question on the supposed healing abilities of a werewolf

[cjkrythos]

I have a particular question regarding aforementioned healing abilities. See, I was under the impression that if you cut a werewolf, their bodies heal quickly, but what about werewolf fur? I mean, if it gets cut, does it grow back quickly? If you shave a werewolf, will he just grow it back? I suppose im creating this thread more for amusement value, but it is a valid question.

*pictures a werewolf with a poodle cut*

[Terastas]

Probably. The shift usually is depicted as having fur grow in places where it originally was not in a matter of minutes. You probably could attribute that to a byproduct of the healing factor, but. . .

Well, that would involve the fur growing continuously, and that would require werewolves to stop and trim themselves, like, once every ten minutes. Not very practical in terms of evolution, so I'd say that if you cut, burnt or otherwise damaged a werewolf's fur, it would likely either grow back at a normal rate, or would be restored by the werewolf shifting to and from human form again.

[Aki]

I'd say it'd return at the normal rate.

On the budgetting of material and energy, I'm fairly sure that hair ranks pretty low in the body's priorities. Not particularly worth applying the whole super-regen to, which is probably something that eats up a lot of energy to begin with.

[Wingman]

Well, that would involve the fur growing continuously, and that would require werewolves to stop and trim themselves, like, once every ten minutes. Not very practical in terms of evolution, so I'd say that if you cut, burnt or otherwise damaged a werewolf's fur, it would likely either grow back at a normal rate, or would be restored by the werewolf shifting to and from human form again.

Trimming would only be necessary if their fur is more similar to human hair than to fur. Last I checked, wolves don't need haircuts, they just shed. Granted, these are werewolves we're talking about, so they might get some Chewbacca action going on.
I was going to try looking up examples using Wolverine, but then I remembered that even in X3 when he was getting disintegrated or whatever, his hair was perfect. Ergo, werewolves would have perfect hair.
However, on the other side of the film series, Deadpool was bald in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and showed no signs of speedy-fast hair growth even though he had regeneration.

To finish the Wolverine ramblings, Sabretooth: I've no idea what's going on with him, as he is probably a better example of a werewolf than Logan is. Yet, Sabretooth seems to have up and grown his hair much longer, and changed hair color. Maybe a result of the whole nuclear reactor thing, I dunno. Way off topic.

Regrowing at the normal rate has my vote, maybe a little faster. However, I also prefer werewolves with inherent length-limits to their hair/fur to prevent ersatz Cousin It impersonations.

[Renorei]

I think it would grow back at the same rate that normal hair or fur grows at, but if they shift back to human and then back to their wolf or gestalt form, the hair would be restored.

[RedEye]

I tend to support Ren's position, since hair or fur is itself dead; but the follicles it grows from are a part of the dermis and alive.
Therefore: One shift would restore anything, even a poodle-cut; unless something was used to actially inhibit the hair follicles themselves from producing more fur when the shift took place.

Whether electrolysis would work is up to debate, given the Were's healing capabilities. Perhaps even dead follicles might be replaced in that way; I dunno.

[cjkrythos]

*snickers* soooo... who wants to confirm that guess? *gets out an electric razor and giggles insanely*

[Scott Gardener]

I figure that with each shift, the fur or hair restores itself to a presumed biologically neutral state. One consequence would mean that werewolves would either have to shave or pluck between their eyebrows after every shift or just live with having joined eyebrows. It might also play havoc with any hair styling, perms, or, Heaven forbid, hair coloring. To help conserve mass, most hair or fur is re-absorbed, but some would get shedded, particularly any that have picked up contaminants. (A werewolf in Gestalt form sprayed with colloidal silver might end up shedding most of one's fur with a shift to human form, for instance.) I also figured that, with practice, one could make one's hair length change at will--though one cannot suddenly pop out a $400 professional Hollywood hair style.

[cjkrythos]

...though one cannot suddenly pop out a $400 professional Hollywood hair style.

*pouts* not even with practice?

[Morkulv]

I don't think werewolves should heal instantly to begin with.

Wolves don't have this ability, and humans don't have this ability, so I don't see why a cross between both mammals would be any different.

[Ember]

I think it would grow back the normal rate. I don't think regeneration would apply to fur. Except, is this regeneration thing something that happens automatically, or can the werewolf turn it on and off and prioritize certain injuries? Because if they could do that, I suppose they could make it apply to hair if they wanted to.

[RedEye]

*snickers* soooo... who wants to confirm that guess? *gets out an electric razor and giggles insanely*

Don't forget to send pictures of the results...

[Terastas]

I don't think werewolves should heal instantly to begin with.

Wolves don't have this ability, and humans don't have this ability, so I don't see why a cross between both mammals would be any different.

Well not instantly, but still more quickly than either counterpart.

Don't forget that the core of what defines a werewolf, the shift from human to wolf (or at least something in between) is pretty extraordinary by itself. Compared to that, enhanced regeneration doesn't sound unusual at all.

But yes, it shouldn't be absolutely instantaneous. The most I would envision it being like would be something like in Dog Soldiers, where it healed unnaturally fast, but still over the course of a few hours. Any faster than that might be stretching too far into the hyper-romanticized Twilight zone.

[Scott Gardener]

I do picture unwanted human hair tending to show up upon resuming a human form in the first few shifts. That explains the joined eyebrows thing, and it also means that women who prefer to shave their legs will be kept busy.

