What is the purpose of hair color?
Hair coloring, or hair dyeing, is the practice of changing the hair color. The main reasons for this are cosmetic: to cover gray or white hair, to change to a color regarded as more fashionable or desirable, or to restore the original hair color after it has been discolored by hairdressing processes or sun bleaching.
Why did humans evolve different hair colors?
Evolution. According to the geneticist Luigi L. Cavalli-Sforza, the variety of hair colors we see among people today may be the result of a force called sexual selection. Sexual selection is a force, like natural selection, that shapes evolutionary trajectories.
What is the evolutionary advantage of hair?
It protects the body against trauma and also against ultraviolet damage. Hair coloration helps to camouflage against predators and in some instances serves as a sexual attractant like the mane of the male lion. Endowed richly with nerve fibers, it has tactile and communicative functions.
Why do humans have colored hair?
Hair color is determined by the amount of a pigment called melanin in hair. An abundance of one type of melanin, called eumelanin, gives people black or brown hair. An abundance of another pigment, called pheomelanin, gives people red hair. The best-studied hair-color gene in humans is called MC1R.
What color was the first humans?
These early humans probably had pale skin, much like humans’ closest living relative, the chimpanzee, which is white under its fur. Around 1.2 million to 1.8 million years ago, early Homo sapiens evolved dark skin.
What is the purpose of head hair?
The hair on your head keeps your head warm and provides a little cushioning for your skull. Eyelashes protect your eyes by decreasing the amount of light and dust that go into them, and eyebrows protect your eyes from sweat dripping down from your forehead.