Is it Possible to Have Hair on Your Palms?

Only a few parts of your skin don’t grow hair, including your lips, palms, and the soles of your feet. Although some people say that masturbating will cause hair to grow on your palms, there’s no scientific basis for this myth.

An extremely rare genetic disorder may cause hair growth on your palms. However, it’s so uncommon that’s only been documented a handful of times in history.

Can you have hair on palms after masturbating?

Despite rumors you may have heard, masturbating does not cause you to grow hair on your palms. It’s one of many false old wives’ tales about masturbating. It’s not clear where this myth started, but it probably goes back to the Dark Ages as a way to discourage people from masturbating.

Despite the many myths about masturbation, there are no known physical side effects. Some other myths that you may have heard include:

• masturbating causes blindness
• masturbating causes hair loss
• masturbating causes your penis to shrink
• masturbating causes infertility
• masturbating can cause men to run out of semen

What can actually cause hairy palms?

For the vast majority of people, it’s impossible to grow hair on the palms of your hands or soles of your feet. There are a few rare situations where it may occur.

A rare condition called circumscribed hairy dysembryoplasia of palms can cause hair to grow on both of your palms. The condition is an inherited condition caused by a dominant gene. However, it’s so rare that it’s only been documented a handful of times in the medical literature.

The 1973 study describes a French family in which four generations of people had hair on both palms. The family members included a man, his mother, his maternal grandfather, and one of his daughters.

Why don’t most people have hair on their palms?

Hair grows from hair follicles located below the surface of your skin. Hair follicles originate in the deep layer of skin called your dermis or in the deeper subcutaneous tissue. Hair can only grow in places where there are hair follicles. Almost every part of your skin has hair follicles except for the soles of your feet, the palms of your hands, and your lips.

A 2018 animal study found that hairless parts of the skin of mice produce an inhibitor called Dickkopf 2 (Dkk2). Dkk2 inhibits a protein called Wnt. Wnt is a signaling protein that’s needed for the development of hair follicles.

More research is needed to see if the same pathway extends to humans.

Takeaway

For the vast majority of people, it’s impossible to grow hair on your palms. Hair grows from hair follicles. There are no hair follicles on your palms unless you have an extremely rare genetic disorder called circumscribed hairy dysembryoplasia of palms.

Despite the prevalent myth, masturbating doesn’t cause you to grow hair on your palms. There are no known physical side effects of masturbating.

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