Not to spoil our fun but does anyone have a factual answer to this conundrum? 
Yeah, I have a couple of those too. And while we’re on the subject of hair, what the hell is that stuff that keeps growing out of my nose all about?
From Nature:
Variations of Hair Follicle Size and Distribution in Different Body Sites
Hoo boy.
Oh, my aching head. I think what’s going on here is that you people all have stray terminal hair follicles on parts of your skin that have mostly vellous hair follicles.
[weeps]
I have a stray hair that grows on my nose that’s like that. I tweeze it and don’t see it for months and then suddenly there it is, about a 1/4 " long!
On the other hand, if I had never attempted to explore this subject, I would probably never have known about the 2004 Asian Moustache Olympics.
Personally I like the ones that grow under the skin, typically where I shave (on my face you pervs). They are obviously vampire hairs that can’t stand the daylight. I will sometimes notice a small bump, which eventually becomes a small pimple. I then instinctively know I have a vampire hair and will pop the pimple and squeeze the little bugger out into daylight. Sometimes they can already be like an inch long before being exposed. They’re really fun to play with and then pluck. The last one was an albino vampire hair that went from silk at one end to fishing line thickness at the root.
Fun times.
[Moderating]
Folks, as fascinating as the subject is, this is not a poll asking everyone who has an odd hair somewhere on their body to describe it.
Thanks to Kimstu for providing some factual information.
Let’s try to stay on point and try to answer the OP. I think we have enough anecdotal information already.
Anyone who wishes to learn more about other people’s renegade, maverick, or rogue body hairs should feel free to open a thread in IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I have a couple, they’re all on moles or freckles, this gave me a little jumping point.
Given that freckles[sup]1[/sup] and moles (no cite, but it’s called a melanocytic nevus, what do you expect?) have high concentrations of melanin, the thing responsible for coloring your skin and hair, that generally explains the color.
I’m at a loss for the coarseness and length, citewise at least. This part is more of a logical WAG. But I don’t know how much alpha-keratin and melanin have in common makeup wise, but if there’s an unusually high melanin pocket as we’ve seen it wouldn’t surprise me if high amounts of keratin were also present.
Moles also have a cousin they’re often confused with (if I’m reading something right) which is Basal cell papiloma, which is also benign, but more importantly has keratin cysts, which would (to me anyway) easily explain the size (keratin concentration) and the color (melanin concentration).
I’m not a dermatologist, so I’m not certain, but that’s my best logical stab.
[sup]1[/sup]http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=266300
But I think the majority of the rogue hairs people have been describing here are not associated with moles or freckles. At least, mine aren’t. The surrounding skin is completely blemish free with no clue as to the raging keratin factory beneath.
Several others in this thread were mentioning moles though, so I figured it may have been an unmentioned factor.
So… back to the drawing board.
DNA degradation. Seriously.
Of course, I can’t find a cite, but I swear I’ve seen references to this before. Through my 20s I hardly had any of these “random hairs”; in my 30s, I get the random long hairs on my shoulders, my back, my arms, my ears, my cheeks, etc.
When I researched it before, I recall reading that it was a natural side effect of aging brought about by genetic damage in hair follicles. Too many copies = follicles that activated in weird places.
I dunno if this adds anything to that or not, but I one read somewhere that gray hair is a manifestation of cellular replicative senescence. In other words, there are telomeres involved in the process somewhere that have come to the end of the line.
Actually, that would tend to make sense. Those dark moles with the lone tuffy growing out of them are neoplasias, right? 99 times out of 100 they’re not malignant, but something must have gone just a little bit haywire on a cellular level for them to have been created in the first place. It’s not too difficult to imagine that they would do weird little tricks for our amusement.