-- Posted by Event Horizon at 9:35 am on Jan. 9, 2009 I've recently been thinking about, well, hair. I mean, it hasn't been something that has taken over my thoughts, but every once in a while my mind begins to wonder about it. i'll tell you why [this sure would be a useless post if I didn't, huh?] All the time we see folks with extremely long hair. People with dread-locks frequently have hair down past their rear-end; as do tons of people with natural, maintained hair. The Guinness book has a position for "longest hair" bla bla bla, i think you get the point. My question is, if that is how long our hair can grow, is that how long it is meant to grow? We seem to be the only animal which has a constant regrowth of hair that can just keep growing and growing. A lions mane doesn't need trimming to keep it at a specific length. It get's as full as it can and --even if it continues to grow till death-- never reaches a point that looks silly. in fact, NO animal has hair that needs trimming --through whatever means they might do it. So what about us? If our hair can grow for yards and yards --as is evident by the world record holders-- then is that how nature intended our hair to be? Or was, for some reason, our hair designed so that it needs to be maintained and shortened? I find it difficult to believe that early man let his hair grow over 6-7 feet in length while living in the wild...So why does our hair persist on growing? I guess my only answer to myself is that the lifespan of early man was short enough that hair never reached a point of "too long" and finally man figured out how to cut it and groom it. It's just something that's been bugging me recently; thought I'd share. -- Posted by Chocolate Thunda at 9:38 am on Jan. 9, 2009 I've never really thought about it. Our pubic hair doesn't grow to long. It eventually falls out. But the hair on our head... It's strange. -- Posted by Hoebag at 9:38 am on Jan. 9, 2009 Hair is hair don't over think this, seriously, it will get on your nerves. As a certified LiveWire Intellectual I am indubitably capable of composing a more verbose post! -- Posted by Event Horizon at 9:42 am on Jan. 9, 2009 I tend to think a lot. And often, things catch my attention and i like to think as deeply as I can into them until I get fed up, or satisfied with an answer or idea. So far, it hasn't bugged me that much yet. I just think it's pretty neat just how long hair can actually grow. -- Posted by Blackadder at 5:15 am on Jan. 10, 2009 From a logical, and evolutional standpoint it makes sense that Hair should not stop growing.... Case A) We need long hair. It grows long =No problem. Case B) Long hair is a disadvantage. It grows long. We cut it. = No problem.   Case C) Long hair is advantageous. We cannot grow long hair = We are fucked.   ^ we can observe from this that case C is the only scenario in which we are fucked, and it is also the only one in which our hair does not grow.   The point I'm making is this -- an ability to grow long hair has a greater chance of being a adaptable trait (evolutionary useful) than some other individual who cannot grow hair beyond a limit. Perhaps we do not see this in the wild simply because many species lack the capacity for grooming, A polar bear might overheat with constantly growing hair and therefore this genetic trait would be short-lived.   However If it could groom itself then we can quickly note the how useful it could be, if the temperature drops, they might stay warm while others start to freeze, then as soon as the temp raises they cut the hair. (notice that this is just a real example of cases A, B, C) So in conclusion, Provided that the individual has the ability to limit excessive growth, then constant growth has a greater chance of being useful.   and so to awnser your question, I think constant hairgrowth is just an 'evolutionary safegaurd', just because it grows constantly does not mean that humans are meant to have hair of any particular length. Rather, Humans groom it so that hair allways remains at "the right length", that is, the length which allows for optimal surivival.  (nowadays it is probably more about sexual selection)     -- Posted by save the world at 2:57 pm on Jan. 10, 2009 I bet cavemen lost more of their hair than we do: they had to make their way through a forest, sometimes slept with no 'roof' over their heads, fought other animals, fought one another. And they didn't have shampoos. -- Posted by medjai at 1:06 am on Jan. 11, 2009 I am pretty sure that a lion's hair only grows past a certain point because of the lifestyle it has, the hair probably frays and breaks off. They aren't using shampoo and conditioner every day to preven split ends. If it grows absurdly long, it ends up getting removed, and most animals don't live long enough to have absurdly long hair. If you kept a lion in captivity under ideal conditions, and he lived for thirty years, his main would probably be long as fuck. -- Posted by Periwinkle at 8:39 am on Jan. 11, 2009 Human hair does have a terminal length. The 'average' terminal length is classic length (where your butt meets your thighs) because an average growth rate is 0.5" per month and the average length of time for a follicle to remain growing hair (there's a name for that but I've forgotten it) is 6 years. That works out at each hair being 36" long, which is roughly classic length on most people. However, terminal length varies wildly and is determined by your genes: that's why some people are able to grow extremely long hair. Once a hair