Lanugo Hair- All You Want to Know about It



Are you a new mother? You will have lots of queries from the first day of your pregnancy and that will continue later. Once your kid born, your questions also increase. How are you going to take care of that tiny life? Why is she crying? Why is she suffering from stomach pain? There are endless questions which you need to find theanswer. You learn every day and thus you take the best care of your cutie pie. You must have seen fine hair on your newborn baby. This is known as lanugo hair. What is lanugo and what happens to it? Here you will get detail account of lanugo hair.

What Is Lanugo Hair?

Basically, lanugo is the fine type of hair that grows in the body of the fetus, inside the womb while it is developing. Usually, this hair disappears after birth or when the vellus hair starts growing. Vellus hair is thicker than lanugo and quite transparent. This remains in child’s body during his childhood.

What is lanugo hair and what is its purpose? Actually, scientists have made lots of researches, but they are still not sure why this type of hair grows on fetus’s body and what function it plays in its development. They have only found out that this hair comes with a waxy substance, known as vernixcaseosa that covers the body of thefetus. According to further research, it has been proved that the combination of vernixcaseosa and lanugo hair plays akey role in creating different hormones in the fetus.

Therefore, it can be said that lanugo plays important role in the development of thefetus. But, if this hair is seen in adults’ body, that may refer to certain diseases. There is a theory of adults having lanugo hair is that when the body tries to insulate and preserve heat, lanugo hair helps in this process.

What to Do If Your Baby Has Lanugo for Number of Days after Birth

In case of premature birth, there is ahigh chance of having lanugo hair in the body of anewborn for few days, even weeks. There are certain cases when full-term babies also get lanugo hair even after birth.

You must have aclear idea instead of fall for myths. Having lanugo hair on baby’s body is nothing abnormal and there is no harm in getting into contact with this. There are traditional methods to shed this hair from the body of anewborn, but there is no necessity of doing it. Within 3-4 weeks after birth, lanugo hair starts disappearing and vellus hair takes place.

There are many parents who feel uneasy at the presence of this hair in their baby’s body as they can’t match up their imagination with the reality. That is nothing to be freaking out. All babies have this hair, sometimes the disappearance process ends within the womb. And in few cases, the process is just a bit slower, that’s it.


So, now you get a brief account of lanugo hair. Don’t get afraid or tensed. Enjoy your parenthood and take the best care of your kiddo.

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