Facial hair is

hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and ...

grown on the

face The face is the front of the head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may affect th ...

, usually on the chin, cheeks, bottom lip and upper lip region. It is typically a

secondary sex characteristic A secondary sex characteristic is a physical characteristic of an organism that is related to or derived from its sex, but not directly part of its reproductive system. In humans, these characteristics typically start to appear during pubert ...

of human

male Male (Planet symbols, symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or Egg cell, ovum, in the process of fertilisation. A male organism cannot sexual repro ...

Men A man is an adult male human. Before adulthood, a male child or adolescent is referred to as a boy. Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromosome from the fa ...

typically start developing facial hair in the later stages of

puberty Puberty is the process of physical changes through which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual reproduction. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to the gonads: the ovaries in a female, the testicles i ...

adolescence Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human Developmental biology, physical and psychological Human development (biology), development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age o ...

, at around fourteen years of age, and most do not finish developing a full adult beard until around sixteen or later. However, large variations can occur; boys as young as ten have also been known to develop facial hair, and some men do not produce much facial hair at all. Men may style their facial hair into

beard A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, beards are most commonly seen on pubescent or adult males, though women have been observed with beards ...

moustache A moustache (; mustache, ) is a growth of facial hair grown above the upper lip and under the human nose, nose. Moustaches have been worn in various styles throughout history. Etymology The word "moustache" is French language, French, and i ...

s, goatees or sideburns; many others completely shave their facial hair and this is referred to as being "clean-shaven". The term ''whiskers'', when used to refer to human facial hair, indicates the hair on the chin and cheeks.

Women A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional u ...

are also capable of developing facial hair, especially after

menopause Menopause, also known as the climacteric, is the time when Menstruation, menstrual periods permanently stop, marking the end of the Human reproduction, reproductive stage for the female human. It typically occurs between the ages of 45 and 5 ...

, though typically significantly less than men. Women with lots of facial hair, the extreme being bearded ladies, have been considered as freaks by society and sometimes been part of

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...

es.

Trans men A trans man or transgender man is a man who was assigned female at birth. Trans men have a male gender identity, and many trans men undergo Gender transition, medical and social transition to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with th ...

typically develop more facial hair while undergoing masculinizing hormone therapy as part of their wider gender transition.

History

In the West in the nineteenth century, most men maintained some facial hair. According to a 1976 study by

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

economist Dwight Robinson, who reviewed illustrations in the ''

Illustrated London News ''The Illustrated London News'', founded by Herbert Ingram and first published on Saturday 14 May 1842, was the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. The magazine was published weekly for most of its existence, switched to a less freq ...

'', facial hair peaked in the 1880s (90%). The wearing of beards dropped significantly, although mustaches remained popular until the 1940s.

In male adolescence

Abraham Lincoln head on shoulders photo portrait

The moustache forms its own stage in the development of facial hair in

adolescent Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated w ...

males. Facial hair in males does not always appear in a specific order during puberty and varies but may follow this process. * During puberty, the first facial hair to appear tends to grow at the corners of the upper lip (age 10–14). * It then spreads to form a moustache over the entire upper lip (age 14–16). * This is followed by the appearance of hair on the upper part of the cheeks and the area under the lower lip (age 14–17). * It eventually spreads to the sides and lower border of the chin and the rest of the lower face to form a full beard (age 16–19). Although this order is commonly seen, it can vary widely, with some facial hair starting from the chin and up towards the sideburns. As with most human biological processes, this specific order may vary depending on one's genetic heritage or environment.

Military

Depending on the periods and countries, facial hair has been prohibited in armies or, on the contrary, an integral part of the uniform.

In religions

Many religious male figures are recorded to have had facial hair; for example, numerous prophets mentioned in the

Abrahamic religions The term Abrahamic religions is used to group together monotheistic religions revering the Biblical figure Abraham, namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The religions share doctrinal, historical, and geographic overlap that contrasts them wit ...

(

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

and

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

) were known to grow beards. In Shia Islam, trimming beards is allowed but shaving them is forbidden.

Amish The Amish (, also or ; ; ), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, church fellowships with Swiss people, Swiss and Alsace, Alsatian origins. As they ...

men grow beards after marriage but continue to shave their moustaches in order to avoid historical associations with military facial hair due to their pacifistic beliefs. In

Sikhism Sikhism is an Indian religion and Indian philosophy, philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups, major religio ...

, one of the

Five Ks In Sikhism, the Five Ks (, , ) are five items that Guru Gobind Singh, in 1699, commanded Khalsa Sikhs to wear at all times. They are: Kesh (Sikhism), ''kesh'' (, , unshorn hair and beard since the Sikh decided to keep it), ''kangha ('', , a comb ...

followed by

Khalsa The term ''Khalsa'' refers to both a community that follows Sikhism as its religion,Khalsa: Sikhism< ...

Sikhs Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Sikh'' ...

is kesh, which forbids the cutting or shaving of hair, both scalp and facial.

On women

Women typically have little hair on the face, apart from eyebrows and the

vellus hair Vellus hair is short, thin, light-colored, and barely noticeable hair that develops on most of a human's body during childhood. Exceptions include the lips, the back of the ear, the palm of the hand, the sole of the foot, some external genital ...

that covers most of the body. However, in some cases, women have noticeable facial hair growth, most commonly after menopause. Excessive hairiness (especially facially) is known as

hirsutism Hirsutism is excessive body hair on parts of the body where hair is normally absent or minimal. The word is from early 17th century: from Latin ''hirsutus'' meaning "hairy". It usually refers to a male pattern of hair growth in a female that ma ...

and is usually an indication of atypical

hormonal A hormone (from the Greek participle , "setting in motion") is a class of signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs or tissues by complex biological processes to regulate physiology and behavior. Hormones a ...

variation. Many women depilate facial hair that appears, as considerable

social stigma Stigma, originally referring to the visible marking of people considered inferior, has evolved to mean a negative perception or sense of disapproval that a society places on a group or individual based on certain characteristics such as their ...

is associated with facial hair on women, and

freak show A freak show is an exhibition of biological rarities, referred to in popular culture as "Freak, freaks of nature". Typical features would be physically unusual Human#Anatomy and physiology, humans, such as those uncommonly large or small, t ...

s and

es have historically displayed bearded women. Many women globally choose to totally remove their facial hair by means of

electrolysis In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a technique that uses Direct current, direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Electrolysis is commercially important as a stage in the separation of c ...

(permanent) or

laser hair removal Laser hair removal is the process of hair removal by means of exposure to pulses of laser light that destroy the hair follicle. It had been performed experimentally for about twenty years before becoming commercially available in 1995–1996. One ...

(semi-permanent).

Styles of facial hair

Primates

Primates such as the bearded emperor tamarin have what look like whiskers. Adult

orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...

s have varying degrees of facial hair. In

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...

s and

gorilla Gorillas are primarily herbivorous, terrestrial great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or five su ...

s, facial and body hair become sparser in adulthood due to the aging process, which is in stark contrast to

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

s, whose facial and body hair become stronger. Because infant great apes have thicker "facial" (as well as body) hair than their older counterparts, it is not androgenic but part of the fur complex. The sensitivity to androgens seems to have been acquired by humans on the gene KRT37 relatively recently.

References

External links

{{Human hair Facial features Secondary sexual characteristics cs:Vousy ja:髭 zh:鬍鬚