What was the evolutionary purpose of body hair?

To keep the scent close to the body. Scent (in the form of sweat which has hormones in it) is a physical attractant.

Remember that humans did not grow hair as an adaptation, rather, humans have adapted by growing less hair.

While har growth is partially tied to testosterone levels, women have as many hair follicles as men on parts of the body..

Yeah, it may make more sense to ask what the “evolutionary purpose” of the fur on many animals is. It’s protective against injury and cold, a lot like clothes but requiring zero technology.

But “purpose” is, I would say, a misleading word to use with “evolutionary”, as seems to need to be said in almost every such question. That is, “evolution” functions only in the extremely long term over large scale populations and situations, by random genetic mutation and survival then increased survival of certain variants over others. There’s no purposefulness about it, only extremely gradual cause and effect of complex random mutations.

In my case, attraction of the female sex.

Our hair serves the same function as it does for the other apes, but it’s a good question that sets you to thinking. My guess is that we are rapidly evolving away from our furry nature do to our excellent utilization of fur substitutes such as clothing, along with fire, blankets, heaters, etc.

@jca2 While I’m sure you’re right. My wife would disagree…

I always thought that long hair on women was attractive for use to start kindling for fire.

I would guess to keep you warm, to protect from irritants, and to protect from the sun. If men were the hunters they were out in the elements more.

White people had less protection from the sun (less melanin in their skin, which is a natural spf) so maybe hair is what helped to protect them. Men in the area of the sunny Mediterranean have the most body hair. Also, people with anorexia sometimes grow body hair, so I am guessing that is because they don’t have a fat layer to protect from the cold.

Natural selection might be another reason, maybe men preferred women with less body hair and so that trait was promoted. Women with PCOS often have more body hair and don’t ovulate. It’s not really cut and dry though. They sometimes pop out an egg, and they don’t always have a lot of body hair. My guess is there was a lot fewer cases of PCOS in caveman days since the diet would have been so different. There is a connection between blood sugar levels and PCOS.

I think pheromones and scent was part of the reasons also for hair.

We have better shelter now than a few thousand years ago and more access to clothing and sex is more scheduled so I don’t think it is a big deal that we remove body hair.

Everything mentioned but I would say also to let you know when something is near like a tiny bug you may not be able to see. I hardly have any arm hair now but I had baby fine hair on my arms. I was more sensitive to something small crawling on me. But before evolution when men and women were hairier I would say maybe it was to protect the skin from the environment. Think of hairless Chihuahuas. Their skin is more sensitive than Chihuahuas with hair. They burn faster and their skin is dryer. Hairs trap in natural oils and moisture that help protect the skin.