Human beings share many common traits with our animal cousins. Although this is not the place for the debate about evolution, we do know that many animals also have hair on their bodies and their heads. Some of these are familiar to us because we have seen them in textbooks or at the local zoo. Mammals are the only species in nature that have been blessed with hair.

Many mammals like dogs, cats and other domesticated farm animals shed their hair according to the seasons. Some shed hair continuously. Since our pets and farm animals don’t have prehensile grip, they don’t find their dead hair in a comb or brush like we do. And apparently, this daily or seasonal hair loss doesn’t seem to bother them as much as it does humans. Hair loss is of little concern, except in harsh climates, where being bald makes it harder to retain body heat. For the majority of mammals, hair is functional.

If you are losing your hair, this observation might not be very comforting to you. On the other hand, you can take heart that humans are not one of the species of mammals that don’t have any hair at all. If the bald eagle comes to mind, you’re warm. Birds aren’t mammals and they have feathers, instead of hair. Yet, there are many species of mammals that enter and leave the world without ever having any hair to fret about.

Aquatic mammals like dolphins, whales and sharks don’t have hair because it would increase drag and resistance in the water. Elephants usually don’t have hair either; nor do hippopotamuses and rhinoceros. Of course, they have pretty thick skin, so hair might be functionally redundant for these species. There is also a hairless rat, hairless moles, hairless pigs and the hairless sphynx cat. You may find hair around their noses, ears or tails, but not much.

The main purpose of hair is to protect your skin from the elements of nature. Except for some naturally hairless mammals, humans have the least amount of skin covered with hair of all the mammals on the planet. Take comfort in knowing that your hair can do its job with little interference from you. All the same, it’s a good idea to protect your hair, so you can leave with the hair that you came into the world with.

Tags: animals, bald, body, body heat, dead hair, elements. skin, hair, hair loss, hairless, head, human beings, Mammals, purpose

This entry was posted on Friday, June 26th, 2009 at 11:24 am and is filed under Natural Hair Growth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.