Will your baby have a head like a soft peach? Fluffy mane sticking straight up? Curly curls? Whatever your baby’s hair looks like at birth, it will likely change in the first year of life.

In fact, your baby’s hair journey begins in the second trimester, when a fine hair called lanugo develops.

What is lanugo and what does it look like?

Lanugo is a soft hair that develops on your baby’s body around the 21st week of pregnancy. Follicles actually start to form deep within the baby’s skin at 14 weeks, but the hair doesn’t fully emerge until a few weeks later. Described as fine and hairy, the hair is non-pigmented, meaning it has no color.

It usually first appears on the forehead, eyebrows and upper lip before appearing further down the body. Finally, it covers the whole body. Most babies lose their lanugo before birth, but some babies will still have it at birth and for several weeks afterwards.

Why do babies have lanugo?

Lanugo has an important purpose: it helps keep the vernix caseosa, the thick white substance that surrounds your baby, in place.

Also known simply as vernix, this covering protects your baby’s skin from damage from the fluid in the amniotic sac, helps regulate your baby’s temperature, prevents water loss, and contributes to your baby’s innate immunity. Lanugo makes it all possible!

When will your baby’s hair grow in the womb?

Lanugo first appears at 21 weeks, but begins to develop several weeks before. Here’s a quick guide:

Weeks of pregnancy	Milestone
14 weeks	Hair follicles have started to form.
21 weeks	The first hairs sprout on the forehead, eyebrows and upper lip.
22 weeks	Hair is visible on the head, and a fine, downy lanugo covers the body – especially the shoulders, back, ears and forehead.
23 weeks until birth	Melanin begins to be produced, adding color to the hair.
33 to 36 weeks	Lanugo is spilled.
26 to 40 weeks	Vellus hair (peach hair) replaces lanugo.
Birth	Some lanugo may still be present – ​​it will fall out in a few weeks.

Lanugo is just the first type of hair your baby will grow. When lanugo falls out, it is replaced by vellus hair. This is the soft hair that lines our bodies, commonly called “peach hair”.

Finally, your baby will develop terminal hair, a relatively thick head of hair that will eventually spread to the armpits and genitals during puberty.

Interestingly, the hair follicles on your baby’s scalp form a pattern that will remain for life. And new follicles don’t form after birth, so babies are born with all the hair follicles they’ll ever have.

What color will your baby’s hair be?

Predicting your baby’s hair color is not easy. Experts think that many different genes control the precise amount of melanin produced within each strand of hair, but they don’t know for sure how these genes interact to produce the huge range of possible hair colors.

So be prepared for surprises, because your child’s hair color and texture can come from any corner of the family tree.

Also, what your baby’s hair will look like at birth is not necessarily what it will look like later. Babies often lose their hair gradually in the first 6 months of life and new hair grows in its place (this is more common in white infants than in babies of color). What grows back may look similar or be a completely different color or texture.

Signs that your baby will have a lot of hair

Genetics is the strongest predictor of how much hair your baby will have. If you and your partner have thick hair, your baby probably will too.

When will your newborn’s lanugo fall off?

Lanugo usually falls out between 33 and 36 weeks. This means it can fall out in the womb, or, if your baby comes early, it can still be on her body for several weeks after birth.

My babies were hairy, but lost most of it because it was their lanugo hair from the womb.

– BabyCenter community member Carlybabylove

Is it normal for babies to be very hairy when they are born?

Yes, up to 30% of babies will still have lanugo on their body at birth. This is especially true if they were born prematurely, as the lanugo layer may not have been shed yet.

“My babies were hairy, but they lost most of it because it was their lanugo hair from the womb,” she says BabyCenter Community Member of Carlybabylove.