Doesn't hair have more than one layer? It isn't always the case, but in cases of fur there is often an underlayer, of softer denser fur, with the coarse hair on top. Perhaps, fur is just generally denser, to the point where you have to move it to see the skin underneath. Although, you have to move the hair on your head to see your scalp.
Hair is longer. It requires more dynamic calculations. Fur is short and grass like. Its mobility and flexibility is limited compared to hair’s. It’s also easier to compute too. = There are more fur-like things, than the hairy ones.
I always thought that fur grows to a genetically predetermined length while hair will just keep growing and growing if you don't cut it. Of course, that would mean that humans have fur on their arms, legs, crotches, armpits, chests, backs, knuckles and eyebrows, while only having hair on top of their heads. spurious That's one freaky lobster. I wonder what they taste like?
I've always thought that the apparently finite growth of say, arm hair, is due to the constant susceptibility of weakness in each follicle and differing growth rates. In other words, if a hair grows too long, it somehow becomes more likely to fall out (although this hardly seems the case). Increase the growth rate and you'll have longer hair, but some will still fall out and reach a certain but slow dynamic equilibrium. Or at least this is what I think, but I could be wrong just as easily. I think the terms 'fur' and 'hair' are interchangable. The former is associated more often with animals.
basically, hair is a characteristic of all mammals. Fur is a reference to the hair of some animals, and not the peach! http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/zoo00/zoo00146.htm
But why does the hair on the human head grow unchecked while other animals' "hair" stops at a certain length? Wouldn't it make sense that if I never clip my dog's fur that he would be the shaggiest beagle in existence?
don't know i always considered hair as: on top of my head on my arms and of course pubic hair fur is what animals have also called a pelt the hair on my face i call a beard but some say facial hair no one says facial fur, although some refer to teenage beards as fuzz
FUR!!!! I love cats. Cats have fur. Love cats. They really love me back, too, signore. Cats really like Giambattista. They think he has style. Well, they're correct. Ultimately...
You never find hair on a duck egg, you always find hair on an ape. It's only the hair on a gooseberry that stops it from being a grape.
They're essentially the same thing. We just call our fur "hair" because it sounds cooler. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
But why does what we call fur stop growing at a certain length? Or is it possible that hair does grow to a certain length, we just usually cut it before it gets as long as it would normally? I'm thinking of this one girl (from Japan, I think) who had never cut her hair in her life and if she didn't tie it up it trailed behind her on the floor like a fancy gown train.
Our hair grows so long because we cultivate it. People in more primitive conditions are not able to grow their hair as long as has been done since the Neolithic revolution. Hair does not "stop growing." The follicles continue to produce new tissue, pushing the old further out. What happens is that the ends of the existing strands become more exposed to damaging forces and we reach an equilibrium in which the ends are cut, broken, or abraded off at the same speed that the roots are growing out. Some people have hair that is somewhat physically more resistant to damage than others so their hair appears to grow longer "naturally," but that is simply because it is not being cut, broken, or abraded off quite as fast as ours. The hair on your hands is no different; its roots are always producing new tissue. It's just so delicate compared to the hair on your head that it's impossible to pamper it effectively enough to see it become several inches long. It will break off under its own weight before then: it is that fragile. Animal hair is also no different. Some breeds of dogs and cats have been developed to have very robust hair, so their fur can be cultivated to a greater length. I'm a dog breeder, believe me that it's a lot of work to get a Maltese or a Lhasa Apso's hair so long that it drags on the floor like you see in the dog shows. For starters, don't you think that dragging on the ground would be the ultimate limit, that the friction would finally abrade off the ends so they wouldn't get any longer? We've had both Lhasa Apsos and Maltese and in a real life setting their hair never gets anywhere near that long. Who's got time to groom their dogs every day, much less more often than that? The owners of these dogs keep their fur protected in bonnets and they never walk on concrete or any rough surface. They wear full-body bibs when they eat and full-body diapers when they poop. And they get groomed more than once a day. You could try to do that with your beagle, but his hair doesn't have the strength of a Shih-Tzu or a Great Pyrenees. It would be like trying to grow the hair on your knuckles, physics would just thwart you and it would break off eventually no matter what you did. You might actually succeed in getting a beagle whose hair is an inch or two longer than normal--and I'm just guessing, I've never tried it--but that's about the best you could hope for and it would be a very underwhelming accomplishment.
Thanks, Fraggle. I didn't realize that "poofy little showdogs" actually had that much maintenance required to make them so poofy. I thought they just got cleaned, brushed and trimmed. I don't know much about dog breeding. Even that Beagle I've got is a Cocker Spaniel mix. We had dhoped to get two smart breeds in one dog, but wound up with the only idiot out of both breeds! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! He's a good ol' dog, though.
What are such "people" and "primitive conditions" do you speak of that they are "not able to grow their hair as long as has been done since the Neolithic revolution".
