Hairless races and nails

[amish overlord]

Should muls and dwarves have fingernails?

From what understand fingernails are pretty much hair, made from same proteins as hair cep they are harden. Any thoughts?

Amish Overlord  

[Larrath]

I'd say it's a definite Yes on them having fingernails.

[Spoon]

Yeah, I'd reckon fingernails. There's got to be some kind of non-hairy animal with fingernails we can compare then to...

Do lizards have fingernails? Or don't they count?

[Dalmeth]

They may be made of the same material, but that doesn't mean if you don't have one, you don't have the other.  Hair and fingernails are distinct, separate traits.

[FightClub]

those hairless cats.

[amish overlord]

I think lizards have a diffrent make up for their claws. And most mammals do have hair, even if very tiny. I think whales and dolphins even have hair, pretty much microscopic in size.

Amish Overlord  

[spawnloser]

Granted, the mud is only based somewhat on Dark Sun...but a history lesson from Dark Sun for those that haven't read the Prism Pentad series:

Dwarves used to have hair.  They evolved to not have it.  In fact, a few people find this out, a dwarf included, and he displays revulsion at finding this out.

[UnderSeven]

Lizards, I'm pretty sure they don't have hair but they have claws, which I'm pretty sure are more or less the same thing as nails.

[Spoon]

those hairless cats.

I reckon this one. A few thousand years in the past, some noble probably sat looking at a dwarf and said, "I want a hairless one! Because it'll look really pretty, and not as disgusting as you'd think."

[Djarjak]

There's a disease called alopecia in which one loses one's hair, but not their nails.

</useless facts>

[Vessol]

Yet those useless facts help us through every day life. I say it would be pretty fucking wierd to have dwarves without fingernails, and painful, and wierd.

[Bogre]

Hair requires follicles. A lack of hair can be explained by the lack of follicles.

Nails have cuticles, thus you can have nails without hair, even though both are made from keratin.

[cyberpatrol_735]

Think about cancer and the radiation treatments, you lose your hair.. but not your fingernails, that's absurd.. I'd say they do.

[Forest Junkie]

I think there's a big difference between being born hairless and losing hair due to cemotherapy cyber.

Muls and Dwarves lack the essential proteins, from what I can see, in order for hair to form. It's quite possible that, as a result, they would have no nails also.

Do muls and dwarves even have pores? *snicker*

[Cegar]

If they didn't, would they be alive?

[Dalmeth]

Muls and Dwarves lack the essential proteins, from what I can see, in order for hair to form. It's quite possible that, as a result, they would have no nails also.

Where do you get that?  I'm with Djarjak.  It could simply be they don't have follicles.

[spawnloser]

Follicles and pores are two seperate things.

Consider it a quirk of evolution.  I'm good with that explanation.

[Djarjak]

Or it could be that they have perfectly good follicles that just don't produce hair.

Hairless cats and hairless rats still have claws.

[Angela Christine]

The interaction between pores and follicles has often led me to wonder about hairless races and pimples.  Being all girly (not really) led me to try all manner of facial hair removal techniques because pale skin and dark hair is not a good combination if you want to avoid looking like you have a moustache, and most of them seemed to cause pimples.  Of course that may have been in-grown hairs, or minor damage caused to the follicle by having hair violently ripped out by the root, rather than an effect of the missing hair.  Still, I wonder if dwarves and muls wouldn't be either much more likely or much less likely than humans to have pimples.

[Rainbow]

I don't see how it makes sense in a sand-filled world, for dwarves to evolve to not have eyebrows or eyelashes.  Eh.  Lol.  Oh well.

[adrien]

Yet those useless facts help us through every day life. I say it would be pretty fucking wierd to have dwarves without fingernails, and painful, and wierd.

if they didn't have fingernails they would evolve  tougher hands to compinsate

[Tisiphone]

I'd like to point out that not only is there the cuticle-follicle difference, but actually a genetic difference as well. (Witness, once again, the cats, whose genes were manipulated through artificial selection.) I'd -also- like to point out that, while in the same 'family', the proteins of hair and fingernails are different. Sure, they're keratin, but what KIND of keratin?

[Cyrian20]

That is like asking why you can't by a men's cotton jersey at Victoria's Secret. The same materials yes, but hair follicles don't make fingernails.

[Tisiphone]

Hee, signature self-esteem boost!