QUESTION: Why do the elderly often suffer from excess nose and ear hair?
ANSWER: ``Nose and ear hair are male-hormone-dependent,'' says Dr. Vera Price, at the University of California at San Francisco, ``and certainly there is less opposition by female hormones like oestrogen as we age, which is probably why the hair is longer.''
Each sex has both male and female hormones but the balance changes with age. The increase in nose and ear hair may be noticed more by women than by men, Prince suggested, because ``many men have had noticeable nasal and ear hair all their adult lives,'' owing to a plentiful supply of androgens.
In a related change in many aging women as oestrogen levels drop, ``nature gives us two hairs on the chin as we lose one on the top,'' Dr. Price says. The increase in ear and nose hair is a ``totally benign and a very common change,'' she says, so it is not well studied. She suggests cutting the unwanted hair with manicure scissors, preferably with rounded ends, or using a battery-operated hair trimmer made for the purpose. ― New York Times