Information about Chest Hair
The term chest hair is generally used to describe hair that grows on the chest of human males, in the region between the neck and the abdomen. Chest hair, which is a secondary sex characteristic, develops during and after puberty. It is therefore part of the androgenic hair.
Although vellus hair is already present in the area in childhood, the term chest hair is generally restricted to the terminal hair that develops as an effect of rising levels of androgens (primarily testosterone and its derivatives) due to puberty. Different from the head hair it is therefore a secondary sexual characteristic. In contrast to women the body of men tends to be covered far more with terminal hair, particularly on the chest, the abdomen and the face.
The development of chest hair begins normally during late puberty. It can also start later, between the age of 20 and 30, so that many men in their twenties have not yet reached their full chest hair development. The growth continues subsequently. In older adult years androgens cause thickening of the hair.
The direction of growth of hair can make for interesting patterns, akin to depictions of mathematical vector fields. Typical males will exhibit a node on the upper sternum, the hair above which points up and the hair below which points down. Some individuals (of say the pattern in diagram 3) have spirals on their upper pectoral regions (several inches from the nipple towards the neck) which run clockwise on the left breast and counter-clockwise on the right.
Considering an individual occurrence of chest hair as abnormal does not implicitly depend on medical indications but primarily on cultural and social attitudes. An excessive growth of terminal hair on the body of men and women is called hypertrichosis. This medical term has to be distinguished from hirsutism that just affects women. These women can develop terminal hair on the chest following the male pattern as a symptom of an endocrine disease.
There have been occasional studies documenting patterns of chest hair in men and occurrence of these patterns. A study of 1100 men aged 17 to 71 defined and documented ten patterns of chest hair in Caucasoid men. In this study 6 percent of the men were found to have no chest hair. The largest group, 56 percent, displayed pattern four as shown in the accompanying figure. The remaining 38 percent of the men displayed a lesser quantity of chest hair. Seven percent displayed pattern one, 13 percent displayed pattern two and 18 percent displayed various other patterns.
The same study documented the chest hair patterns of 60 African-American men aged 20-40. For these men 22 percent were found to have no chest hair. The largest group, 37 percent displayed pattern four and the remaining 41 percent had a lesser quantity of chest hair. Eight percent displayed pattern one, 12 percent pattern two and 11 percent displayed various other patterns.[1] [2]
While in the early and middle twentieth century the attitude towards hair on the chest was largely indifferent, there was a late twentieth century trend within Western societies to remove chest hair. Some young men in their teens and twenties, especially in the United States and those involved in beach culture, remove their chest hair. It is quite common for actors, who will appear shirtless in a movie or television show, to shave their chests. The removal of body hair (depilation and epilation) by men was labelled by the personal hygiene industry as manscaping. This public trend, distributed by the media, began in the United States and spread to other Western societies. Many companies catered to men looking for ways to remove their chest hair, such as Nair for Men and Nads for Men. While most men depicted in fashion advertising still have no chest hair, a few exceptions can now be seen. Bucking the larger trend, a positive acceptance of body hair could be found amongst adherents of naturism as well as the bear community, the latter a gay subculture whose members tend to exhibit typical masculine gender traits. Removing or maintaining chest hair ultimately depends on one's individual preference, which can be influenced by what is considered most attractive.
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Development and growth
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Growth and Patterns of Chest Hair
Although vellus hair is already present in the area in childhood, the term chest hair is generally restricted to the terminal hair that develops as an effect of rising levels of androgens (primarily testosterone and its derivatives) due to puberty. Different from the head hair it is therefore a secondary sexual characteristic. In contrast to women the body of men tends to be covered far more with terminal hair, particularly on the chest, the abdomen and the face.
The development of chest hair begins normally during late puberty. It can also start later, between the age of 20 and 30, so that many men in their twenties have not yet reached their full chest hair development. The growth continues subsequently. In older adult years androgens cause thickening of the hair.
Patterns and characteristics
The individual occurrence and characteristics of chest hair depend on the genetic disposition, the hormonal status and the age of the person. The genes primarily determine the amount, patterns and thickness of chest hair. Some men are very hairy, while others have no chest hair at all. Each pattern of hair growth is normal. The areas where terminal hair may grow are the periareolar areas (nipples), the centre and sides of the chest and the clavicle (collarbone).The direction of growth of hair can make for interesting patterns, akin to depictions of mathematical vector fields. Typical males will exhibit a node on the upper sternum, the hair above which points up and the hair below which points down. Some individuals (of say the pattern in diagram 3) have spirals on their upper pectoral regions (several inches from the nipple towards the neck) which run clockwise on the left breast and counter-clockwise on the right.
