Hair and heir are two words in the English dictionary with similar pronunciations but completely different meanings.
Their origin is from both the ancient Latin and Greek derivatives used to refer to the owner of an inheritance or the characteristic feature of mammals.
There is no situation where both terms could be interchanged as they mean two different things.
Key Takeaways
- “Hair” is a filamentous protein that grows from follicles in the skin, while “heir” refers to a person who inherits property or assets after someone’s death.
- Hair is a biological feature of humans and animals, while an heir is a legal term related to inheritance.
- Hair has various functions, such as protection and temperature regulation, while an heir’s role is to carry on family traditions, manage assets, and maintain family wealth.
Hair vs Heir
Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the skin. It is one of the characteristics of mammals and can serve a variety of functions such as insulation. An heir is someone who inherits something. It could be property, a title, or money, from a person who has died.
Hair is what covers the entire human body as well as that of all other mammals. This distinguishes mammals from all other classes in the kingdom of Animalia.
Hair is thin, and to get the proper diameter would only be possible if kept under an electron microscope. Hair type changes with the genetic makeup of each individual.
Heirs are the individuals who gain an inheritance, either as money, property, stocks, etc. They need not always be rich before or after obtaining the inheritance, as it can even be as small as a few grants or a few bucks.
But commonly, only those who are the children of millionaires or billionaires are seen as heirs to their respective empires.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | Hair | Heir |
|---|---|---|
| Has Access to Money | No | Yes |
| Can Be Colored | Yes | No |
| Helps In Insulation of The Body | Yes | No |
| Made Up of Keratin | Yes | No |
| Can Increase Stock Value | No | Yes |
What is Hair?
Hair is a noun that describes dead and clumped-up cells that help insulate the bodies of mammals.
It is thin, therefore the diameter would be in nanometres.
Depending on each individual, hair could either be curly, wavy, straight or even both curly and straight on one single person.
It is scientifically proven that hair type is present in the genetic makeup of the ancestors.
This means that each family might have the same type of hair but due to variation due to evolution, members of the same family are known to have many different hair types.
Hair color is also decided by the genetic makeup of a person.
At times, hair color is influenced by the geographical location of a person.
People in countries closer to the equator tend to have darker colored hair, and as the distance from the equator increases, there tends to be a slight change in the hair color. It might become lighter.
But this is yet to be proven scientifically.
But this is what we see around us. People in India, for example, tend to have black or brown hair, whereas people in Sweden, which is closer to the Arctic Circle, tend to have lighter shades, such as blondes.
Another characteristic feature of the hair is its thickness. This trait can be acquired over a period.
People living in cities tend to have thinner hair due to the high amount of pollution, and the chemicals used by people to treat their hair might not always be the best.
On the other hand, people in villages and towns have a thicker strand of hair of greater quality.
Stress is a factor that directly links to the well-being of a person’s hair.
Hair quality tends to degrade when someone is highly stressed and under tension, whereas someone who has a carefree life with little or no stress might have a good quality of hair.
But all these are prone to exceptions.
Hair is one part of the body that most people spend money on to make it even more beautiful and better.
Hair salons and spas are gaining momentum in the beauty industry, with specialists invited to do hairstyles on occasions such as birthdays and festivals.
What is Heir?
An “heir” is a noun that refers to the person who would inherit a sum of money or property from a wealthy person.
Typically, it is someone who will make a fortune in the long run.
What an heir is supposed to inherit does not have to be from his or her ancestors; it could be anyone’s fortune to the heir.
But commonly, heirs are those individuals who would take over their parents’ property or money after their death.
It is quite natural to call the children of wealthy people the heirs to their parents’ properties and maybe empires.
As history has seen, not always are heirs chosen wisely.
Heirs are not always careful of what they inherit. This leads to bankruptcy in certain situations.
Even princes and princesses are referred to as heirs to the throne because they will one day inherit the throne from their parents and rule over their people.
There have been many cases where the heirs to large fortunes have acted sensibly and helped double the value of whatever is given to them.
Such cases lead to the formation of empires and family-owned businesses that hold most of the millionaires and billionaires in the world.
Most parts of the world view men and boys as the sole heirs of a family fortune.
But there might be many other deserving women and girls.
Such heirs are known to become tyrants and misogynistic leaders that the world has seen over time.
Back in the day, women were known to be submissive and such cases of inheritance were not something they cared about.
But nowadays, things are changing. These submissive women and girls are now coming forward and filing cases against such inheritance.
Heirs need not inherit large fortunes; it might even be a few cents. This might lead to disappointment, but they get what they are assigned.
Main Differences Between Hair and Heir
- While hair provides insulation to an individual, heirs are the ones receiving fortunes left to them.
- Hair has all its characteristics coded in the genetic makeup of a person, on the other hand, an heir has no such genetic involvement.
- Hair does not refer to a person, whereas “heir” refers to only a person, with the few exceptions of animals being the heir to many fortunes.
- People spend hours in the salon treating their hair while their heirs have nothing of the sort.
- The surrounding environment plays a great role in the proper maintenance of a person’s hair, whereas the environment plays no role in the actions of an heir.
- https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.bb.17.060188.000531
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/293693
Last Updated : 19 July, 2023
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Emma Smith holds an MA degree in English from Irvine Valley College. She has been a Journalist since 2002, writing articles on the English language, Sports, and Law. Read more about me on her bio page.
