😉 Greetings to everyone who came to this site! Friends, why does a man need hair? This question, with its seeming simplicity, is not so unambiguous. Many people think that the “vegetation” on the body is just an inheritance that we inherited in the course of evolution.
Just like the tailbone is the tail. In fact, the human hair cover, having lost its function of keeping warm, like in most animals, continues to play an important role.
What is hair for?
Biologists say that a change in a person’s hairline is associated with a change in lifestyle. With the transition to upright posture, collective hunting, social life, the hair gradually began to decrease in size.
Firstly, it made it possible to avoid overheating of the body during a long pursuit of game in the hot savannah. Four-legged predators have slightly different cooling mechanisms.
Secondly, in conditions when our primitive ancestors lived in caves and artificial buildings, the absence of thick hair helped to reduce the number of parasites – lice and fleas.
Hair functions
Nevertheless, the hair did not completely disappear, because it retained a number of important functions. They are slightly different for different types of hair on different parts of the body.
The hair on the head is designed to protect it from overheating and hypothermia. It helps keep the temperature of the brain constant. For this reason, the structure of the hair differs depending on the region.
In hot countries, people with curly and frizzy hair are more common, forming an air cushion that more effectively protects the head from heat. People with straight hair in such conditions under the scorching sun cannot do without a headdress.
Blondes inhabiting the northern regions of our planet, on average, have several tens of thousands more hairs on their heads. This provides better protection from the cold. Hair also protects the scalp from minor injuries.
Facial hair in men does not perform a special function important for health and is rather preserved only as a secondary sexual characteristic.
Eyebrows, eyelashes and more
Eyebrows protect the eyes from the ingress of water in the rain and from the sweat that flows down them towards the temples.
Eyelashes also provide protection for the eyes from dust, foreign objects, to some extent, along with eyelids – from drying out and bright light.
Why does a man need hair in his nostrils? The hairs in the nostrils and ears, which many diligently pluck, actually play an important role in keeping these organs clean. They, like filters, trap dust particles.
A special role is played by “vegetation” in the armpits and in the pubic area. It remained there quite thick and tough. In these places there are large lymph nodes, and the hairline provides them with mechanical protection.
But it is more important to maintain a constant temperature – numerous sweat glands are also involved in this.
Scientists believe that along with sweat, the skin secretes special substances – pheromones, which, without having a strong odor, affect the opposite sex and increase sexual attractiveness. They linger on the hairs, slowly evaporating into the air.
As for the hair on the rest of the body, after a person began to wear clothes, they ceased to perform an important function for life and turned into a barely noticeable fluff. In men, however, the hairline is thicker than in women, this is due to special hormones.
Although people who have thick hair on their legs and arms, as well as on their chest, have some advantage – they freeze less in winter, their skin does not burn so quickly under the sun, it is more resistant to minor injuries. Fluffy hair also plays a role in touch, since nerve fibers are located in their follicles.
So, hair covers the entire human body with two exceptions. They are not on the palms and feet, where they would only interfere and do not perform any function.
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