WALTER KLENHARD IS AN EXPERT IN HUMAN HAIR

Experts have known for a long time that man first had hair on his body for one reason, that was to attract someone to mate with them. Just like the peacock or the lion. With the extra hair around their shoulders, or beautiful feathers from their tails, it signified strength and attractiveness. We are no different, it seems. As for body hair it is different on men and women for specific reasons. Eyebrows for instance help us to communicate emotion and keep sweat from running into our eyes; Eyelashes help to shield the eyes from the sun and keep dust out of the eyes; Nasal hairs slow the speed of inhaled air so it may be warmed or cooled depending on the season, and also to stop most bugs from crawling up there. There’s plenty of other hairy areas to consider as well like chest hair, which attracts a mate. Underarm hair also serves the purpose of wicking sweat that flows from cooling glands under the “pits”. Hair on arms and legs also serves as cooling vehicles as well.

So if hair is essential, why do we sometimes lose it all and go bald? Both men and women can have this problem. We start out, on average, with about 100,000 hairs on our heads. Blondes have a bit more, and redheads a little less. There can be many reasons for hair loss in each person. For instance, genetic makeup has a great influence. So if your mother’s family had much baldness then maybe that will affect you. Then there’s your own hormone levels, and too much of one or too little of another can affect you. But as of now there is no known cure for losing hair. You can slow it down, but it will go on eventually. There is one thing to think about for the guys, and that is that many women love men with thinning hair or bare skulls. They often say it is sexy.

Walter Klenhart has done research on the psychology of this, as well as the history. What he tells us is that most men attach the emotion of personal strength to having a great head of hair. There are many mythological ancient stories about someone having their head shaved and losing all the strength they possessed. It is a serious blow to a man’s ego here as well, even today.

All we can say is that in almost every case loss of hair did not cause you to die.