Hair

:Hair is also a musical: see Hair (musical) and Hair (movie)

Related Topics:
Musical - Hair (musical) - Hair (movie)

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Hair is the filamentous outgrowth of the epidermis found in mammals. It is a characteristic of all mammals, though in some species hair is absent at certain stages of life. "Hairs" are also found on plants, the technical term for which is trichomes (see for further discussion of plant hairs). Hair care for human hair is a major world industry, with many specialized tools and techniques.

Related Topics:
Epidermis - Mammal - Trichome - Hair care

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Hair serves a number of different functions. It provides insulation from cold weather and, in some species, from particularly hot weather. Because hair is often pigmented, it provides coloration. This might serve to camouflage an individual; in some mammals, the pigmentation changes with the seasons, becoming white during the snowy winter, for example. Hair can also provide some direct protection against injury, such as head hair that buffers impact to the skull.

Related Topics:
Insulation - Pigment - Camouflage - Skull

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In modern Western societies, it is considered masculine for men to have hair on their faces, arms, chests and legs, but the hair growing from the top of the head is generally kept short, relatively speaking; equally, it is considered feminine for women to have no hair on their bodies, with the exception of pubic hair, but to have a lot of it on the tops of their heads. This is a fairly recent development. Before the First World War men generally had long hair and beards. The trench warfare between 1914 and 1918 exposed men to lice and flea infestation which caused the order to be given for the routine cutting of hair to a severely short length. The shorter style became the new normality and has never entirely gone away since.

Related Topics:
Masculine - First World War - 1914 - 1918 - Lice - Flea

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The hair of non-human animal species is commonly referred to as fur.

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