![]() The Croatian Ministry of Culture awarded it as one of the best prose books in 2011. The novel received numerous positive reviews and short-listed for the Jutarnji List Award. In 2011, she won Prozak, a literary award for the best manuscript from a young author, which resulted in publication of her first book, a fragmentary novel Kosa posvuda (Hair Everywhere). The novel is written in short, almost poetic vignettes, which retain their poignancy in the sensitive translation by Coral Petkovich.” You can also submit answers by post to: The Last Word, New Scientist, 25 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ES.Lucy Hannah, EBRD Literature Prize judge: “Unusual, compelling and funny, this first person narrative is the delicate and painful story of a young girl coming to terms with her mother’s battle with cancer. New Scientist Ltd retains total editorial control over the published content and reserves all rights to reuse question and answer material that has been submitted by readers in any medium or in any format. Please include a postal address, daytime telephone number and email address. We reserve the right to edit items for clarity and style. ![]() To answer this question – or ask a new one – email should be scientific enquiries about everyday phenomena, and both questions and answers should be concise. One explanation is that hair on the scalp protects the top of the head and the ears from the sun, while a bare and sweaty body enabled early humans to be active in the heat of the African savannah.Įmail us at should be about everyday science phenomenaįull terms and conditions at /lw-terms This doesn’t seem to be a primarily sexual characteristic, unlike the hair that emerges in certain areas after puberty, because head hair is present from early infancy. Still, we lose hundreds of hairs every day.Ī further question is, why do humans have such long hair on their head, when much of their body, while not actually “naked”, is thinly covered with hair? In this phase, the old hair breaks off and is replaced by a new one. These three phases are followed by a renewal stage. ![]() There are three stages of hair growth: the actively growing anagen phase, which may last for between two and eight years a brief hiatus known as the catagen phase, in which the hair follicle shrinks and the telogen phase, in which the follicle remains dormant for several months. I was told by my hairdresser that I could never grow my hair beyond shoulder length because my follicles had a short cycle of growth and renewal. How long head hair can grow depends on an individual’s pattern of growth, which can vary considerably. It isn’t actually the case that human head hair grows continuously, it is simply that it achieves far greater length than the hairs on the rest of the body. It is evident that shortness of eyebrows, or ear hair for that matter, isn’t a universal trait.Ĭhristine Warman, Hinderwell, North Yorkshire, UK I had one eyebrow hair that reached the end of my nose until I pulled it out. Because of the covid-19 lockdown, I haven’t been to the hairdresser for some time and now my eyebrows have grown up to 30 millimetres long. I seem to have inherited a similar condition. He was similarly well endowed with ear hair. My maternal grandfather had spectacularly long eyebrows, which he never trimmed. I suspect that this has at least something to do with genetics. Tony Dawson, Williamstown, Victoria, Australia I am now in my eighties and the hair that isn’t on my head has to be routinely dealt with if I am not to resemble the Green Man. My experience is that my head hair still sprouts vigorously, except on top of my head, which has been follicularly challenged since I was in my late twenties.īut, since the age of about 50 years old, my hair on my ears, nose and eyebrows also grows prolifically. The curbs to eyebrow growth being self-limiting seem only to apply when one is young, or younger. ![]() It is apparent in the present circumstances that well-groomed hair is important to people, and it is something that is very hard to do properly by yourself. You would think that the hair would get in the way, but it could be that having to look after this long hair improved social bonding in our ancestors after body hair was lost and people lived in small groups. It has been theorised that the longer growth period of human head hair is due to this mutation in this gene. But in humans one, called KRTHAP1 or phihHaA, is a pseudogene – it is transcribed into RNA, but no protein is ever synthesised from it. Of the genes that control the production of keratin, the protein that hair is largely made of, most are the same in all the great apes. Human body hair does the same, but head hair keeps growing for a longer time, about three years. After a set time, the hair becomes quiescent and is eventually displaced by a new hair growing out. All the other great apes have a single type of hair that covers their bodies and which grows for a certain time and to a certain length.
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