Through time humans bacame hairless, but?

Question

Losing our hair benefit us in what way?? Why do we still have hair on top of our heads and our pubic area???

Answer 1

we still have hair all over our bodies... its just a reduction due to humans walking up right. Just like eyelashes and nose hair it keep harmful items away from sensetive areas like the top of the head and lower half... yeah i know ur going to say what about lice... well there were natural methods used to keep them at bay.

Answer 2

with out commonly supported evidence and as yet unfound fossil evidence this is just a theory.

i beleave a possable aqatic stage in our evolution or a branch that may have bread with other races.

we have paddels for feet littel hair in most races and my favorate  our noses.

our nose gives us many advantages in water over eny other primate, apes have lived in rain forists since forever and none has evolved a slightly simler nose ,so its not to just keep the rain out of you head.

forward facing nostrals would suck if u up to your eye balls in water all day hunting crabs all day in a mangrove forist.

and i would think it would be pain full for eny other primate to dive face first in to water.

if you think and study enuff you know science theory abound on all subjects, there is so much to still be descoverd.

eny theory you your self can come up with is just as valid as eny a so called expert can come up with.

and fun.

Answer 3

It's been awhile since I've read much of the literature on this, but there was considerable anthropological work done on this issue in the 1960's and 1970's.

Anyway, the general consensus is that evaporative cooling (sweating) only works well if you aren't really hairy.  So as far as body hair goes, generally we'd do better in a Savanna environment without hair.  

As to the tops of our heads... at least three entertaining possibilities that I recall.  First, our heads would be more exposed to sunlight than any other part of our body and thus are subject to burns (ask any bald guy).  Hair protects skin from burns, and so retaining scalp hair would be beneficial that way.  I believe there was some good circumstantial evidence that supported this idea in the 70's... Some one measured hair density on bodies and concluded that shoulders and backs were essentially second for hairiness among peoples in relatively warm climates.  Anyway, fun hypothesis for head hair had to do with giving babies something to hang on to while riding on mom or dad's back.  This is a bit far fetched today, but might not've been 500,000 years ago or so, in which case our hair is simply a retention of a primitive trait.  Last but not least... there's always the catch-all "sexual selection" hypothesis (one gender strongly preferred hair on the head, and thus the rest of us are stuck with it).

As to the pubic hair issue... It's also been discussed a lot, and I think it's one of thos multifactorial problems.  That is... there are several right answers.  Certainly pubic hair (and armpit hair, etc.) provides some dry lubrication at the joints.  Good deal for long distance walkers like us.  But it also retains odors better than without, which might benefit ovulation concealing (mostly) females by disguising the subconscious signals of ovulation brought about by pheromones.  As hard as it is to believe in Western societies, there's a plethora of research that shows that men and women both prefer members of the opposite s*x who are a little... what's the word?  ...odiferous.

If you're looking for other, related things to research, we're also more oily than other mammals (sebaceous glands occur at high densities), certainly more sweaty, and we have a relatively strong obsession with personal grooming.

Answer 4

Its absolutely up to women. If they liked hairless men then the hairy one would die out without procreating. The key is when men have kids. Thats why though women dont really like balding men the men however do become bald. Thats because balding men already passed on their genes bofore he started balding and so werent weeded out. Its about time we chose our mates after looking at the long term survival of our kids, that includes checking out the spouses parents and grandparents...

Answer 5

Because that's the way we were MADE!