Are You Growing Random Hairs On Your Body? Here’s Why

Finding a random, singular, long, awkward hair is not a fun experience, especially for women! We’ve all been there – whether it’s a curly bugger on our chin or a super dark and absurdly long one on our arm, sprouting abnormal hairs on our bodies is one of life’s frustrating mysteries.

RELATED: How to minimise hair growth

To find out more about this phenomenon, I spoke to Andrew Chim, CEO at Detail Smoother Skin Clinic to find out was causes these sporatic sprouts. Plus, I asked some bh members to share their stories about random hair growth to remind us that we’re all in this together!

What causes random hair growth?

We are normally balanced perfectly with hormones to regulate our body developments. However this hormone balance can be affected by ageing. This can lead to some annoying hair growth being stimulated in some places where hair didn’t grow previously. In rare cases there may be an underlying medical condition if there has been a sudden radical change. Seeking medical advice is recommended in this situation.

Why do women sometimes grow facial hair?

Women produce mainly oestrogen but also small amounts of testosterone. As women age, their oestrogen levels can decline and the higher level of testosterone can affect hair growth, especially around the chin and upper lip. Also the decline in oestrogen can make the light blonde fuzzy hair on the cheeks turn dark.

People often find random, single, long hairs on the body (e.g. on arms, coming out of moles, on hands etc.) – is this normal and why does it occur?

This is more common than you think. During development a hair follicle may be located in a place that seems out of place. This single hair follicle normally lacks the message to produce pigment in the hair so you don’t notice it until it is long. Also this hair follicle has a long anagen (active) phase similar to the hair on the scalp. Hair around the body normally falls out before it gets too long. This single hair is easy to manage by pulling out with tweezers. This [is] nothing to be concerned about.

RELATED: Your common bodycare questions, answered

Luckily, getting rid of unwanted hair is easy! Here are a few of our go-to products:

bh loves: Veet High Precision Facial Wax & Care, Nair Sensitive Hair Removal Cream Body, Schick Intuition Pure Nourishment

bh members say:

“There’s a random hair that grows right, smack bang in the middle of my forehead. It’s fair and super thin and grows about half a cm… When I notice it, I pluck it out. Sometimes it’s there every month and other times I don’t see it for weeks.” – sparrow x

“I have a completely random one that sprouts out [of] my arm, in the place where they would usually immunise you. It looks like an eyebrow hair sprouting out [of] my arm. So I tweeze it out as soon as it gets long enough. The strange thing is that it isn’t a mole. Just a random hair growing, like the cells in that part of my arm are super confused.” – Seezora

I also have one thick and black and really long hair on my neck. [I’ve tried] to pull it [out] many times but it always [comes] back :/. – Jessica L

I’ve got one on my neck, it’s thick like a bristle. I pluck it out the second I detect it. Sometimes it’s difficult, because it’s too short to get an easy grip on with the tweezers. – misfortune8

Have you experienced random hair growth in strange places on your body?

Main image credit: @thandieandkay