# Why does the hair on the face and head keep growing but not on your arms and legs?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-hair-on-the-face-and-head-keep-growing-but-not-on-your-arms-and-legs/234804>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 17, 2004, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-hair-on-the-face-and-head-keep-growing-but-not-on-your-arms-and-legs/234804 "2004-03-17T05:36:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Campione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7feea3/32.png) [@Campione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campione)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2004, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-hair-on-the-face-and-head-keep-growing-but-not-on-your-arms-and-legs/234804/1 "2004-03-17T05:36:43Z")

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The hair on my arms and legs (i’m a guy) have been the same length for years. I know women have to shave their legs. Please fill me in.

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**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2004, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-hair-on-the-face-and-head-keep-growing-but-not-on-your-arms-and-legs/234804/2 "2004-03-17T05:44:28Z")

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Welcome to the Boards!!!

Now [Bow Down to His Greatness](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_044a.html)

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**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2004, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-hair-on-the-face-and-head-keep-growing-but-not-on-your-arms-and-legs/234804/3 "2004-03-17T05:51:33Z")

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my WAG would have been that since we wear clothing over those parts, the body adapts… no need for hair covering.

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**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [March 17, 2004, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-hair-on-the-face-and-head-keep-growing-but-not-on-your-arms-and-legs/234804/4 "2004-03-17T06:00:33Z")

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> [@Meeko](#):
>
> my WAG would have been that since we wear clothing over those parts, the body adapts… no need for hair covering.

Is that why many who wear their baseball caps backwards are bald?  
😃

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**Author:** ![eakarink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bc79bd/32.png) [@eakarink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eakarink)\
**Post date:** [March 18, 2004, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-the-hair-on-the-face-and-head-keep-growing-but-not-on-your-arms-and-legs/234804/5 "2004-03-18T04:55:55Z")

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My guess is that the hair on arms and legs _does_ grow, but it stops when it reaches a certain length. All hair stops growing when it reaches a maximum length, but that length is usually pretty short for legs and arms, and long for heads and facial hair (facial hair on guys and cafeteria ladies, at least). Hair is constantly falling out and growing back, so at any given moment you’ve got hair on your legs that’s reached its maximum length, hair that’s just starting to grow in after its follicle was deserted by a previous resident, and hair that’s somewhere in between. Same for arms. But when women shave their legs, suddenly all of their hair has to grow back in from scratch – so it’s suddenly growing noticeably. When a woman stops shaving her legs the hair eventually reaches a maximum length, just like it does on a guy.