Ashley has had hair changes on his testicles from that age and I was concerned, but he was checked over and apparently this is normal.  As long as the hair is fine and downy and not the thicker terminal type of hair then it should be ok. 

Hair changes as we progress into puberty and goes through changes in texture and density.  You will notice that the lanugo hair (also known as Primary Hair---fine downy hair) on a baby on the head is there, but their body hair is unnoticeable in some cases (except if they are dark haired or born really early of course but that does drop off) and then as they approach 2-3 yrs, the hair on their head changes to a thicker denser hair which is called Vellus hair (Secondary hair) and you will see a change in body hair also at that time.  In fair haired kids it tends to look very fair and short, but if you loo carefully you can see it on their arms and legs etc.  Then as they get a little older at around aged 6-7 their hair changes again and is more like the texture and density of normal adult hair on their heads.  This is known as terminal hair (Tertiary hair) and it stays like that from then on out.  I would imagine that hair changes take place on the body, but the hair in the pubic area does not and should not appear until they are much older and nearer to puberty. That category of hair in the pubertal region has hair follicles that are only responsive to female hormone levels (low androgen concentration)-which would also occur in puberty I assume.  However, like I said  hair follicles are generally limited to the pubic and arm pit areas plus some hair follicles on the limbs and chest and don’t generally show change until that time. There are different tanner stages for pubic hair. 

Pre pubertally, a child should not have any obvious pigment or texture and density changes within the hair as such--it should still be fine and downy.  Ashley’s seemed to get a little longer, but it did not get any thicker or coarser or darker and the Doctor agreed that it looked ok.  The different Tanner stages can be seen at the following URL’s:

http://pediatrics.about.com/library/bltannerstages.htm

http://www.medal.org/docs_ch44/doc_ch44.12.html

http://47xxy.org/Gloss/Tanner.htm

Also, here is some more in depth information about the different stages or types of hair at this site:

http://www.keratin.com/aa/aa013.shtml