Millions of years back our ancestors were likely as hairy as chimpanzees and gorillas. Over the course of human evolution, our lineage traded its fur coat for a covering of minuscule body hairs and a few ample patches over the head, armpits and nether region.
A hairless mutation introduced into the chimpanzee/human last common ancestor (CLCA) 6 million years ago (Mya) diverged hairless human and hairy chimpanzee lineages.
Humans lost their body hair, they say, to free themselves of external parasites that infest fur -- blood-sucking lice, fleas and ticks and the diseases they spread. Once hairlessness had evolved through natural selection, Dr. Pagel and Dr.
We actually have the same density of body hair as other apes of our size, but ours is largely fine and colourless rather than thick and dark. We are coated with a layer of short, fine hair, known technically as vellus hair and colloquially as peach fuzz.
Humans are the only primate species that has mostly naked skin. Loss of fur was an adaptation to changing environmental conditions that forced our ancestors to travel longer distances for food and water.
The current evidence indicates that anatomically modern humans were naked in prehistory for at least 90,000 years before the invention of clothing.
Weiss speculates that one of the main reasons that human beings uniquely evolved a “thick bush of wiry hair” around their genital regions is its visual signaling of sexual maturation. (It also likely serves as a primitive odor trap and aids in the wafting of human pheromones.)
Neanderthals were often portrayed as hairy and brutish-looking, but examinations of their bones and, later, DNA shows that's not accurate. “They weren't actually shorter,” Smith said. “They weren't more or less hairy.
The fine hairs that cover our bodies, which have replaced the thicker ones seen on our close relatives, are thought to be an evolutionary leftover from our hairy ancestors. Now scientists find these fine hairs are useful after all — people with more of them are better at detecting bedbugs.
One of the features shared by nearly every mammal species on Earth — from antelopes to zebras, and even humans — is that their bodies are covered in structures known individually as "hairs" and collectively as "fur." Fur can be dense or sparse; soft or coarse; colorful or drab; monochromatic or patterned.
By the early 1900s, upper- and middle-class white America increasingly saw smooth skin as a marker of femininity, and female body hair as disgusting, with its removal offering "a way to separate oneself from cruder people, lower class and immigrant," Herzig wrote.
Your scalp's blood supply feeds the follicle and allows it to divide into more cells. As long as the anagen phase lasts, your hair will grow longer and longer, unless you cut or break it, at a rate of about a half-inch each month.
Despite exposing us to head lice, humans probably retained head hair for protection from the sun and to provide warmth when the air is cold. Pubic hair may have been retained for its role in enhancing pheromones or the airborne odors of sexual attraction.
The practice of removing female body hair is not new, it can be traced back to ancient Rome and Egypt. Some of the first razors, made of copper, were used in Egypt and India around 3000 BCE. Egyptian women removed their head hair and considered pubic hair uncivilized.
As you age, your body and face also lose hair. Women's remaining facial hair may get coarser, most often on the chin and around the lips. Men may grow longer and coarser eyebrow, ear, and nose hair. Contact your health care provider if you have sudden hair loss.
It reduces friction
Armpit hair prevents skin-to-skin contact when doing certain activities, such as running and walking. The same thing happens with pubic hair, as it reduces friction during sex and other activities.
Men all have roughly the same amount of testosterone. Certain genes make your hair follicles more or less sensitive to the amount of testosterone in your body. Basically, an enzyme converts testosterone into a substance that shrinks hair follicles.
Reducing friction
Armpit hair prevents skin-to-skin contact during activities that involve arm motion, such as running and walking. The same applies to pubic hair.
The main purpose of body hair is to help regulate our temperature in addition to keeping dirt out of our body (in areas such as our eyes and nostrils).
New DNA research has unexpectedly revealed that modern humans (Homo sapiens) mixed, mingled and mated with another archaic human species, the Denisovans, not once but twice—in two different regions of the ancient world.
It is quite likely that the Neanderthals had as many hair colours as modern Europeans – from blond through to dark, perhaps depending on exactly where in Europe they lived, and also based on the combination of the variants they could have had in the MCR1.
It's striking and paradoxical that half of all the Neanderthal genes in our genome play a role in determining skin and hair colour. Yet this new research shows us that Neanderthal genes have no more influence over these features than the unique human genes we carry for them.
Removing pubic hair may therefore make a person more susceptible to common infections, such as UTIs, vaginitis, and yeast infections. Hair removal can also irritate your skin, leading to skin infections such as cellulitis and folliculitis. In other cases, grooming-related injuries, such as cuts, could become infected.
Bacteria can cling to hair. In the vaginal area, that is both a good thing and a bad thing. You need your good vaginal bacteria to prevent an overgrowth of yeast, but when bacteria mix with the sweat and oil on your pubic hair, it can produce a smell.
There's no medical or hygienic reason for removing some or all of your pubic hair. But the removal process can be painful and cause many side effects, including: Genital itching, sometimes severe. Genital burns from waxing.