# Why did humans evolve long hair? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 12, 2002, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176 "2002-04-12T04:20:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/1 "2002-04-12T04:20:25Z")
Hi, I’m not attacking the theory of evolution - I’m not a creationist any more. Anyway, people’s body hair is generally thinner and less pigmented than apes body hair. But what about head hair? What is the survival advantage of having some hair that is about 90cm in length? And some people have extremely thick head-hear - they would have an “afro” if they let it grow freely. Did it evolve to make males or females appear more attractive? Well I guess females do appear more attractive with long hair than with ape-like hair… though that doesn’t explain why males have long hair as well. ---
**Author:** ![Stinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@Stinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stinky)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/2 "2002-04-12T04:46:57Z")
I saw show about human evolution on Discovery that said when we started walking upright we lost our body hair to cool us down better but kept our head hair to protect our heads from the sun. ---
**Author:** ![nani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58956e/32.png) [@nani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nani)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/3 "2002-04-12T04:51:31Z")
It started as just a little mutation, but when nature tried to change it back, she COULDN’T, because they looked to _fantastic!_ I am not really sure, it could be because since we lose a lot of heat through our head, we required more hair to keep us warm. Or it could have been religious. ;j _Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair…_ ---
**Author:** ![Mephisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/4 "2002-04-12T07:04:48Z")
Someone brought this up before, but I guess that was one of the threads that disappeared in the Great Hacking Incident. Anyway, in addition to the aforementioned protective functions, what we came up with was something like, “Hello, look at my long beautiful hair, proof that I manage to consume lots of nutritious food in this hostile environment, God what genes I have, come mate with me!” An over-simplification, but not by much. I wonder if we start going bald and/or gray because at that point most of us are around the age when creating offspring would be more likely to have birth defects of one kind or another? Just a thought. ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/5 "2002-04-12T09:40:44Z")
quick google yields [http://www.keratin.com/aa/aa004.shtml](http://www.keratin.com/aa/aa004.shtml) ([keratin.com](http://keratin.com)?) ---
**Author:** ![Futile\_Gesture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Futile\_Gesture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Futile_Gesture)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/6 "2002-04-12T10:22:17Z")
**Mephisto** has it. Long hair is a hassle if you are struggling against nature to survive. It gets in the way. It hides nits and other infections. It requires nutrients if it’s not going to look disgusting or fall out. So if you have beautiful long hair you must be doing well for yourself, whether through youth, health, genes, environment, status or whatever. An ideal mate. The idea arose from study of the evolution of the birds of paradise in Papua New Guinea. They are an extreme example. The colours and feathers these birds have would, you’d think, be a distinct disadvantage to survival. Yet for some reason rather than being evolved out, they had got ever more elaborate and ridiculous. This was particularly the case with male birds. It was concluded that these features survived and thrived because it allowed the male birds to show off and attract mates. What they were saying by bearing these colours and feathers was “Look how strong and healthy I am. Despite having all the overheads of maintaining all these fine feathers and standing out in the jungle to all preditors like a beacon, I am here and in fine fettle. Mate with me and you will have top-notch offspring.” Things are a _little_ more involved and complex in human behaviour and evolution, but long hair works in much the same way. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/7 "2002-04-12T10:29:49Z")
If you don’t comb and wash your hair, doesn’t it soon form dreadlocks and pretty much stop growing? In pre-comb times (when we did most of our evolution) I don’t think people had long and flowing hair, even if they were in good health. Also, what about blacks? Their hair in it’s natural state doesn’t get long like that. It basically just provides some cushioning for the head and helps to radiate heat. I think humans probably started off with hair much like modern blacks, since we evolved in Africa. Some of us migrated to colder climates where straighter hair was an advantage as it was better at trapping heat and keeping your head warm (VERY important, we lose a large percentage of our body head through our heads). ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/8 "2002-04-12T11:17:12Z")
