As TAG's self-proclaimed Google Guru, I found the latest quest intriguing.
I, too, have wondered how JK girls, and grown women, for that matter, manage to brave the elements in the winter months. I have absolutely no qualms enjoying the view, by the way. As long it's merely enjoying the view, I see nothing wrong with appreciating beauty.
Alas, I digress. As with so many mysteries in Life, the speculation on the purpose of leg hair on humans has myriad possibilities.
From a UK site, "ask a Biologist,"
"Leg and arm hair has a function - it helps keep us warm. However, the advantage is small when you consider that we have clothing and we are able to heat our environment. In our evolutionary past clothing and heat have not always been so readily available, so we still maintain some hair for good functional reasons. Hair also offers some protection against the sun and against minor abrasions.
Body hair is also a sexually dimorphic characteristic, providing a signal about maturity and virility in males."
http://www.askabiologist.org.uk/answers/viewtopic.php?id=1119
From LiveStrong:
"Human body hairs are connected to touch receptors in the skin that allow us to feel and, in that sense, collectively serve as a protective warning device."
http://www.livestrong.com/article/76153-function-human-hair/
On the ScienceAlert site:
"And our hair still plays a very important role in regulating our body temperature. When it's cold outside, tiny muscles surrounding the hair follicle cause the hairs to stand up, to trap more heat near the body. This is what happens when you get goosebumps."
http://www.sciencealert.com/watch-why-do-we-have-body-hair
Yet another function described by LiveScience:
"Human body hair might seem to be useless on today's modern man, but it could help us detect parasites, researchers suggest, adding there's a chance our female ancestors preferred a bug-free mate, and so opted for hairier guys.
Men seemed better at detecting parasites — they are generally hairier than women because of higher testosterone levels. This does not necessarily mean that women are more likely to be bitten — blood-sucking insects likely prefer to bite hosts in relatively hairless areas such as ankles.
Although the researchers stress they are not saying that the differences in male and female body hair are due to parasites, they do speculate that in our evolutionary past women might have preferred men with fewer parasites on them —
hairier men."
http://www.livescience.com/17459-human-body-hair-parasite-detection.html
And for all you visual learners, a short video on the subject from the educated folks at The University of New South Wales:
So, how can women and men in kilts stand to run around with bare naked legs in winter? That's a mystery I still need to research.
And a further mystery regarding hair.
Maybe it's
alternative hair.
