"Hair or Fur?"

 In these turbulent times, I hope this short essay provokes a smile. 

 

Generally, I like to send these essays on weekends, but since my wife and I will be away this weekend visiting two granddogs and their charges, a son and daughter-in-law, I opted for this morning.

 

Cheers, Sydney

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

More Essays from Essex

“Hair or Fur?”

March 7, 2025

 

“Is there a difference between hair and fur?”

Kate Wong of Scientific American

“There isn’t. Hair and fur are the same thing.”

Nancy Simmons, mammologist, American Museum of Natural History

February 20, 2001

 

The world is in turmoil. The war in Ukraine threatens the NATO alliance. China menaces the Pacific Region and is making inroads in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Financial markets, already dicey, now have to deal with tariffs and the possibility of a U.S.-financed “crypto reserve,” whatever that is. Public schools are failing our children, especially in inner cities. Climate is shifting, and we don’t know whether to halt the change or adapt.

 

And here am I writing about hair and fur, when Ms. Simmons, an expert on mammals, says there is no difference. Yet my barber would be surprised if I said I wanted to come in for a fur cut. She would probably say she was booked and notify public health authorities. In fact, she looked at me oddly when I asked her recently if the stuff on top of my head was hair or fur. If the two words are synonymous why do we say dogs and horses have hair, while cats and rabbits have fur? And why do we say “hair-of-the-dog” and speak of “cat furballs” and not the other way? But then, nothing in life is simple; poodles and dachshunds are said to have hair, while German shepherds and huskies have fur. Muddling the subject further, pigs and sheep – both mammals – have, respectively, bristles and wool. Then there is the Mangalica pig that looks like a sheep and has hair. And now I read of a Texas company Colossal Biosciences that has genetically engineered mice with “long, thick, wool hair,” like an extinct wooly mammoth. I must be getting old. 

 

And why is facial hair called whiskers? They are not used as antennae, as cats or mice do, to see if they can slip through an opening. And don’t get me going on moustaches or muttonchops. BBC Wildlife Magazine suggests the word “hair” is an “umbrella term,” for “similar structures…growing from the skin of mammals.” That sounds cumbersome. When particularly thick it is called fur. But not always. Crowning Samson’s head (before Delila got to him) was a thatch of thick and abundant hair, not fur. 

 

It's all so bewildering. A hairshirt is worn by an ascetic, while a cashmere sweater is worn by a dandy. As days grow warmer, my wife will store her winter coats. She doesn’t call a hairier; she calls a furrier.

 

It will be by a hair-breadth (or is that fur-breadth?) that I escape, without some reader coming after me with a pair of scissors, or should that be shears? I’m ready to pull out my fur – I mean my hair.