Ok, not so much a quiz as a single silly question. Result of thinking too much in the car.
Driving to work this morning, I was giving a friend a lift. She is Chinese with waist length jet black hair. I used to have more or less the same style just a couple of years ago.
But why was I able to? Why does human head hair grow continuously? We apparently, according to some websites, share 99% of our genes with chimpanzees and gorillas. They do not seem to have any need for scissors, shampoo and hairdressers. Neither do any other creatures I can think of at the moment…sheep?
So, in our natural state, before the ipod was invented, what was our head hair for? To keep us warm? Enable us to have a neck scarf? camouflage? Surely it would not have been a great evolutionary advantage to look like an ageing rock star whilst hunting woolly mammoths, trying to keep the hair from obscuring our vision. And I am sure that hitting the beast over the head with the guitar would have had little effect on its immediate availability as breakfast.
Would hair, without the constant attention of the modern hairdresser, have continually broken off at a “convenient” length?
What is the genetics/evolutionary reason behind human hair growth? Why are we able to grow it so long?
I think you’ll find it’s the same with finger nails.
But having recently been reading about evolutionary stuff, I find it a really interesting question. I would assume that it once had some adaptive advantage. Since it is only facial hair that does this (I have tried to grow my leg hair that long but with no success) maybe it’s something to do with protecting the brain.
In some animals, the equivalent of fingernails would be claws, which obviously wear down with use. But dogs that live in houses need to have them clipped every so often.
I haven’t really got much idea about the hair question, one guess I would make is that animals moult when their hair is too long/thick.
I think humans having hair on their heads would provide an evolutionary advantage because it helps keep us warm. I usually get my hair cut very short about once a month, in winter when it’s just been done I certainly feel the difference!
well, we’ve been having our hair cut since we were born, maybe thats made us adapt to need haircuts to control our hair…doesn’t it take a long time before a baby needs its first haircut?
why did we loose the wonderful hair that covered the body of our furry ancestors? why did we loose a tail?
it would have been an evolutionary advantage to grasp our saddle post with our tail!
Different species do have different characteristics.
Gnawing animals such as beavers and rats have teeth that grow continuously. They have to gnaw to wear their teeth down. Sharks have teeth that shed and get replaced throughout their lives.
I think poodles have hair that keeps growing. The length of hair may have something to do with how long it stays attached to the body before it falls out (sheds?) then re-grows.
I have seen some men in the locker room (not that I was looking mind you) who could certainly pass for chimpazees or bears.
One of the oddest/strangest hair events I have ever seen was a man who did not trim his nose hairs. His nose hairs were so long they were growing down into his mustach. It was actually rather disgusting.
“The cells that make the hairs on your arms are programmed to stop growing every couple of months, so the hair on your arms stays short. The hair follicles on your head, on the other hand, are programmed to let hair grow for years at a time, so the hair can grow very long.”
They almost said the ‘d’ word.
I’m guessing that an evolutionary explanation might consider long hair a side effect of another more important trait.
