With the upcoming winter and already arriving Halloween season you may think that I am writing about “Goosebumps” the movie, but no, I am writing about the real thing that happens to your arms and legs when something frightening happens and a shiver goes down your spine. Goosebumps also occur when your body reaches a certain temperature and creates those hairs standing up on your arms, legs, and the back of your neck. But what are goosebumps? Goosebumps occur when tiny muscles in our skin’s hair follicles, called arrector pili muscles, pull the hair upright, to make them stand up. But why do goosebumps happen? Goosebumps can help you conserve heat when you’re exposed to cold. They can do this in several ways. As with larger muscles, contraction of the muscles in the skin generates heat. The raised hair follicles cause skin pores to close. Why do we get goosebumps when we sneeze? Adrenaline stimulates tiny muscles to pull on the roots of our hairs, making them stand out from our skin. When the hair stands up from the skin, it causes bumps to form.

Do people like or dislike goosebumps? Well it really depends on the person you are talking to and the state of condition they are in. If they are below freezing temperatures, they will do just about anything to stay warm, well, warmer. But if it is a hot, sunny, day and someone either scares them or tells them terrifying news, they don’t want to be warmed up. But then why would goosebumps even occur if it’s a hot day? Well, as many people have experienced, that frightening news you just received sent a shiver down your spine that sent your body a warning or a false alarm in this case you need some warming up. So your brain sends goosebumps. Many people think that goosebumps influence hair growth and that is in fact true, goosebumps cause hair to rise in a short term and trigger more hair growth by the stem cells in the long term and that makes the hair growth rise in the moment. But when you don’t have goosebumps, your hair does not stop growing. Goosebumps just trigger the hair to grow a little faster. But what if you don’t have any hair? Well if you have zero hair on your back, arms, legs, etc… then you are goose-bump free!