Where did that hair come from?

[heydan]

I'm a guy - normal hairiness - not too much or too little, and am blond. Every girlfriend I have had has been a fan of pulling the super long (1-2 inch long) hairs out of my shoulders. I get about 2-3 per month. I never have any hair longer than 2-3 millimeters, except for those long ones. I was talking about this with my fiancee two days ago, and she said that every so often she gets a super long one on her face. We looked, but not this time. But today, there it was, obvious as. a 2 inch long blond hair on her face. Where do these come from? She is convinced that sometimes when hair falls out of her head, they can reattach. I reckon that they grow super fast in like a day or two. Any ideas???

[OBonio]

Mutant hairs! I get one on my neck that grows out of a moley type thing. And one on my shoulder. They're weird aren't they?

[flashpig]

I'm brown haired but get the super-long blond hair on my stomach. I enjoy pulling it and imagining I have a tiny little alien trying to burst out. I find that fun, but cannot answer your question.

[jimbobsbits]

I also have these (one on my chin - eek! and one on my arm) and the two girls here with me have the same. This is something I imagine most people have, and I can only theorise that an over-active hair follicle is not uncommon, and is the cause of this rapid growth. It would be great if someone actually knew the answer!

[Samedibee]

Any medical boffins out there who can answer it?

[Fora Stern]

Hair follicles are usually concentrated to particular areas of your body, and it varies how large these areas are. Some are mono-eyebrow for example. It is nothing more magic than a few flowers popping up outside the field they were planted.

[heydan]

Cheers for the thoughts so far. Not sure if I am convinced though. According to http://www.keratin.com/aa/aa011.shtml the fastest growing hair only grows at 1mm every three days. Therefore, it would take 75 days to grow just an inch. Even growing at twice that speed would mean that a woman gleaning and grooming every day in the mirror would have to miss that hair every day for well over 6 weeks for it to get to an impressive length.

[secretspirit]

There's no way a hair can re-attach, otherwise all those bald people would go to bed with a load in a baseball cap and in the morning have more hair!!!