Re: goosbumps on face can happen!

Dear Angela,

Thanks for your question. I can see why you may be confused. There are 3 answers to this query in the MadSci archives:

1. Thomas Greiner said that the erector pili muscles, responsible for goosebumps, have a different form and function in the face;
2. I said that facial hair occurs to a lesser degree/in different form to other body hair and that the face does not get very cold - I'm not a physiologist, so my answer was a "best guess"; and
3. Linda Weynandt said that erector pili are not found in the face - I suspect that she meant "in the same form as elsewhere in the body", like Thomas.

However, none of us said that facial goosebumps were impossible. I think we were responding to the question as it was put - that is, most people have not observed facial goosebumps and so believe that in general, they do not occur.

The problem here is that much of the evidence for facial goosebumps is anecdotal. If you search Google for "goosebumps face", for example, you'll find people who say "oh yes, of course they occur, I get them!" - but they do not provide any evidence, such as an image or an academic reference. Even the Wikipedia entry for goosebumps is guilty - it states that "in some people, they even occur in the face or on the head", but does not provide a link or an image to support the statement.

So, since you state that you can prove it, my advice is - go right ahead! Take a photo of your facial goosebumps and put it on the web for everyone to see. A nice way to do this would be to register at Wikipedia, edit the goosebumps article and upload your image, or provide a link to it if you upload it at another website. That way, you can share your knowledge with the world and settle the issue once and for all!