Babies are born with fine, downy, short, and slightly pigmented body hair called lanugo. The term comes from the Latin word ...

Find out when your baby will start to grow hair, what happens to a baby's hair after birth, what lanugo is, and why preemies are often so hairy.

If your child is born with lanugo hair, they may appear to have a layer of soft fur covering their body, which will ultimately disappear.

Usually it's harmless, even if there’s lots of it. Why Do Ears Have Hair? Before you were born, your body had soft hair all over, including your ears. This is called lanugo.

Your baby’s body hair is usually shed around the 24th to 28th week of pregnancy. This means it’s gone before birth, although some premature babies are still covered with lanugo hair.

Some babies are born with a full head of thick, colorful hair, while other babies are born with very thin, hard-to-see hair.

If your child is born with lanugo hair, they may appear to have a layer of soft fur covering their body, which will ultimately disappear.

Most babies shed it in the womb at around 33-36 weeks of pregnancy, where it mixes with amniotic fluid and is swallowed by the baby. Babies born early, however, tend to have a lot more body hair.

Why are some babies born so hairy? Lanugo appears on the fetus around the third month of pregnancy. As the fetus develops in utero, this hair grows thicker by the seventh month.