ELI5. If bodyhair is there to protect some parts of our bodies… what do beards protect? 🤔
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A weird provides some protection to the skin it covers, primarily from very light damage like scraping.
But it also provides touch information about the environment at a distance further than what the skin would be able to touch the environment at. This is not particularly useful for modern humans, but but stiff hairs on the face are are some of the evolutionarily most important hairs for mammals.
Our egos, because if people could see my chin (or, rather, complete lack thereof) my ego would really take a beating.
Body hair/beards do a couple of things:
* Protection: An extra layer above your skin that can absorb or deter impacts and attacks, but also protect against the environment. Necks are worth protecting.
* Warmth: Traps in body heat which is vital for survival at night or cooler climates. Beards would certainly help here especially as we migrated to colder climates.
* Camouflage: Extra hair on our heads could have helped us blend in better when hunting or hiding.
* Size: Beards can make you look more masculine/stronger/bigger which could have played a role in determining who leads and who fights who. Size matters in the animal kingdom and sometimes you just need to look bigger.
* Visual stimulation: A beard is an indication of a mature male compared to teenagers that can’t really grow one. While a female grows breast indicating sexual maturity, guys don’t have anything like that so beards could have served as a signal to females of the males maturity.
I think the last point is probably the strongest reason why facial hair is present for the majority of men.
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