I Understand If I Were To Shave Off My Pubic/chest/under-arm Hair It ...

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Nick, Devon, England

• All hair grows at a contstant rate, but eventually falls out. With body hair, which typically does not grow as long as head hair, the rate at which it falls out is greater. This results in hair that appears to reach a certain length then stops growing.

  Katherine, London, UK

• I don't know if pubic hair simply falls out more frequently - mine doesn't - but it certainly wears away faster. Pluck a good long 'un and look at the end, and you'll see it tapers away to nothing. Since almost all your pubic hair is tucked between your skin and your clothes, the constant friction wears it away faster than hair on your head.

  Richard Miller, Addlestone, UK

• Every hair follicle on your body goes though a cycle of producing a hair, then the hair falling out, then the follicle being dormant, and then regrowth of a new hair. Left alone, head hairs grow far longer than any others, for most people the growth period is about 5 or 6 years, at 6 inches a year. This results in roughly waist length hair (some people, especially women, can grow it far longer). I think the dormant period for each fillicle is 1 or 2 years. I grew mine long 3 times, the longest uncut period being 6.5 years, by which time the longest hairs were about 30 inches, and the whole lot wasn't getting any longer. By this point, only some of your hairs are 30 inches long, there's an even distribution of all lengths, from nothing in the dormant follicles, a few inches in others, up to the full length in others. Each follicle's point in the cycle is independent of the others. The same is true for all other areas of the body - in any square inch there will be some dormant follicles, some with the maximum length of hair, and most with some length in between. The only difference is that the maximum length is much shorter in the non-head areas.

  Gordon Dallas, Glasgow, UK