Why am I growing hair in strange places as I age?

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QUESTION: Why am I growing hair in strange places as I age?

ANSWER: If this question were to be answered with a single word, that word would be testosterone. Life can be a bit cruel for those of us who are getting on in years. We start to lose hair from the places where we most want to keep it – the tops of our heads, for example – and then we start growing hair in highly undesirable places instead.

This is due, in part, to changing hormone levels in both women and men. Estrogen starts to drop off, and testosterone often increases with age. So-called peach fuzz is normal on the face – even children have it – but as we move into old age, some of the hairs on our faces and chins can become darker, longer, and more pronounced.

Likewise, older people have sometimes noticed increasing hair on their backs, nipples, abdomens, navels, knuckles, toes, noses and ears. These areas of the body contain follicles, and the latent hair bulbs in those follicles can change with the increasing levels of testosterone which often accompany the aging process.

It’s usually not an all-of-the-sudden thing; rather, the testosterone buildup, and its effects on one’s hair follicles, can take place over a period of years, even decades. The great (and unfortunate) irony is that this same testosterone can cause hair to get thinner, and even to fall out altogether, on top of one’s head. Go figure!