Why is man the only animal whose hair keeps growing?

rightwinger

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Aug 4, 2009
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The hair on animals stops growing at a certain length. Even on their heads

The hair on a mans head and face continues to grow. But hair on arms and legs stops growing.

Did prehistoric man have hair down to his knees?
 
The hair on animals stops growing at a certain length. Even on their heads

The hair on a mans head and face continues to grow. But hair on arms and legs stops growing.

Did prehistoric man have hair down to his knees?

Horses manes and tails continue to grow. If I thought about I am pretty sure I could come up with other examples. But I had a long night.
 
Dear rightwinger, could you do me a solid and tell that to a patch I have on the back of my head.

TIA


Oh, and btw -- my ears and eyebrows need no such encouragement.
 
Blacks hair is black, crispy, and “woolly” in texture, it is flat and elliptical with no central canal or duct like the hair of Europeans.
 
poodle hair keeps growing

same with sheep


aside from that, good question. we were created with the need to kill animals for their hides just to survive.

So how did we kill animals with tools and take their hide?
 
poodle hair keeps growing

same with sheep


aside from that, good question. we were created with the need to kill animals for their hides just to survive.

So how did we kill animals with tools and take their hide?

I don't see the selective breeding advantages of having hair and beards to your waist.

Primitive man would not have had access to scissors or sharp knives to cut off excessive hair
Maybe pounding between rocks or burning off extremely long hair
But I dont see an advantage to it
 
Hair, or fur, has a growing cycle. After which it falls out and a new hair arises.

Hair, or fur, doesn't grow forever. Hair on your body has different growing cycles. Hair on the head tends to have a longer cycle. Sometimes very long, and sometimes very short. It can be different than the growing cycle under your pits or on your private parts, or anywhere else.

I always wondered about this question as a kid. And I learned why after the vet had to shave a part of my cat's body down to the skin to treat a dog bite. The fur that was shaved grew back and was exactly the same length as all the surrounding fur within a month or two. I could not tell that it had been shaved down. I was fascinated by that.

So the reason hair or fur grows to same size in a particular part of the body, is that the follicle has a set growth cycle. After which, the hair falls out and a new one begins. Being that there are so many hairs, you never notice it when one falls out. They just always seem to be the same as a whole. But if you would look deeply, you would be able to see each hair is a little bit different.
 
Why humans have long head hair and short hair everywhere else is another thing that I always wondered about.

It could be that our ancestors were more aquatic in the past. We may have been in the water and needed to swim a lot more based on the environment. Therefore the hair on our heads would grow longer to keep our heads warm, while body hair was reduced to reduce drag while swimming. Certain hairs, like in the armpits and genitalia, stayed longer because they helped maintain and spread our scents for mating and territorial purposes.
 
Why do rabbits teeth and nails keep growing? Why do sharks have more than one set of teeth? I would imagine all of these things are related to survival in some way.

I just don't see the evolutionary advantage of having hair and beards down to your waist
It seems like it would encumber you and only provides minimal additional warmth

Man eventually found means to cut it but cavemen would have had excessively long hair
 
Why do rabbits teeth and nails keep growing? Why do sharks have more than one set of teeth? I would imagine all of these things are related to survival in some way.

I just don't see the evolutionary advantage of having hair and beards down to your waist
It seems like it would encumber you and only provides minimal additional warmth

Man eventually found means to cut it but cavemen would have had excessively long hair

Hair can actually keep you quite warm. I have long hair which is usually around my neck but whenever I wear my hair up, my neck is cold, so my hair acts kind of like a built-in scarf!
 
Why humans have long head hair and short hair everywhere else is another thing that I always wondered about.
Does it actually stop growing, or does it fall out after a time and only appear to stop growing? My cat sheds more than I do. I think that's why it APPEARS that it stops growing.
 

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