My initial reaction when I first noticed hair on my nipples was, "Oh. What?!" I blame porn and the unrealistic portrayal of women in media for that. In retrospect, I'm not sure why I freaked out because we have hair all over our bodies anyway, so why wouldn't we have hair on our boobs?
After taking a closer look, I found out the hair wasn't actually on my nipples, but on the areola instead. According to Dr. Joshua Zeichner, that's pretty normal and very common.
But why do we have hair there? One reason could be because of evolution: "Hair around your nipples may be a holdover from when body hair was an important part of regulating your temperature." Obviously, that isn't an issue anymore thanks to clothes.
How much hair is normal, though?
Like pubic hair, the amount and thickness of nipple hair are different for everyone. Dr. Sherry Ross says that you can have more hair growing around your nipples when your hormones are fluctuating (like when you're pregnant). Unfortunately, intense hair growth in this area can also be a sign of PCOS: "This type of hair growth is known as hirsutism and can happen because of elevated male hormones, like testosterone, which are a common characteristic of PCOS."
So if you're experiencing bad acne and irregular periods as well, consult your doctor.
Source: SELF
This story originally appeared on Cosmo.ph.
* Minor edits have been made by the Femalenetwork.com editors.
