Why don't women have hair on their chest?

Question

Let's not get technical here -- I know that women will pluck hair from around their nipples and that they will have a trail of hair from their belly button south, but they certainly don't have it like men do. What was the evolutionary reason why women lost chest hair?

Answer 1

Interfers with breast feeding.

One of the best stimulators for a good feeding is skin to skin contact.   Otherwise the baby is too likely to get sleepy after a short feeding.   Also, all you have to do is suck a hairy skin surface and a smooth one to know which is more pleasant.

Answer 2

dont know

Answer 3

Because it would disguise our cleavage, and the Goddess wouldn't want that.

;-)

Answer 4

Our ancestors didn't think the hairy women were hot, and only had sechs with the not-so hairy women. Then the hair women eventually died out and none of their genes got passed on.

Or they have less testosterone.

Answer 5

dont know, but be thankful...imagine a woman with a hairy chest like the guy in a 40-year old virgin lol

Answer 6

Because women are naturally warm people and so they don't need the extra insulation.

To be honest I don't know but I think that would be quite a fine explanation.

x

Answer 7

men are more hairy than women because of their differant physiology.

men have testosteron as masculin hormone and this hormone is the main cause of hair gross,muscles formation,and  maturation of sexaul organs....

while for women they have much more less testosterone that's why they have less hair

Answer 8

usually women don't have chest hair... except your mom

Answer 9

Hair grouth is promoted by testosterone. Women don't have very much.

Answer 10

men have more testosterone which makes them harrier too bad we don't have a little less even so we wouldn't have to shave under our arms or our legs

Answer 11

fabbyfuz got it right. The hairy women just died out before passing on their genes.

Answer 12

maybe because if women had chest hair it would just be plain disgusting!

Answer 13

well it is one way in the days when humans were first starting out to determine the male and female in the species

Answer 14

I don't know. I don't believe in evolution but there are some hairy women with chemical imbalances though.

Besides, we all have hair all over our bodies; in some areas we have it thicker and in others we have it thinner.

Don't forget that not all men have "hairy" chests. Everyone's level of testosterone determines the amount of thicker hair on their body. There are some people that may have thin hair on their heads but thicker hair in other places. There are also people with hypertrichosis; they have excessive hair everywhere. http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id...

Who knows?

Answer 15

So have you ever noticed how women look more like children than men do?  You know... larger eyes relative to their face, smoother, rounder foreheads, smaller noses, and so on.  Sure there are exceptions, but generally this is the case.  Anyway, the scientific term for it is paedomorphy., which translates to "child form."

So what's gone on here is that males have "selected" for relatively juvenile looking women.  That is... we prefer them that way.  Who knows why...?  Some people have argued that it's because it stimulates the parts of our brains that cause us to want to take care of juveniles (children).  So women benefit if they look relatively juvenile, because males are then more eager to care for them (provide food, protection, etc.).

So here's the bit about hair...  If you're selecting for juvenile traits (like facial features), then you're going to get them in females that reach sexual maturity relatively early.  ...that is, that stop growing before acquiring relatively male-looking foreheads and so on.  And since body hair (and in particular chest hair) develops rather late in sexual maturity, then the absence of chest hair in females can be simply a byproduct of selection for facial features.

In other words... no reason necessarily, just a byproduct of other things.  Alternatively, it could reasonably be that chest hair sends a strong signal of maturity (lack of juvenile status), and thus is acted on directly by males as well.