Anxious and Hairy

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A01=Judy Wearing
adele stripe
alice roberts
Author_Judy Wearing
baldness
base notes
behave
Category=JBCC1
Category=JHMC
complete human body
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
forthcoming
hair
hair growth
hair loss
hot science
sapiens
the body
ultra processed people

Product details

  • ISBN 9781837732814
  • Dimensions: 153 x 234mm
  • Publication Date: 08 Oct 2026
  • Publisher: Icon Books
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Hardback
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A quirky and revealing exploration of the tangled science, history, and culture of human hair.

Body hair: we're covered in it. But for most of us, there's too much or too little, it's the wrong colour or in the wrong place. Collectively, we spend billions of dollars trying to change or control it. We're fascinated, disgusted, and amused, and we don't know why.

Each patch on this wild romp through your furry real estate-from the top of your head to the tips of your toes-tells a story about survival, sex, and social life. Judy Wearing explores how and why hair has provoked discomfort in people through the ages and contemplates how our animality influences daily life.

Equal parts curious, comic, and compelling, Anxious and Hairy draws on insights from evolutionary biology, psychology, anthropology, history, and art to uncover what our hair reveals about being human. From bearded female saints to Botoxed brows that dull empathy, hair exposes how biology and culture intersect. One thing is certain: you'll never look at the human body the same way again.

Judy Wearing is an award-winning educator and author with a PhD in evolutionary biology from the University of Oxford and a second PhD in education from Queen's University. Her previous book, Edison's Concrete Piano, has been translated into multiple languages.

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