has reached terminal length, it stays in the follicle for a while, then is naturally shed and a new hair grows. Human scalp hair just happens to have a very long terminal length. Do you ever find yourself having to trim your pubic hair because it's hanging down to your knees? I don't think so. One of the reasons that people often have little wispy hairs round their hairline and on their neck is that the follicles get 'confused' (hair on the face and neck normally has a very short terminal length but scalp hair has an exceedingly long terminal length, so the ones at the edges are somewhere in between). Why do humans have such a long terminal length for scalp hair? I don't know; presumably there was some evolutionary benefit at some time, but I don't really know enough to comment. -- Posted by omnifariam at 1:22 am on Jan. 13, 2009 Quote: from Event Horizon at 5:35 pm on Jan. 9, 2009 I've recently been thinking about, well, hair.   I mean, it hasn't been something that has taken over my thoughts, but every once in a while my mind begins to wonder about it. i'll tell you why [this sure would be a useless post if I didn't, huh?] All the time we see folks with extremely long hair. People with dread-locks frequently have hair down past their rear-end; as do tons of people with natural, maintained hair. The Guinness book has a position for "longest hair" bla bla bla, i think you get the point.   My question is, if that is how long our hair can grow, is that how long it is meant to grow? We seem to be the only animal which has a constant regrowth of hair that can just keep growing and growing. A lions mane doesn't need trimming to keep it at a specific length. It get's as full as it can and --even if it continues to grow till death-- never reaches a point that looks silly. in fact, NO animal has hair that needs trimming --through whatever means they might do it.   So what about us? If our hair can grow for yards and yards --as is evident by the world record holders-- then is that how nature intended our hair to be? Or was, for some reason, our hair designed so that it needs to be maintained and shortened? I find it difficult to believe that early man let his hair grow over 6-7 feet in length while living in the wild...So why does our hair persist on growing? I guess my only answer to myself is that the lifespan of early man was short enough that hair never reached a point of "too long" and finally man figured out how to cut it and groom it. It's just something that's been bugging me recently; thought I'd share. Hairy dude, are you? -- Posted by ElephantStone at 3:32 pm on Jan. 13, 2009 I do not want to jump in saying I know more than other people because I study anthropology, but drawing on this I think I can make a number of relevant points: Most body heat in the human body is lost through the head. There is a theory that man became bipedal because it limited the amount of heat from the sun being absorbed into their bodies. Now, most people who live in hot places have short curly hair, which I would put money on has a much higher terminal rate. This would allow more heat to escape from the head in hot climates. In colder climates we see that the indigeonous people have longer straighter hair as a general rule, we already know the terminal rate is quite low. I would imagine that is to retain body heat and acts as a blanket. What we must remember is that early man had a very different lifestyle to us. Contrary to popular belief early man did not eat as much meat as us because of the immense difficulty in catching large game. He was largely a herbivore who scavenged and occasionally caught large game. This diet would reduce the large amount of protein that we are used to getting which I would imagine would affect hair growth. Personally I cant imagine stone age man cutting his hair, I just see his hair getting pulled and torn on branches and other things that would reduce its length. -- Posted by Monroe at 3:10 pm on Jan. 16, 2009 I think the point of hair is to keep us warm, at least way back when cavemen ran around naked. Therefore, it's supposed to grow and grow until we die, pretty much. We just have the option of letting it grow or cutting it. -- Posted by Clouse227 at 7:32 pm on Jan. 26, 2009 Maybe the 'wild man' was not meant to have 6 to 7 ft hair. Perhaps, hair can become conditioned, and the fact that we constantly trim it has caused it to grow back at a faster pace? I'm just assuming, but I think that is logical. -- Posted by Neodymie at 2:50 am on Feb. 13, 2009 Well first of all there are some differences between hair and fur. Mainly in the follicle I believe. There are some dogs that have hair rather than fur and it will grow much longer than fur dogs. That's why they usually require constant grooming. To Crime actually hair doesn't really do much in the way of keeping us warm. We don't have the same coating on our hair that most animals do that keeps in the hat and protects them from moisture. I'd say our hair growing so long probably has a lot to do with how we take care of it though. -- Posted by Micus at 10:58 am on Feb. 13, 2009 We're living in sheltered, shampooed and conditioned, nutrient-filled situations. Our ancestors did not. Our hair would probably be much more brittle being exposed to constant rain and sun, as well as lacking nutrients and maintenance from shampoos and conditioners and the like. That, and the vitamins we eat help improve our nail, hair and skin growth. We have a lot more going for us these days that our ancestors didn't.