Considering an individual occurrence of chest hair as abnormal does not implicitly depend on medical indications but primarily on cultural and social attitudes. An excessive growth of terminal hair on the body of men and women is called hypertrichosis. This medical term has to be distinguished from hirsutism that just affects women. These women can develop terminal hair on the chest following the male pattern as a symptom of an endocrine disease.
There have been occasional studies documenting patterns of chest hair in men and occurrence of these patterns. A study of 1100 men aged 17 to 71 defined and documented ten patterns of chest hair in Caucasoid men. In this study 6 percent of the men were found to have no chest hair. The largest group, 56 percent, displayed pattern four as shown in the accompanying figure. The remaining 38 percent of the men displayed a lesser quantity of chest hair. Seven percent displayed pattern one, 13 percent displayed pattern two and 18 percent displayed various other patterns.
The same study documented the chest hair patterns of 60 African-American men aged 20-40. For these men 22 percent were found to have no chest hair. The largest group, 37 percent displayed pattern four and the remaining 41 percent had a lesser quantity of chest hair. Eight percent displayed pattern one, 12 percent pattern two and 11 percent displayed various other patterns.[1] [2]
Cultural and social attitudes
The attitudes towards chest hair vary between different cultures and times. In some cultures, it is a symbol for virility and masculinity; other societies display a hairless body as a sign of youthfulness. Some people find men with a lot of chest hair, pattern four, very sexually arousing. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome male statues did not show any chest hair. Even on paintings and sculptures from Middle Ages to modern times men were often portrayed without any hair on their anterior torso.While in the early and middle twentieth century the attitude towards hair on the chest was largely indifferent, there was a late twentieth century trend within Western societies to remove chest hair. Some young men in their teens and twenties, especially in the United States and those involved in beach culture, remove their chest hair. It is quite common for actors, who will appear shirtless in a movie or television show, to shave their chests. The removal of body hair (depilation and epilation) by men was labelled by the personal hygiene industry as manscaping. This public trend, distributed by the media, began in the United States and spread to other Western societies. Many companies catered to men looking for ways to remove their chest hair, such as Nair for Men and Nads for Men. While most men depicted in fashion advertising still have no chest hair, a few exceptions can now be seen. Bucking the larger trend, a positive acceptance of body hair could be found amongst adherents of naturism as well as the bear community, the latter a gay subculture whose members tend to exhibit typical masculine gender traits. Removing or maintaining chest hair ultimately depends on one's individual preference, which can be influenced by what is considered most attractive.
See also
References
1. ^ Setty, Laurel Raymond, "The Distribution of Chest Hair in Caucasoid Males" American Journal of Physical Anthropol. 1961 Sep;19:285-7.
2. ^ Setty, Laurel Raymond "The Sterno-Infraclavicular Chest Hair Pattern" Journal of the National Medical Association. 1962 July;54:486-7.
2. ^ Setty, Laurel Raymond "The Sterno-Infraclavicular Chest Hair Pattern" Journal of the National Medical Association. 1962 July;54:486-7.
Further reading
The following journal articles include sketches of different chest hair patterns and observed percentages of men exhibiting each pattern.- Variations of the hair patterns of the chest of white males. Journal of the National Medical Association. 1965 May;57(3):211-4
- The circumareolo-pectoral series of chest hair patterns. Journal of the National Medical Association. 1963 May;55:233-4
- The sterno-infraclavicular chest hair pattern. Journal of the National Medical Association. 1962 Jul;54:486-7
- Bare areas in regions of pilosity of the chest and abdomen. Journal of the National Medical Association. 1961 Jul;53:394-5
External links
Hair is a filamentous outgrowth of protein, found only on mammals. It projects from the epidermis, though it grows from hair follicles deep in the dermis. Although many other organisms, especially insects, show filamentous outgrowths, these are not considered "hair".
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chest is a part of the anatomy of humans and various other animals.
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Chest anatomy - Humans and other hominids
In hominids, the chest is the region of the body between the neck and the abdomen, along with its internal organs and other contents...... Click the link for more information.
The neck is the part of the body on many limbed vertebrates that distinguishes the head from the torso or trunk.
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Anatomy of the human neck
Bony anatomy: The cervical spine
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human abdomen (from the Latin word meaning "belly") is the part of the body between the pelvis and the thorax. Anatomically, the abdomen stretches from the thorax at the thoracic diaphragm to the pelvis at the pelvic brim.
