A client who has a scar under her arm _________.

• A. Hair will grow normally
• B. Hair growth will be unpredictable
• C. Will never grow hair on that part of the underarm
• D. Hair will grow only in the underarm scar area

Answer: (C)

Scar tissue forms when deep skin damage is replaced by dense collagen, and this tissue lacks the hair follicles and glands needed for hair growth. Because those follicles are typically destroyed in a scar, hair cannot regrow in the scarred patch. Hair may grow around the scar where the skin is still normal, but not in the scar itself. The other ideas—hair growing normally in the scar, appearing unpredictably in the scar, or only growing in the scar—don’t fit the biology of scarring, since the hair-producing structures are not present there. So the statement that hair will never grow on that part of the underarm is the most accurate.