ok… Well what about beards then…? They can also grow to long lengths, like head-hair. And they can get in the way of your mouth if you have a curly beard and irritate your lips (until your skin gets used to it). It would be a sign that the male has hit puberty of course, and there are other signs like armpit hair and pubic hair. What is the survival advantage of arm-pit hair? And chest hair? Stinky: > [@](#): > > I saw show about human evolution on Discovery that said when we started walking upright we lost our body hair to cool us down better but kept our head hair to protect our heads from the sun. Well many animals, like camels, seem to have quite thick hair and yet they don’t have much trouble coping with a lot of heat. And a full head of hair is a lot of extra baggage. It grows to about 90cm so it would weigh quite a bit. And if you look at blacks on documentaries, you’d see that they cut their hair super-short… I think this keeps them much cooler. (Thick head hair just traps heat I think). Anyway, they do fine without 90cm long hair and by looking at them you’d never know that they are capable of growing long hair. In the Islands they grow their hair longer and they grow it the longest where people have thin hair (American Indians, etc) - well something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Mephisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/9 "2002-04-12T11:37:55Z")
Obviously **Badtz Maru** never saw _Clan of the Cave Bear_. 🙂 Seriously though, **Badtz Maru** has some very good points. However, I still suspect that the mating aspect has more to do with our long hair than anything else, mostly for the reasons **Futile Gesture** mentioned. I imagine that we’ve been grooming ourselves for longer than most people think. And even before the days of the comb, we might have tried to pick the snarls out with our fingers. I know monkeys and some other apes have something akin to grooming behavior, although in their case I think it’s more a matter of picking tasty little bugs out of their hair. Regarding the comment about early African humans having kinky hair like modern black people–why? I’m not being argumentative (at least not on purpose), but am seriously interested. The other primates, as well most modern human ethnic groups, have straighter hair. Couldn’t kinky hair have appeared on African heads after we started moving into other parts of the world? It’s too late for me look up any evolutionary charts or early human migratory maps in an attempt to figure this out (and perhaps disprove my idea), but I don’t see why the first humans necessarily looked like the majority modern Sub-Saharan Africans. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/10 "2002-04-12T11:39:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Badtz Maru \* > **If you don’t comb and wash your hair, doesn’t it soon form dreadlocks and pretty much stop growing?** Yeah, it naturally forms dreadlocks though I don’t think it stops growing. I’ve seen people with quite long dreadlocks and I think those with shorter dreadlocks haven’t been growing their hair for long or have trimmed it. > [@](#): > > **In pre-comb times (when we did most of our evolution) I don’t think people had long and flowing hair, even if they were in good health.** Well maybe using your fingers makes a fairly good comb. And apparently homonids have been using stone-age tools for about 2 or 2.5 million years… > [@](#): > > **Also, what about blacks? Their hair in it’s natural state doesn’t get long like that.** Those in Africa would cut their hair - probably because it is too hot and hard to maintain. (Water is often scarce) I mean the hair of African Americans grows long if it isn’t cut and their ancestors lived in Africa a few centuries ago. > [@](#): > > **It basically just provides some cushioning for the head and helps to radiate heat.** Yeah it can be a pretty good cushion but I think it just absorbs heat… I mean people I’ve known with long hair often complain about the heat and then have their hair cut short. And I’ve had longish thick hair and have been almost bald in hot weather and it is better being bald… the sweat can evaporate on the skin and I can feel breezes straight-away. Shortish hair (like many Africans have as well as animals who live in hot weather) would radiate heat, but not long hair. I mean in Australia all the mammals have fur even though many of them live in very hot harsh environments. ---
**Author:** ![sghoul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@sghoul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sghoul)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/11 "2002-04-12T12:10:50Z")
I think you are all looking at it wrong. Not every trait that an organism has HAS to be benificial. We only loose traits if they somehome impeed passing on that gene. Changes don’t occur to “help us” or for some purpose. They just happen. If the organism that has that change is able to reproduce, regardless of whether the trait is good or bad, then the trait may survive. Long hair very well could have been a mutation that didn’t help us at all, but was very dominant genetically, so it spread fast. Evolution doesn’t always only make “the strongest” survive. Look at panda bears. They are built to do one thing. Eat Bamboo…BUT bamboo isn’t very nutritious to them, so they eat it all day. if a virus came in and killed all the bamboo…dead pandas. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/12 "2002-04-12T13:50:56Z")
**Cecil Adams** on [How does body hair know it’s been cut and grow back?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_097b.html) > [@](#): > > OK, you say, but why does head hair grow to great length whereas body hair doesn’t? Nobody knows exactly, but some anthropologists believe the purpose of long head hair is to give you something to tie ribbons in. No kidding. Quoth one, “the functional significance of long head hair is almost certainly adornment, providing for the `sexual selection’ that Darwin correctly argued was a potent factor in the evolutionary process.” > > In other words, when you drop sixty bucks at the beauty parlor, don’t feel guilty–you’re helping to advance the species. ---
**Author:** ![Morgainelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Morgainelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgainelf)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/13 "2002-04-12T13:59:39Z")
Theory 1: We used to live in trees (picture Tarzan). Kids were likely to fall since they’d lost their prehensile tails. Long hair provided a great means for Moms to snatch their kids out of mid-air as they fell. Theory 2: We used to live in the water (so says the Aquatic Ape Theory). Kids would start to drown because they’d lost their webbed feet. Moms would use the long hair to snatch them up out of the water. ::ducks and runs:: ---