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Secondary sex characteristics are traits that distinguish the two sexes of a species, but that are not directly part of the reproductive system. Some have argued that in general they evolved to give an individual an advantage over its rivals in courtship.
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Puberty refers to the process of physical changes by which a child's body becomes an adult body capable of reproduction. Puberty is initiated by hormone signals from the brain to the gonads (the ovaries and testes).
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Body hair, or more precisely androgenic hair, is a common term for the terminal hair on the human body developing during and after puberty in contrast to the head hair and the less visible vellus hair.
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Vellus hair is short, fine, "peach fuzz" body hair. It is a very soft and short hair that grows in most places on the human body in both sexes. It is usually less than 2cm long and the follicles are not connected to sebaceous glands.
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Terminal hair is developed hair, which is generally longer, coarser, thicker and darker than the shorter and finer vellus hair. Phases of growth in it are more apparent than in vellus hair; it generally has a longer anagen phase.
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hormone (from Greek όρμή - "to set in motion") is a chemical messenger that carries a signal from one cell (or group of cells) to another. All multicellular organisms produce hormones (including plants - see phytohormone).
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Testosterone is a steroid hormone from the androgen group. Testosterone is primarily secreted in the testes of males and the ovaries of females, although small amounts are also secreted by the adrenal glands. It is the principal male sex hormone and an anabolic steroid.
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Puberty refers to the process of physical changes by which a child's body becomes an adult body capable of reproduction. Puberty is initiated by hormone signals from the brain to the gonads (the ovaries and testes).
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The term abdominal hair refers to the hair that grows on the abdomen of humans and non-human mammals, in the region between the pubic area and the thorax (chest). The growth of abdominal hair follows the same pattern on nearly all mammals, vertically from the pubic area upwards and
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Facial hair is a secondary sex characteristic in human males. Many men develop facial hair in the later years of puberty, approximately between 15-18 years o
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For a non-technical introduction to the topic, see .
A gene is a locatable region of genomic sequence, corresponding to a unit of inheritance, which is associated with regulatory regions, transcribed regions and/or other functional sequence regions...... Click the link for more information.
hormone (from Greek όρμή - "to set in motion") is a chemical messenger that carries a signal from one cell (or group of cells) to another. All multicellular organisms produce hormones (including plants - see phytohormone).
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For a non-technical introduction to the topic, see .
A gene is a locatable region of genomic sequence, corresponding to a unit of inheritance, which is associated with regulatory regions, transcribed regions and/or other functional sequence regions...... Click the link for more information.
nipple is an appurtenance from which a fluid emanates, in this instance breast milk, to nurture a mother's young.
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Anatomy
In the anatomy of mammals, a nipple or mammary papilla..... Click the link for more information.
- Collarbone and collar bone redirect here. The eye abnormality is correctly spelled coloboma.
- This article uses some professional terms to describe relative positions and directions.
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Hypertrichosis
Classification & external resources
ICD-10 L 68.
ICD-9 704.1
Hypertrichosis or werewolf syndrome is a medical term referring to a condition of excessive body hair.
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Classification & external resources
ICD-10 L 68.
ICD-9 704.1
Hypertrichosis or werewolf syndrome is a medical term referring to a condition of excessive body hair.
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Hirsutism (from Latin hirsutus = shaggy, hairy) is defined as excessive and increased hair growth in women in locations where the occurrence of terminal hair normally is minimal or absent.
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Virility refers to any of a wide range of masculine characteristics viewed positively. It is not applicable to women or to negative charateristics. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED1) says virile is "marked by strength or force.
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Masculinity is manly character (manliness). It specifically describes men; that is, it is personal and human, unlike male which can describe animals, or masculine which can describe noun classes.
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Ageing or aging is any change in an organism over time. Aging refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change (Hultsch and Deutsch). Some dimensions of aging grow and expand over time, while others decline.
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The term ancient Greece refers to the periods of Greek history in Classical Antiquity, lasting ca. 750 BC[1] (the archaic period) to 146 BC (the Roman conquest). It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of Western Civilization.
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Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea.
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Middle Ages form the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three "ages": the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times.
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Torso is an anatomical term for the central part of the many animal bodies (including that of the human) from which extend the neck and limbs. It is sometimes referred to as the trunk. The torso includes the thorax and abdomen.
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Motto
"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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"In God We Trust" (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum" ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Hair removal describes any method of removing hair, especially from the human body.
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- Depilation affects the part of the hair above the surface of the skin. The most common form of depilation is shaving.
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