What Happens When You Remove Your Body Hair?

We’re all pretty invested in what our body hair looks like. But why exactly do we have body hair in the first place, and what happens when we remove it?
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On average, we’re covered in about 5 million hair follicles. That’s around the same number as other non-human primates, ours just isn’t as visible because most of it is the short, soft ‘peach fuzz’ called ‘vellus hair’. Our fuzz has a job: it helps us regulate our temperature by helping our sweat evaporate.

When we’re cold, miniscule muscles in our skin contract around those hairs and make them stand on end—that’s what goosebumps are! Now, the longer, coarser, more distinctive hair on our head, face, legs, and groin is ‘terminal hair’. Terminal hair is what we tend to be more preoccupied with. It’s found in specific places for a reason. Your eyelashes and eyebrows keep sweat and debris out of your eyes (with the added bonus of helping us express ourselves and recognize each other).

Terminal hair on the head, legs, chest, and other large surfaces also regulates our temperature, and may protect our skin from UV damage and prickly, pokey stuff in our environment. But these are just our best guesses for WHY we have body hair in the places we do.. For evolutionary biology, body hair is actually still something of an enigma.

#bodyhair #bodylanguage #wellness #seeker

Read More:
History of Hair Removal
https://www.si.edu/spotlight/health-hygiene-and-beauty/hair-removal
Personal care products which remove unwanted hair from the face and body were developed to address interwoven concerns about hygiene and personal appearance. Removing body hair helped stave off infestations of lice and other parasites, especially for those who lived in close quarters and who had limited access to bathing. Because hair traps perspiration, it can also become a breeding ground for bacteria and odors. For these reasons, by the early 1900s being “clean-shaven” had become associated with basic hygiene.

7 WAYS TO REMOVE UNWANTED HAIR
https://www.aad.org/public/everyday-care/skin-care-basics/hair/remove-unwanted-hair
When it comes to removing unwanted hair, you have options. With so much misinformation available about these options, it can be difficult to know which one(s) is best for you. To help you make an informed decision, here are the basic facts that dermatologists share with their patients about 7 popular ways to remove unwanted hair.

What is the purpose of pubic hair? https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/why-do-we-have-pubic-hair
Pubic hair serves several purposes, including disease prevention and friction reduction.Whether a person chooses to remove none, all, or some of their pubic hair is a personal choice. Although the media, sexual partners, and societal “norms” can sometimes influence this choice, it should be a personal one.
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Body Language is Seeker’s latest series diving into the world of female health, and their bodies. For so long, the medical field only used the male body to conduct research, creating a gap in terms of what we currently know about female bodies. In this series, we'll be talking to experts to get a better understanding of some of these issues, and discover how incredibly cool the female body is and how much more we still have to learn about it.

Seeker empowers the curious to understand the science shaping our world. We tell award-winning stories about the natural forces and groundbreaking innovations that impact our lives, our planet, and our universe.