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OBSERVATIONS ON BODY HAIR IN OLD PEOPLE

Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, and Royal Melbourne Hospital Victoria, Australia

This survey of 167 men and 189 women over 60 years of age was carried out to assess the diagnostic value of absent or reduced body hair in old people. The state of axillary, pubic, chest, abdominal, limb and eyebrow hair was examined in both sexes, and facial hair in females. Most or all axillary hair was lost in one sixth of the males and half of the females. This loss was progressive with age. Detectable loss of pubic hair occurred in one fifth of the men and one third of the women, but only 1 man and 5 women had complete loss of pubic hair. Thus only loss of all pubic hair is of diagnostic significance in old age. One sixth of patients of both sexes had lost the outer third of their eyebrows, although appearing euthyroid. Coarse facial hair was present in three quarters of the women, and its incidence did not increase with age. Hair was rarely seen on the sides of the face, but was common on the upper lip and chin. Limb hair had a definite pattern of disappearance which was similar in both sexes. Leg hair was absent or scanty in the majority of both men and women, whereas arm hair was plentiful in men but scanty in women. The relative importance of hormone deprivation or other factors in producing these effects could not be determined.

Received June 22, 1959.