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A quirky and revealing exploration of the tangled science, history, and culture of human hair.
Body hair: we're covered in it. But for most of us, there’s too much or too little, it’s the wrong colour or in the wrong place. Collectively, we spend billions of dollars trying to change or control it. We’re fascinated, disgusted, and amused, and we don’t know why.
Each patch on this wild romp through your furry real estate—from the top of your head to the tips of your toes—tells a story about survival, sex, and social life. Judy Wearing explores how and why hair has provoked discomfort in people through the ages and contemplates how our animality influences daily life.
Equal parts curious, comic, and compelling, Anxious and Hairy draws on insights from evolutionary biology, psychology, anthropology, history, and art to uncover what our hair reveals about being human. From bearded female saints to Botoxed brows that dull empathy, hair exposes how biology and culture intersect. One thing is certain: you’ll never look at the human body the same way again.
“Judy Wearing provides a deliciously witty, accessible, and scholarly romp through all things hirsute … Brilliant!” — Laurence D. Hurst, author of The Evolution of Imperfection: The Science of Why We Aren’t and Can’t Be Perfect
“A delight.” —Alex Boese, bestselling author of Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments
“This lively, wide-ranging book invites us to rethink something we often take for granted: our hair.” —Andrea Charise, author of The Aesthetics of Senescence: Aging, Population, and the Nineteenth-Century British Novel
“A masterclass in how something as ordinary as body hair can tell the extraordinary story of being human.” —Lucy Jane Santos, author of Chain Reactions
Introduction: Who’s Anxious and Hairy?
Chapter 1 Up Top
Chapter 2 Eyebrow Talk
Chapter 3 Men, Beards, and Mustaches
Chapter 4 Losing It
Chapter 5 Pitty Proclamations
Chapter 6 Down There
Chapter 7 The Not-So-Naked Ape
Conclusion: Animal Imprints
Acknowledgements
Notes
Selected Sources
Index