Hirsuteness increases with age

The above graph is surely bad news for men like Robin Williams and women everywhere. Unfortunately, it is a fact that our bodies get hairier as we get older. We come in to the world with skin as smooth as a, err, baby's arse, but some of us leave it looking like Tarzan's adoptive father!

For us men, the release of massive amounts of hormones at puberty really kicks the process into gear. You might shave once a week at the beginning, rising to daily or even more frequently as the formative years pass. You'd hope it would stop there, but hair growth tends to continue into middle age. It wouldn't be so bad if it was our manly chest or muscular limbs that got more matted, but no, what do we get instead? Nostril and ear hair, mainly! Even while we're losing it upstairs, it starts sprouting out of the most unlikely locations and there's damn all we can do about it!

For women, as they age, it becomes a battle with the tweezers that would make even King Canute's struggle seem pretty manageable in comparison! Arms and legs get furrier and even worse, it starts appearing on the face. Take a look at a middle aged woman on a bus and chances are she has a better tache/smig then most school boys could manage. Admittedly, that competition isn't particularly fierce, but any unwanted hair is traumatic for a woman. Cue even more female preening - shaving, plucking and/or the application of creams, chemicals, wax, lasers or electric current!