsible for sex drive in both genders. If a woman is producing enough testosterone to generate facial hair, would this possibly also correlate to a proportionally higher sex drive? ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-correlation-between-facial-hair-and-sex-drive/319126/2 "2005-08-29T17:30:10Z")
I don’t know. \ Why isn’t the question, " guys who don’ t grow facial hair–do they have strong sex drives?" Just asking. ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-correlation-between-facial-hair-and-sex-drive/319126/3 "2005-08-29T17:35:50Z")
I used women in this scenario because women don’t normally really have much in terms of facial hair, so a woman who does might have it due to higher levels of testosterone. If testosterone is responsible for sex drive, wouldn’t higher amounts of testosterone lead to higher sex drive? ---
**Author:** ![Corrvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@Corrvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corrvin)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-correlation-between-facial-hair-and-sex-drive/319126/4 "2005-08-29T22:12:23Z")
Well, male pattern baldness is linked to testosterone levels, but thinning guys don’t have any more or less testosterone than guys who don’t-- they just have the gene that makes them lose their hair. So, rationally, it makes more sense that some women have “usual style” body/face hair, and some women have the genes for growing extra. That hair grows in response to testosterone, so if a woman with an extra-hair gene started producing less T, her hair would thin out some (sorry, that stuff never really goes away). If the extra hair is resulting from an imbalance due to a medical condition like PCOS, there are hormonal treatments; on the other hand, I think most women have more body hair than they’re comfortable wearing visibly. In most cases, you’d never know a woman had extra hair unless you were close enough to her that you knew she removed it. Heck, just because I’m comfortable talking about my unshorn close resemblance to a werewolf\* doesn’t mean I’m comfortable wearing that amount of body/face hair outside the house, all the time. Corrvin \*I’m exaggerating. Most days. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2005, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-correlation-between-facial-hair-and-sex-drive/319126/5 "2005-08-29T23:44:00Z")
> [@Corrvin](#): > > Well, male pattern baldness is linked to testosterone levels, but thinning guys don’t have any more or less testosterone than guys who don’t-- they just have the gene that makes them lose their hair. Are you sure? I thought it was abnormal estrogen levels that was linked to MPB.