# Origin of the "Hairy Palms" Mythos? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 11, 2007, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-hairy-palms-mythos/415243 "2007-08-11T10:58:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2007, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-hairy-palms-mythos/415243/1 "2007-08-11T10:58:04Z")
You know, if you practice self-abuse, you’ll suddenly sprout hair on your palms. When did this idea first originate? ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2007, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-hairy-palms-mythos/415243/2 "2007-08-11T13:53:56Z")
I’ve wondered about this as well. The going blind part also. If either were true, I’d be a blind wolfman by now.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2007, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-hairy-palms-mythos/415243/3 "2007-08-11T14:57:41Z")
SOME of the clichés come from this book, published anonymously in 1710. [http://www.newrisingson.com/onania.htm](http://www.newrisingson.com/onania.htm) eg, from page 57 “… rotten Teeth, **blear Eyes** , no Nose at all; in fine, render’d as loathsome as Venom and Corruption can make it” page 63 “it exhausts their vital Moisture, nips them in the Bud, stunts their Growth, and renders them for ever after weak and enfeebled;” On a brief glance through, I can’t find any mention of hairy hands, but at minimum it makes the claim that it makes you blind and stunts your growth. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2007, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-hairy-palms-mythos/415243/4 "2007-08-11T15:22:06Z")
Ha! I thought this thread was going to be about werewolves and vampires. (Masturbating vampires, maybe. Werewolves punchin’ the Munchkin.) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2007, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-hairy-palms-mythos/415243/5 "2007-08-11T17:19:54Z")
It seems pretty clear to me that it suggests that the same hormones responsible for all that new hair growth in boys – face, armpits, and the groin – must be carried by the semen, produced (like the testosterone) in the testicles. Therefore the semen will probably carry the wherewithal to grow hair, and it ends up in the palms of masturbators because… well, it’s obvious. I doubt if anyone ever seriously suggested that this was true – it’s Weird Folk Medicine. Like Folk etymology, based on half-baked logic. It also provides a great setup for the joke – You tell the victim “Do you know that masturbation causes hair to grow on your palms?” , then wait to see if he looks at his own, and call him on it if he does. Lastly, I have to point out, relevant to **Baldwin** ’s comment, that in his novel **Dracula** , Bram Stoker says that the Count DOES have hair on his palms. I think it’s really supposed to sho his link to the lower creatures, but maybe he had something else in mind. This little detail never made it into ANY of the stage plays or movies. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-hairy-palms-mythos/415243/6 "2007-08-11T17:40:16Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] \. This little detail never made it into ANY of the stage plays or movies. [/QUOTE] Actually, Gary Oldman showed Keanu Reeves his hairy palms in Bram Stokers Dracula - when the young clerk visited him at his castle for the first time. I remember it distinctly. > [@](#): > > Playing the likes of Lee Harvey Oswald and Count Dracula, British actor Gary Oldman Is making a killing in Hollywood. > > "What a ridiculous photograph. "Early evening on the Hollywood set of Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula. Flicking through a feature in a five-year old copy of THE FACE, a story about “The Brit Pack”, six young British actors, Gary Oldman has just found a picture of himself mugging away along side Bruce Payne. “God you were so young looking back then,” Helena his personal assistant observes. “Ere, don’t say that,” Oldman wines comically. “I like being in by thirties. I look at my face now on the screen, and think well there’s a bit of life in there now. Nothing wrong with a few wrinkles.” > Looking at Oldman now, however, you can see more than the odd line. His face is encased in the wizened wrinkled rubber mask he’s wearing to play the aging Count Dracula. He’s also wearing knobbly gloves, complete with extended boney fingers and hairy palms. Just to round the image off, he’s sipping tea through a straw -the only way he can drink without damaging the mask. "God, that’s weird, seeing that again, " he mutters. “Weird.” ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2007, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-hairy-palms-mythos/415243/7 "2007-08-11T18:03:12Z")
I am going the simplest way. If you are caught in the act and you somehow manage to conceal the fact, you might be exposed by having some pubic hair in your hand.