I was always under the impression that the auditory hairs located deep within the ear, past the ear drum, are microscopic.
After taking a shower today, I was softly padding my outer ear with some tissue paper to dry any moisture, when some wax just got attached to it. What was unusual was that there were some hairs on it (3-5 perhaps, overlapping) that were about half a centimeter in length.
Are these just regular hairs that grow in the inner/outer ear? Or are they the ones that actually aid in hearing (the ones I thought were microscopic).
My question is to verify whether or not these hair shafts I observed are used in auditory perception. Either way, are these supposed to fall off?