• Question: Why do we only get alot of hair in cetain place? Eg Eyebrows ect

    Asked by ellieheron to Cat, Daz, Holly, Johnson, Pamela on 21 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Cat O'Connor

      Cat O'Connor answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Hi Ellirheron,

      What an interesting question….I hope I can answer it!

      Did you know that our skin is different on different places on our bodies? So in places that we have lots hair our skin has loads more hair follicles.

      The reason we have hair only in certain places is because all the hair has different functions. Say hair all over our body (be it a little or a lot) is all about keeping us warm. Between each piece of hair there is a little pocket of air which is working to insulate our body to keep it at about 37deg so that it keeps working properly! The hair on our eyebrows and our eyelashes is there to protect our eyes. The eyebrows are particularly good at stopping sweat going from our forehead into our eyes and our eyelashes keep dust out!

      Then the extra hair on our head and on our genitals is super special. Our body knows that these are our most important parts of our body so it wanted to make sure that these places stayed super warm!

      I hope this answered your question. Leave me a comment if you want to ask anything else about hair…not aht I am an expert but I do have very long hair 🙂

      Cat

    • Photo: Pamela Lithgow

      Pamela Lithgow answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Great answer Cat! I always thought it was because our faces would look weird if we didn’t have eyebrows!!
      But apparently we also have eyebrows for expression. We use our eyebrows to convey more with our faces! It is crazy what I am learning from answering these questions!
      Hope that adds to Cats answer
      Pam 🙂

    • Photo: Darren Braddick

      Darren Braddick answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Hi ellieheron

      Well Cat got this pretty well! I think Pams comment a lot – eyebrows are used a lot in expression! Human expression is actually a lot more complicated than many people think.. But anyway, I think its down to warmth being important, if not expression. In animals, these are the main reasons – and also consider the role in sexual attraction of animals.

      In the specific case of eyelashes, they have a very good role in protecting the eye from dust and things in the air. Otherwise, most hair is probably for warmth in humans, which is probably going to disappear with time, as humans don’t really need this anymore.

      This is partly because the world is a lot warmer than it used to be (consider the ice age), and also because we have become so intelligent that we began using tools and after that.. Well we apparently killed some animals, skinned them and wore their skin for warmth and protection. The good news is, we don’t do that anymore and use clothes instead, but the fact is, we enabled ourselves to use tools and now no longer rely on body hair to maintain warmth!

      That is why the amount has decreased so much, and it is found only in some places.

      I hope that helps!

      Daz

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