Although Axew are far from the tiniest of pokemon, they are nonetheless capable of nesting in human hair, provided their trainer or victim wears the long, thick style they favor as a perch. Axew trainers will often grow their hair out to keep their pokemon happy, as will prospective trainers in hopes of luring one for capture, while others will cut it short for fear of encountering an unwanted pokemon in their hair. This is possible because Axew are so light they are often carried unnoticed, and because human hair has a surprisingly remarkable tensile strength.

The Axew, arboreal by nature, do not consider hair their primary habitat, but find that human rides can bring them long distances which they struggle to independently navigate. Axew were domesticated long before poke balls, for although they can subsist on the many insects which buzz around humans, it compares poorly to their typical diet. Humans learned to keep certain Axew around by rewarding them with extra food in exchange for tricks, and put them to use in roles ranging from natural combs to digging up weeds and harvesting crops with their tusks. As the friendliest dragon-type pokemon to Man, with resistances to countless common pokemon, Axew also became popular in the earliest of pokemon battles.

With sufficient experience from battle, they learned to evolve into Fraxure, a form which left them far too large to ride around in a person's hair. Some of these pre-poke ball Fraxure returned to the wild, but others had grown too fond of humanity, even in the absence of hair rides. An Axew which does not battle will rarely evolve in human presence, for even should they stay with one person their whole life, they age so slowly that their mount will go bald before they become Fraxure.