# @science on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DUY5THCjHsW
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/55343797-science-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/29d20bc61c.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-02-05T20:05:17.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Science 🧬 (@science) — https://gondola.cc/science

## Caption

From birth, we have hair on our head, eyebrows, and eyelashes. At puberty, we develop hair elsewhere on our bodies. Throughout life, some of us lose hair in some places and gain it in others. Some places remain with hair. And for some of us, we grow so much hair that we could truly be called "hairy" - almost in the gorilla sense.⁠
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What most of us don’t know is that, not only are we not entirely hairless as adults, we are not even naked in the womb. About four months into a normal nine-month pregnancy, when the fetus is about 5.3 inches (135 mm) long and weighs about 6 ounces (170 g), it grows a moustache! Fine hair forms on the upper lip. Gradually, over the next month or so, this fine hair spreads to eventually cover the entire body! The unborn baby remains completely hairy for many weeks.⁠
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This soft, hairy coat is called lanugo. This hair suit is shed before or soon after birth. Each hair of the lanugo is shed one by one and is then swallowed by the baby. The tiny hairs join mucus, bile, and other products to form a black substance called meconium. Just after birth, this meconium is excreted by the newborn in its first bowel movement.⁠
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After we shed our lanugo, most of us are born with hair only on our head, eyebrows, and eyelashes. This fine, non-pigmented hair of infancy is called vellus. “Vellus” is from Latin and means “fleece”. As we mature, the body replaces vellus with coarser, pigmented hair called terminal hair. Terminal hair is our true adult body hair - our only natural body clothes we carry through life. Nature leaves us almost naked. Our hair is not nearly enough to keep us warm in all weather, so we wear artificial clothes. Thus, we are the nearly naked ape.⁠
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#unborn #baby #ultrasound #mustache #womb #biology #science

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## Tags

science, mustache, baby, womb, unborn, biology, ultrasound

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