Why do we have hairs on our head?

Question

Beside for beauty and fashion, what's the purpose of hair in humans?
I realized that bald men can also live a lifetime even without a hair.
Is hair on top of the head also a vestige (a part of the body without any function) or like a dimple (it makes you "cute" but it has no sense other than that)?

Answer 1

Body heat escapes from your head, therefore to help the body maintain it's optimum body heat the head is covered in hair as an insulater. It's also there as a protector from the sun.

Answer 2

I think it is because we lose the most body heat through our head-I learned that in scuba class. .. so hair is kinda like insulation to keep some of the heat in so your body doesn't have to work too hard to maintain the correct body temperature. Since heat rises, maybe that's why? Your body (temp 98.6F) will tend to give off heat to your surroundings unless it is really hot out. If it is hotter than 98.6F, you sweat and your hair gets damp and then cools your head through a process called evaporative cooling.
Bald men can survive just fine because we humans can control the temperature of our environment (heat or cool our houses/bldgs). But a bald animal (mammal)out in the wild might be in trouble.

Answer 3

For one thing, beauty and fashion is a perfectly acceptable reason for it to have evolved, like the peacock's tail, only a bit less dramatic. Second, it does serve a minor purpose in keeping our hair warm, and yes, you could call it vestigial, except that a lot of people (myself included) look retarded without hair. That affects breeding success, which is of course bad for evolution. Also, baldness in males is vastly more common than for women; we can deduce from this, perhaps, that males are more concerned with hair in the opposite sex than females.
I would say the reason baldness has survived is because, thanks to society and innovation (in other words, hats), it no longer impacts our survival significantly.

Answer 4

Hair is natures thermal insulation . It helps maintian body temprature . With evolution and humans adoting cloths to wear, the need of hair decreased , Now only the exposed part ( head) has ample hair, and rest all body has only sparce hair.

As you wrigtly observe that hair is now only for vanity , but the functional aspect ( of keeping head warm ) is still there , Balds are OK as now humans have alternative mods of keeping warm . the warmth of rest of the body distributed to head .
Ofcource we now have caps , hats too. :)

Answer 5

the question should be why is the hair on the head the only hair on our bodys that keeps growing. I suspect its some sort of evolutionary thing to do with attractiveness

Answer 6

To serve as mulching. Like Dr. Dave said to warm up your brain, that's true in a cold climate. In the tropics it helps cool down your brain.

I hope you stop on this one, otherwise, you'll be asking why do we have hair on our thingy or on our armpit next time.

Answer 7

i like to say they are beautiful setbacks..............you brush'em, bathe'em, and take care of 'em...........what do they do in return? they break have split ends, and most of the time frizz up! and every once in a while look beautiful

Answer 8

To keep you head (brain) warm.

Answer 9

Good question.

Answer 10

cuz we can