How does plucked hair regrow?

March 30, 2006 1:59 PM

I was doing some face gardening this morning - a Sisyphean task to try and avoid the appellation 'strawberry nose'. I got to wondering, how does a plucked hair manage to grow back?
posted by tellurian to science & nature (4 comments total)

They don't always grow back. That's why old women sometimes have no eyebrows.
posted by malp at 2:02 PM on March 30, 2006

Sorry for the low level comparison, but the same way a flushed poop manages to grow back.

Hair is dead matter. It is the hair follicles that are alive and create hair. When you pluck a hair, you take the dead stuff, but the follicle remains there, producing new hair to take the place of the old one.
posted by qvantamon at 2:03 PM on March 30, 2006

The picture here is a good visualization of what qvantamon is talking about. The keratin/hair is pulled out but the socket is able to make another hair.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 4:42 PM on March 30, 2006

the same way a flushed poop manages to grow back!!!!
I see my mistake now. I was Googling for hair+regrowth and the results were full of advertisers. I should have been searching for 'hair follicle anatomy'.
posted by tellurian at 7:32 PM on March 30, 2006