Question:
Why are pubic hairs, curly / kinky / wiry in nature, when most folks ' head hair is straight?
rollickingredsfan
2018-05-07 05:38:02 UTC
This is not a joke...I really would like an answer, that is, if anyone knows it .
Twelve answers:
JimZ
2018-05-08 20:16:45 UTC
If they were straight, they wouldn't provide as much protection IMO. They would tend to get in the way of sex and other bodily functions.
?
2018-05-08 01:52:21 UTC
It is essential to understand that to our ancestors, the hair was not merely an aesthetic characteristic; it protected the skin from wounds, insect bites, heat, cold, and UV radiation. It became a permanent trait through natural selection.
?
2018-05-07 18:39:00 UTC
Lack of Kerotin
?
2018-05-07 17:52:48 UTC
Such hair is designed to protect a sensitive area, rather than provide warmth.

Removing it is unhygienic.
anonymous
2018-05-07 17:41:29 UTC
Underwear prevents the hair from growing straight.
Cal King
2018-05-07 15:26:20 UTC
Humans evolved in Africa, and Africans have curly hair, which is the ancestral condition for all humans. Some Africans migrated out of Africa 60,000 years ago, and these people were the ancestors of all non-Africans. Some of these migrants ended up in Australia and SE Asia and they still retain their curly hair because they live in hot climates. When the climate is hot the curly hair allows the head to cool efficiently since the curly hair allows air to be trapped between the hair and the scalp. The trapped air insulates the scalp from the hot air and the sun shining on the hair. Straight hair evolved in those migrants who ended up in Central Asia. Central Asia is cooler than Africa and the straight hair eliminates the air space between hair and the scalp, and prevents cold drafts from blowing past the scalp. African Americans often wear hoodies because they like to keep their head warm, by preventing wind blowing past their scalp. 40,000 years ago some Central Asians migrated west and they evolved into Europeans. Some went to India and there they mixed with darker skinned natives in north India. Some Central Asians migrated to northern China and there they evolved to be light-skinned, thin-lipped, much like the Europeans in some ways because of the ice age climate both the northern Chinese and Europeans found themselves in.



Curly hair is the result of an elliptical hair follicle. When hair grows out of an elliptical follicle, the hair shaft is not perfectly round, and some parts are thicker than others. That causes the hair to bend as it grows. Peope with straight hair have more rounded follicles. The northern Chinese have the roundest follicles, so their hair is straight. Europeans have round follicles but some have slightly more elliptical ones, so their hair may be more curly. Pubic and armpit hair function mostly to trap phermones that are released by glands in that area. The hair keeps the phermones around longer so as to attract the opposite sex.OTOH, when bacteria breaks down the phermone, the product that the bacteria excrete is smelly and is what we smell as body odor. Shaving the pubic hair and/or the armpit hair therefore may render a person less attractive to the opposite sex, although it may reduce body odor. LOL



We do not know why some people have straight hair on their head but curly hair in their pubic area. Perhaps it is a retained ancestral condition meaning they did not evolve after leaving Africa. Perhaps the pubic hair do not need to be straight to prevent cold drafts from cooling that area, if people have been wearing clothes since they started living in cold climates. If there is no selective pressure to evolve straight pubic hair then the ancestral condition can be retained without harming people who have that condition.
anonymous
2018-05-07 14:07:05 UTC
The true answer is that no one really knows. Dermatologists (whose specialty includes hair) and urologists (who specialise in our dangly bits) make guesses but they are really assumptions. You could read this article: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/bering-in-mind/a-bushel-of-facts-about-the-uniqueness-of-human-pubic-hair/
Elaine M
2018-05-07 13:06:17 UTC
It deflects debris better. Remember people didn't used to wear clothing. Roughed up hair kept anything from getting in deeper and irritating the more sensitive tissues 'down there'.
YYYZZ 2
2018-05-07 06:48:08 UTC
Underwear. No space to grow.

Peace.
Obi Wan Knievel
2018-05-07 05:40:39 UTC
Because if the pubes were straight, they would poke your eyes out!



Okay seriously. Most human body hair is curly / kinky and rough. Leg hair, pit hair, chest hair... all the same deal. The stuff almost never grows straight. Pubes are just body hair.
dogsafire
2018-05-07 15:09:45 UTC
Because it serves a different function from hair on your head. The hair on your head (and arms and legs) is primarily for warmth.



Pubic hair serves as something of a cushion, but probably more importantly, it serves to propagate scent. The coarse, loopy hair allows better air flow than straight hair and therefore air currents can carry away the sex scents. Having a greater surface area exposed to the air than straight hair, curly pubic hair also likely keeps the pubic area drier that straight hair would
Mike
2018-05-07 05:58:47 UTC
nature made it that way, although ORIENTALS often have SMOOTH pubic hairs, at least on females. I love soft hair "down there" on those ladies.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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