Today I discovered I have a hair growing on the palm of my hand very near the center. It’s over a quarter inch long (6/16ths, to be exact) but I never noticed it before because it’s white and is very nearly invisible against my skin, despite being about the width of one of my leg hairs. It kind of creeps me out but I’m going to try to keep it growing just to see how long I can get it.
Hair on your palms eh? You know what they say… wink wink nudge nudge
But more seriously, have I ever had random long hairs? Yes. I’ve got a reoffender on my shoulder. It’s very fine and blonde so I don’t notice it til it catches the sun. Usually it gets to an inch before I pull it out. Never any hair on my palms though.
I have a regular hair that at random times starts growing from my eyebrow. I never catch it growing until the thin colorless freak has grown two inches long. At that point I’m telling people let me know if you see a freaking hair growing like that damn it. I have tried to pull it out and get the root, but it doesn’t work. I had one arm hair do that too. It came out by the root. I think that reached about four inches before I realized it was there.
Every part of the skin has hair follicles, even the bits that do not normally grow hair, and thus are capable of growing hair. The only exception to this rule is the palms of the hand, soles of the feet, and the foreskin, none of which have any hair follicles. If you’re growing hair out of your palms, there’s something seriously freaky going on.
I know people who study in the genetic regulation of hair growth (I’m a biologist), and they might be rather curious about you. Wanna get experimented on?
Sounds like you’re in a class (or going to meetings) that is a lot like the freshman intro-to-the-honors-program class the University of Maryland made me take. The only thing I remember learning in that class was that I had a white arm hair (which has since disappeared).
My guess is that it didn’t grow there. Some hairs actually have sharp ends and can accidentally pierce the skin and you don’t even notice.
My mother once pulled a small feather out of my brothers back and we thought he was some kind of freak. Then my dad explained that it came from his down jacket and got lodged in his back.
Last spring I noticed a solitary hair smack dab in the middle of my chest. It was fine and blonde, unlike my other hair, and over FIVE inches long! In the middle of my chest! At first I thought that it was just a hair from my head, but when I pulled it I felt a little tug at my chest. How could I have not noticed it before?! How long had it been growing for it to reach that length?! I was really fascinated with it until it snapped and I lost it forever (it was really thin).
I guess I’m a freak of nature in that and also the fact that I have an extra backbone.
That reminds me —
One night I was awoken by a small, persistent, sharp pain in the sole of my foot. When I looked, I saw that a hair had worked its way into the skin of my foot and I guess had just penetrated far enough to cause pain. The skin is kind of translucent, so I could see there was about a quarter inch of hair burrowed in at an angle. I pulled it out and the pain went away.