Hairless Apes

[Doctor Fate]

Yeah, that is basically what we are. Better hope we don't get another ice age, because we'll be screwed if we refuse to bundle up, being so naked and all.

Why are humans virtually hairless, anyway? Obviously that probably stemmed from natural selection because body hair is considered unattractive, but why? Why is hair unattractive, with the grand exception of head and eyebrow hair?

Also, why do we have so darn much hair on heads but nowhere else?? Human head hair grows longer than the hair of any other creature on Earth, yet we're otherwise pretty much hairless. That's so weird why is this?

Also, why is specifically female body hair that is considered unattractive? :(

[Sage]

Clothes.

[INFERNO]

Why are humans virtually hairless, anyway? Obviously that probably stemmed from natural selection because body hair is considered unattractive, but why? Why is hair unattractive, with the grand exception of head and eyebrow hair?

I'm not sure why it's unattractive. I find it unattractive in certain places to certain extents and I really don't know why I do. With sweat glands on our skin, we're able to perspire and we can get the feeling of "coolness" (not in the sense of being socially cool, just having the body feel cooler). However, this is harder to do when you have a pile of thick hair in the way. In order to go to various environments and be thermoregulators, having a reduced ability to regulate body temperature to cool ourselves impairs us tremendously. It's easier to have less body hair but to use shelter as a means of heating ourselves. With increased intelligence and the ability to harness fire and other methods of heating ourselves when we need to (i.e. fur coats), having our own fur layer is redundant and only serves to be harmful.

Hair on the head is useful because to regulate temperature, one of the areas to control within very strict limits is the head as things such as pituitary gland, hypothalamus and such are in the head.

Having very reduced hair on the arms allows for it to circulate air and to trap some air near the skin level. Having too much hair prevents this.


Also, why is specifically female body hair that is considered unattractive? :(

I'm going to give a roundabout answer to this. Females are neotenous in that they retain more juvenille characteristics. Compare how a female face and head look relative to a child's or infant's head and face. It's very similar. Adult males is different though as it seems to be more worn down and roughened (i.e. hunter-gatherer roles).

However, female body hair isn't always considered unattractive. Asians, especially Chinese used to practice (and still may) "foot-crushing", that is, fitting an adult female foot into the shoe that a child, say, a 5-year would wear in terms of size by using bands to literally crush the foot then fit it into such a tiny shoe that would allow for no expansion by the foot. As the foot would naturally grow, it would get crushed and have the bones broken while crushed, then jammed into the shoes. Extremely painful and is torture. However, it gave high status because it would be considered so sexually arousing by many males.

So not all people find certain features unattractive. To Western society, that crushed, tortured and distorted foot would be unattractive as it would to many Asians, however, some people fancy that. It's culture-specific and requires cross-cultural psychology (currently taking it as a third-year psychology course). It's fairly new and so far, is hard to give any explanations for why some people like certain features while others don't.

[ltimm]

The reason why we're hairless is because our cooling system requires that we have lesser amounts of hair. We sweat water. Water sticks to hair; therefore, making it hotter underneath it and causing us to overheat. Other animals sweat oils that slide of of fur.

The reason other primates have an ornate amount of hair is because, well obviously, they're not as developed as we are; thus, our cooling system would be more advanced also.

[Obscene Eyedeas]

development of clothes meant hair was nt needed through evolution. whether it is nice r nt on females is opinion

[ltimm]

And where is the evidence? May i ask. There is actually evidence for my theory!