Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Question of the Day
Today I find myself trying to understand why it is that the human head is the only place in the animal kingdom where hair will continue to grow if left to it's own devices. Hair on the remainder of the human body, as well as hair on every plant and animal I know of grows to a specified length and then stops. Why should the head be any different? I don't see how it serves any real biological purpose other than to allow greater individuality and to fuel the hair care industry. Don't get me wrong, in these troubling economic times, I'm not looking to put any hair stylists in the unemployment line or cripple the shampoo and gel conglomerates. But saving that few minutes of grooming time each morning would allow me extra sleep and cutting hair care expenditures from my budget would be nice. But before I get any further off track, I need answers. Keep in mind that the more scientific the explanation, the more plausible it will seem.
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2 comments:
I'm apparently a geek because I remember reading about this in an anthropology class in college. They (people who spend their lives investigating things like this) believe that it is an evolutionary thing. Since humans are pretty hairless compared to other mammals, their babies need something to hold onto. So, early humans who could grow long hair had an evolutionary advantage, passed those genes onto their young (who were hanging onto their hair) and, voila, there you go...
Hmmm, I was hoping for better than that, but I guess that will have to do. I thought the papoose had been invented long enough ago that there wasn't a need for hair to hold on to. Shows what I know.
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