Why did homo sapiens become almost bald creatures as they evolved? And eventually will we be completely bald?

Question

I know that some say it was used to keep warm, but why then why do the inuits have virtually no bodily or facial hair?

Answer 1

I've heard it claimed that we became less hairy because (among other reasons) it made us better swimmers.

Answer 2

You have to think in terms of evolution....and who leaves the most offspring. For some reason we were selected for non-hairiness and I think when we figured out how to make clothes there was little selective pressure anymore one way or the other. I assume that Inuits only colonized the extreme north long after people started wearing clothes. I see no reason evolution would favor that bald people would now leave more offspring....but that is how evolution works. It does not have a course of evolution towards bigger heads or less hair or any such thing. Evolution only works on natural variation in response to some selection pressure. In fact, I suspect with modern medicine we are now largely outside much of the evolutionary pressure that made us who we are.

Answer 3

The less hair you have, the less parasites you carry, such as lice, nits, fleas etc. Inuits, by their normal, pre-industrial lifestyle, would have had to be covered most of the time. Any bites etc, caused by the parasites would have more chance of going untreated and become infected. In children, this could easily have led to death if untreated. Any people that were less hairy had a clear advantage to reproduce, either from natural selection (less likely to die) of from sexual selection (mate chosen due to less body hair). Over many generations, this leads to an overall decrease in body hair.
Hair on the scalp is required as insulation against heat loss, more important than a fleas, so it remained.

Answer 4

apart from climatic changes, changes in patterns of behaviour may have also played a role - maybe thick hair served, to some extent, as a source of protection for the underlying skin due to constant contact and exposure to abrasive bushes and thorny plants etc. As homo sapiens reduced their exposure to such environmental elements over time, the thick hair coating became less of a necessity, and so was phased out.

~PhoeniX~

Answer 5

can we become completely bald? sure....we will, i doubt it, think of a person with no hair, no eyebrows, pubic hair, any hair, would you mate with them? most wouldnt, no offence to hairless people, but until hairless becomes more attractive or is seen to give the hairless a desirable advantage in life, then no i dont see humans going hairless

Answer 6

as we evolved from what, you are assuming we used to have more hair than now, maybe we used to be less hairy as a general rule than we are now

Answer 7

uh, because they wear clothes