# Do Men's Eyebrows tend to start growing longer as they get older? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 17, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986 "2010-11-17T15:32:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/21 "2010-11-18T06:57:55Z")
Mine gave disappeared ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/22 "2010-11-18T10:56:46Z")
It was a sad day for me when I first had to trim my eyebrows - another indication that I had become old. ---
**Author:** ![TerpBE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc8723/32.png) [@TerpBE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TerpBE)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/23 "2010-11-18T17:56:37Z")
If you’re interested in studying this phenomenon further, watch the last five minutes of 60 Minutes each week. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/24 "2010-11-18T22:04:31Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Manopause: when everything starts to get bigger, hairier and closer to the ground > > Definition stolen from [Red Meat](http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/2007-08-21/index.html) 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.” ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2010, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/25 "2010-11-18T22:21:51Z")
> [@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.” ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/26 "2010-11-19T05:34:23Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![oliversarmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/eb8c5e/32.png) [@oliversarmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oliversarmy)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/27 "2010-11-19T06:00:04Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![KayeFrancis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/91b2a8/32.png) [@KayeFrancis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KayeFrancis)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/28 "2010-11-19T10:24:17Z")
> [@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](http://www.danheller.com/images/Europe/Greece/Naxos/People/man-w-thick-bushy-eyebrows-7-big.jpg). 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. ---
**Author:** ![wmfellows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@wmfellows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wmfellows)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/29 "2010-11-19T13:25:40Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/30 "2010-11-19T15:27:52Z")
It’s actually the skin on one’s head shrinking. ---
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/31 "2010-11-19T16:20:32Z")
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.:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![kasuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@kasuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kasuo)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/32 "2010-11-19T19:22:13Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/33 "2010-11-19T22:01:31Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2010, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/34 "2010-11-19T22:57:08Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/35 "2010-11-20T02:49:21Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/36 "2010-11-20T03:56:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Do Men’s Eyebrows tend to start growing longer as they get older? As the men get older or as the eyebrows get older? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/37 "2010-11-20T04:23:00Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/38 "2010-11-20T04:41:42Z")
> [@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. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/39 "2010-11-20T05:11:26Z")
Eyebrows are not mentioned, but [Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/835/why-do-older-men-have-hair-growing-in-their-noses-and-ears) has commented on manly growth of hair in ears and nose… ---
**Author:** ![wmfellows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@wmfellows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wmfellows)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2010, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986/40 "2010-11-20T19:33:50Z")
> [@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. > [@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. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-mens-eyebrows-tend-to-start-growing-longer-as-they-get-older/560986.md?page=3)