| Lanugo | |
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| Pronunciation | |
Lanugo is very thin, soft, usually unpigmented hair that is sometimes found on the body of a fetus or newborn. It is the first hair to be produced by the fetal hair follicles, and it usually appears around sixteen weeks of gestation and is abundant by week twenty. It is normally shed before birth, around seven or eight months of gestation, but is sometimes present at birth. It disappears on its own within a few weeks.[3]
It is replaced by hair covering the same surfaces, which is called vellus hair. This hair is thinner and more difficult to see. The more visible hair that persists into adulthood is called terminal hair. It forms in specific areas and is hormone-dependent.[4] The term is from the Latin lana, meaning "wool."
- ^ Saunders, an imprint of Elsevier, Inc., Dorland's Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers. "Lanugo : definition". TheFreeDictionary. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "lanugo". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
- ^ "Definition of Lanugo". MedicineNet: medterms medical dictionary. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
- ^ Ascher-Walsh, Charles J. "What is lanugo?". Pregnancy&Baby. SheKnows. Retrieved 7 February 2013.