Prehensile Hair

As I'm sure anyone reading this knows, our body parts move via the brain signaling the appropriate muscles to contract or expand. Now, for hair to function the way it does - its texture, malleability, etc. - it doesn't seem plausible for prehensile hair to happen with a humanoid with muscles all the way up and down every strand of hair. Plus, that would probably result in a lot of blood gushing every time you got a hair cut. So how else could prehensile hair be explained while still rooted in hard science? (Or, more generally, is it possible?)

Specifically, I'm looking for a way to not only move hair, but also to do so with enough force that the user can grab onto something with it.

EDIT: There are a ton of good answers down there. I accepted the one that worked best for me, but for anyone else who wants a go at this, that's not the only one that looks like it works.

posted about 8 years ago

System‭

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