My ex’s physician told her to stop shaving her mons because the hair there acted as a cushion against impact during intercourse and at the time my ex was complaining of pain in her pubis.
Evolutionarily speaking perhaps females with a thick pubic “bush” could engage in more frequent sex and therefore concieve more often?
Also it seems that there is often hair in areas where the might be chafing if there were no hair there, armpits and between the legs in particular. I do notice that when I shave my groi8n in the summer (or when I used to anyhow) I would get a heat rash like effect which I have not gotten since i ceased shaving in the warmer months.
hmmm, I don’t have a cite, but I have always refused my boyfriend’s requests to shave my nether regions because it “wards of infections” (and it itches really bad when it grows back). I don’t remember where I learned the infections theory, anyone else heard this?
My off-color mexican roommate, when presented with the idea that pubic hair was for friction, raised his shirt to show off his hairy chest. “See this hair. It’s for friction, too.”
The function of pubic hair is to prevent friction when we walk – it reduces skin-on-skin chafing both by providing oils and by acting as a bearings (I’d say “ball bearings”, but you guys would lose all composure). That was a big evolutionary advantage when we were running away from lions. Pit hair serves the same purpose.
Sorry, but I was watching this, and I can’t believe that no one has thought of this yet…think as to where you grow hair, you grow hair on your head, your torso (for men), armpits and your pubic regions. Basically anywhere you have a heat source in your body. The hair is used for insulation to keep the heat in.
Unlikely. Hominids tend to move about with their arms at their sides and their legs joined at the crotch. Both provide plenty of insulation, and in fact if there were no hair at either crotch or pit I would state that the insulation level would be greater with smooth skin-to-skin contact sealed even moreso by body oils and sweat.
Maybe if we went about with our arms constantly raised up in the air and all walked bowlegged like Popeye, but as it stands your theory does not hold up.
I respectfully disagree. If you look through a heat-detecting scanner at a human body, you will see that the places on the body that produce the most heat also produce the most hair. Secondly, if you think where the major arteries and veins flow through the body, it makes sense that you would need further insulation there.
I don’t think it could be to keep the public area warm, because in men keeping it warm reduces fertility. That’s why they’re on the outside to begin with.
Please include a link to Cecil’s column if it’s on the straight dope web site.
To include a link, it can be as simple as including the web page location in thy post (make sure there is a space before and after the text of the URL).
Cecil’s column can be found on-line at the link provided by our friend Duck Duck Goose.
We grow body hair in thick patches in the precise locations where ordinary movement would result in chafing. I support this by noting that “sweat” glands are more abuntant in these areas than elsewhere on the body.
Fur+sweat=no chafing. Give yourself an “Indian Burn” on the arm and think about what you would get after just one day of walking around normally.
I’m inclinded to place things like chest hair in the “vestigal” category.
Of course, this explanation breaks down if I have to consider head and facial hair.
Having recently trimmed the bush and shaved the old funflaps and inner thighs for the first time ever, I can say that chafing/itching due to walking is a small, but noticeable difference between the fully haired up and no hair states.
I was watching the Vagina Monologues, thats on VHS & dvd now, & the lady said that pubic hair
reduces friction & protects her vagina during sex. She shaved it off once & this tested
her theory. I don’t know if Cecil does any hands on experience with these sorts of things
