Last updated on August 24, 2020
Question:
The right side of my face has more hair than the left, why?
Answer:
Few people are actually perfectly symmetrical between their left and right sides. For most of us the differences are very slight or so common that we don’t think about it. Just to give you an example, look at the back of people’s heads. There is a “swirl” there causing some people’s hair to lay to the left, front, or right. You will also notice that the swirl can be toward the left, center, or right. It is a minor thing, but it means that if did precise measurements of your various features, your left side will not be exactly like your right side.
This slight variation sometimes gets temporarily more noticeable during adolescence. One side might get slightly ahead of the other in development and then the other side will catch up.
You’ve always had hair on your face, but until recently they have been vellus hairs. These are short, nearly colorless hairs that cover most of your skin. For males, the hormones in your body start changing many of the hair follicles from vellus to terminal hair. Terminal hair is thick and colored. The switch isn’t all at once because your body regulates the length of your hair by running a follicle for a while and then stopping it for a rest period at which time the hair typically breaks off or falls out. If all our hairs turned on and off at the same time, we would shed as dogs and cats do. Instead, one hair here, another hair there, turns off and then back on so you never notice a loss. But to get this going on the starting end, the individual follicles have to start up at different times. That is why your hair comes in sparse at first and thickens up as you live through your twenties.
As you have noticed, it is possible to get an uneven distribution of start-up terminal hairs. But don’t worry, it will eventually even out. And shaving makes it unnoticeable to anyone else.