Abstract
Hirsutism is the growth, in females, of hair in a male distribution. Of course, what is regarded as abnormal is open to subjective perception. Some women will become alarmed if they grow a small amount of hair above their upper lip, while others seem oblivious to an amount of hair on face, limbs and abdomen not generally accepted in their culture. For there is a wide variation in acceptability based on racial, cultural and social factors. Interestingly, hair is second only to skin colour as a feature of racial difference. For example, facial and body hair is less common among mongoloid, negroid and American Indians than in caucasians. Even amongst the latter there are differences: Mediterranean skin is considerably hairier than Nordic skin.
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© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Rogers, S. (2000). Hirsutism. In: Katsambas, A.D., Lotti, T.M. (eds) European Handbook of Dermatological Treatments. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03835-2_44
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03835-2_44
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