**Author:** ![Kamandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5daacb/32.png) [@Kamandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamandi)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/14 "2002-04-12T18:10:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Badtz Maru \* > **In pre-comb times (when we did most of our evolution) I don’t think people had long and flowing hair, even if they were in good health.** My hair’s about two feet long, and very curly. I haven’t used a comb or brush (or hairdryer) on it in five years. I just use my fingers. No knots, no dreadlocks, just long, thick, beautiful hair. The babes love it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/15 "2002-04-12T20:15:54Z")
I was gonna add a nitpick, but I see **sghoul** beat me to it. Still, it bears repeating, because it’s gone otherwise unremarked in the thread. Evolutionarily speaking, just because a trait exists doesn’t mean there has to be a reason _for_ it. There just has to be a lack of a reason _against_ it. Male pattern baldness in humans, for example. If you buy that it makes the sufferer unattractive and less likely to reproduce (which is by no means a certainty), you may wonder why it arose in the first place. But if you notice that most men have reproduced by the time the baldness becomes really noticeable, then you realize that it provides no barrier to reproduction, and that therefore there’s no reason it should be selected against. So even though the comparison to the bird of paradise is valid, it isn’t _necessarily_ the case that long hair in humans serves and is reinforced by a positive evolutionary purpose. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2002, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/16 "2002-04-12T22:05:58Z")
Elaborate facial and head hair and other facial adornments are typical of many primates, not just humans. Most likely these characteristics are there because they assist in species and individual recognition, or function in sexual selection. Human head hair is probably no different. Check out some of these: [Emperor Marmoset](http://www.lpzoo.com/tour/factsheets/mammals/emp_tamarin.html) [Golden Lion Tamarin](http://www.zooregon.org/cards/Primates/tamarin.golden.lion.htm) [Mandrill](http://www.lpzoo.com/tour/factsheets/mammals/emp_tamarin.html) [Guenons](http://www.mindysmem.org/guenon.html) [Orangutan](http://michaelnicknichols.com/gallery/planet_apes/7/) ---
**Author:** ![Cheswolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5daacb/32.png) [@Cheswolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheswolf)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2002, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/17 "2002-04-13T01:52:43Z")
> [@](#): > > Colibri > [Golden Lion Tamarin](http://www.zooregon.org/cards/Primates/tamarin.golden.lion.htm) Thank you, that is the funniest critter I have seen in a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Ahrramin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7c8e57/32.png) [@Ahrramin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ahrramin)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/18 "2014-01-21T15:53:08Z")
I signed up to post this. I am a caucasian man and I lived out in the woods for several years during which I didn’t cut my hair and only washed with lake water, didn’t brush my hair and it grew perfectly straight and un-knotted. I massaged my scalp regularly and ran my fingers through my hair to spread the oil around. Dreadlocks and knots actually appear actually caused _by_ washing with hot water and/or soap. Since my hair has the natural oils it doesn’t knot up at all. When I came away from living in the woods to work on a farm instead, at first I would wash my hair with warm water, and very quickly it started knotting and snapping, and lost its sheen and colour. It was quite upsetting for me. The hair also became loose/separated and got in my eyes and stuff, and since it snapped easily there were short bits which wouldn’t tie back. Now I just wash it with luke-warm water and keep soap away from it, and it is starting to get its colour and sheen back _very_ slowly, whilst knotting and snapping less and less. With the natural oils I expect I can synthesise vitamin D in my hair, which would be one advantage, especially since most of our skin is covered up by clothes. Furry animals synthesise vitamin D in the oils on their fur. I really have long hair just because ‘what if’: what if there is some benefit to having it which outweighs the downsides. I’ve chosen to take that gamble so far. I’m a logical, scientific person, but there has just been virtually no study into possible benefits of long hair. Since I was into the natural stuff, growing long hair seemed an appropriate thing for me to try out. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/19 "2014-01-21T17:40:11Z")
Does zombie hair continue to grow? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176/20 "2014-01-21T17:43:27Z")
> [@Morgainelf](#): > > Theory 1: We used to live in trees (picture Tarzan). Kids were likely to fall since they’d lost their prehensile tails. Long hair provided a great means for Moms to snatch their kids out of mid-air as they fell. > > Theory 2: We used to live in the water (so says the Aquatic Ape Theory). Kids would start to drown because they’d lost their webbed feet. Moms would use the long hair to snatch them up out of the water. “Aquatic Ape” is a _hypothesis_, not a Theory. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-humans-evolve-long-hair/103176.md?page=2)