[Moonraiser]

Yeah, I agree with Scott and Terastas on this. Werewolves would have the ability to heal exceptionally fast, but not so fast you can't even see it happening. My personal opinion on this is that it all depends on what has happened to said werewolf. If he say...got a paper cut. well that would heal almost instantaneously seeing as that is no major wound. But if a werewolf was sliced with a knife, that would take about an hour to two hours but again, it all depends on the type of wound and how bad it is.

In the case of fur regrowing, I agree with Terastas and Scott again. If you shaved a werewolf, he (Or she) would either have to wait for the hair to grow back at a normal rate, or shift to their human form and back again to regrow their hair as quick as possible. That really is the only way to do it.

One last word...Whoever the person is that is going mad with the electric razor needs to be captured and taught a lesson.

[Morkulv]

I don't think werewolves should heal instantly to begin with.

Wolves don't have this ability, and humans don't have this ability, so I don't see why a cross between both mammals would be any different.

Well not instantly, but still more quickly than either counterpart.

Don't forget that the core of what defines a werewolf, the shift from human to wolf (or at least something in between) is pretty extraordinary by itself. Compared to that, enhanced regeneration doesn't sound unusual at all.

But yes, it shouldn't be absolutely instantaneous. The most I would envision it being like would be something like in Dog Soldiers, where it healed unnaturally fast, but still over the course of a few hours. Any faster than that might be stretching too far into the hyper-romanticized Twilight zone.

Sure I understand that a werewolf is a unusual story to begin with, but I don't see what makes extraordinary healing abilities so important for a werewolf, and why they would have it in the first place.

I think its another one of those additions that Hollywood created to the whole werewolf-myths, just like the silver bullet story.

[Terastas]

I don't see what makes extraordinary healing abilities so important for a werewolf, and why they would have it in the first place.

To better the werewolf's chances of surviving the shifting process.

It's the one thing almost all werewolf movies can agree upon: shifting hurts like [expletive]. A werewolf would therefore have to have at least an increased tolerance for pain to be able to endure what they go through on a day to day basis.

[Temperance]

-nods head- One one looks at the anatomy of wolves and humans both, all the basic stuff is there, but wolves lack certain bones (namely the collar bone) and also have several tendons and sets of muscles that humans don't, and vice versa. To switch from one for to another, basic anatomical structures would get in the way of many muscles and tendons being placed where they would need to be in order for even basic movements to be attained. This being said, it goes without saying that the only real way for the "shift" to happen would be for those tendons and muscles to tear, and heal back in the appropriate place.

Try to think of a broken nose. If we break it, it will grow back willy nilly unless someone who knows what they are doing sets it right, and it's put in a cast. If not, when it heals, it's shape could be drastically different then the one it held before.

So, for the transformation, rapid regeneration is an absolute must, unless one wants to be curled on the ground helpless, defenseless and utter pray for hours, day, weeks. And that just brings up much more questions than it answers . . .

If such rapid regen can happen during the shift, why not all the time? Why would such extreme and advanced healing only happen during those moments? And what about human forms? Sure, the body shape is different, but the ultimate and general spectrum of the person's biochemistry would remain unaltered, including one's metabolism rate. Would a werewolf, no matter their form, be able to heal quickly, and if they could, how would this affect their ability to remain under the radar? How would they find enough energy (mainly in the form of food?) to feed that regen? Seems tricky XD I have to say, if the skeptics are ever proven wrong, and werewolves do come to light (if they even exist in the first place) the hand that created them has a far better head on him then I do!

[Wingman]

If such rapid regen can happen during the shift, why not all the time? Why would such extreme and advanced healing only happen during those moments? And what about human forms? Sure, the body shape is different, but the ultimate and general spectrum of the person's biochemistry would remain unaltered, including one's metabolism rate. Would a werewolf, no matter their form, be able to heal quickly, and if they could, how would this affect their ability to remain under the radar? How would they find enough energy (mainly in the form of food?) to feed that regen? Seems tricky XD I have to say, if the skeptics are ever proven wrong, and werewolves do come to light (if they even exist in the first place) the hand that created them has a far better head on him then I do!

One short story I read required the werewolves to eat something absurd like 25,000 calories daily in order to maintain themselves. Going by my calculations you would need to rig up some sort of feed bag and wear it at all times.

[JoshuaMadoc]

If such rapid regen can happen during the shift, why not all the time? Why would such extreme and advanced healing only happen during those moments? And what about human forms? Sure, the body shape is different, but the ultimate and general spectrum of the person's biochemistry would remain unaltered, including one's metabolism rate. Would a werewolf, no matter their form, be able to heal quickly, and if they could, how would this affect their ability to remain under the radar? How would they find enough energy (mainly in the form of food?) to feed that regen? Seems tricky XD I have to say, if the skeptics are ever proven wrong, and werewolves do come to light (if they even exist in the first place) the hand that created them has a far better head on him then I do!

One short story I read required the werewolves to eat something absurd like 25,000 calories daily in order to maintain themselves. Going by my calculations you would need to rig up some sort of feed bag and wear it at all times.

God help you if Obelix gets infected.

[Sharfan]

Going by my philosophy on how werewolves work, I would have to lean towards yes. My werewolves' fur, when they shift, grows to a certain length, depending on the environmental. So, I would venture to guess, whenever the equilibrium is upset, the fur would immediately correct itself. This is just my take on it. Another option would lie in the fact that hair growth and skin cell division are handled completely differently. While their body cells may divide rapidly, that does not mean that their hair would grow fast as well. As I said though, the whole idea is open to interpretation, so there is no singular fact that must be completely accepted.