Nose Hair Thickening With Age: What to Do
It’s like a bad joke, and you’re the butt of it. As the years roll on, you find that at the very same time the hair on your head is becoming more and more sparse—and it looks like a shave or a comb-over are in your future—the hair in your nose, ears, and even eyebrows has a super-charged growth spurt.
What in the world goes on in the body that causes a time in life when you need the best nose hair trimmer at the same time your hair clippers are going into retirement?
According to dermatologists, this indignity of aging is brought about by something known as the Androgen Paradox. And it is still considered a paradox because scientists know HOW it happens, but they still aren’t certain WHY it happens. It seems that, while much research has been done about hair loss, very little of it has been done on excessive hair growth in the nose and ears.
How The Androgen Paradox Occurs
To understand this mysterious and dreaded paradox, you first have to understand the cycle of hair growth. The lifespan of each individual hair occurs in three stages. The first stage is the Anagen stage. During this time, the hair is actively growing outside of your head. This stage lasts from two to six years. Then the hair enters the catagen stage. The hair remains on the head but has stopped growing. Finally, within a few weeks of stopping growth, the hair enters the telogen stage, when it falls out of the head. Then the hair follicles begin the life cycle again with a new hair. The hairs on our body normally have a much shorter anagen phase, which is why we don’t grow really long arm, leg, or back hair.
As men grow older, the hair follicles begin to react to a natural byproduct of testosterone, known as dihydrotestosterone. (DHT) This sensitivity shortens the entire cycle of the hair follicle, eventually leading to full male pattern baldness in some men, and at least some amount of hair thinning in over 80% of all men.
Paradoxically, DHT has the opposite reaction on ear and nose hair follicles. While DHT is like kryptonite for head hair, it’s somehow like a super-steroid for nose and ear hair because in these types of follicles the DHT prolongs the anagen phase, resulting in longer hairs from those follicles. DHT also eventually enlarges the hair follicles in the nose and ears, so the hair growing there becomes thicker as you age. Yet another indignity.
So when you start to see a lot of your hair in the shower drain, get your best nose hair trimmer ready because you can expect to soon see its evil twin sprouting out of your nose.
Why Women Don’t Experience The Androgen Paradox
While women do produce some testosterone, their levels are so much lower than that of men, they don’t experience the Androgen Paradox to a noticeable extent.
The male characteristic of developing longer and more coarse nose and ear hair as they age is believed to be related to Male Patterned Baldness. (MPB) The fact that the different types of hair follicles have very different reactions to the same hormonal substance has to do with male secondary sex characteristics.
Why Every Man Should Have One of the Best Nose Hair Trimmers in His Bathroom
While women don’t experience a very noticeable effect from the Androgen Paradox, dermatologists tell us that women do commonly ask about this phenomenon, because they are concerned about the nose hair growth in the men in their lives.
If you don’t already own one, it’s time to get one of the best nose hair trimmers you can find, because according to a survey from Men’s Health, 46% of women stated that they were more disturbed by a man with unruly nose hair than by a man with bad breath.
Nose hairs should always be trimmed and not plucked. According to ear, nose, and throat doctors, plucking a nose hair is not only eye-wateringly painful, but it can also lead to infection. The nose itself functions as a filter for impurities in the air, so it’s the last place you want an open wound or gaping hair follicle.
Because nose hairs are part of the immune system, it’s important not to remove all of them. Unless you want to spend your days sneezing, you need hair in your nose to keep particles out of your sinuses. Instead, doctors recommend using one of the best nose hair trimmers to carefully trim only the part of the hairs that actually protrude from the nose.
Resources— PopularScience, Manscaped, DollarShaveClub, TheNakedScientists.com
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