Why do we have beards? While beards are completely biologically useless

Why do we have beards?

Beard is like an ornamental plant. Out of all the biological characteristics of the human body, including all kinds of hair and hair, only the beard does not have any effect and is only meant to be decorative. That means it doesn't actually function or perform any specific physiological effects. Let's take a look at the remaining hair and hair on our body.

Body hair helps to regulate temperature. The hair on the head helps to protect the scalp from the sun and helps keep it warm in cold weather. Eyelashes help protect your eyes from insects or foreign objects that can come in when you open them. The eyebrows help prevent sweat from flowing into the eyes. Armpit hair helps reduce friction when moving hands and keeps sweat from escaping. Vaginal hairs help protect against bacteria and also help reduce friction.

But the facial hair did not have any specific effect. So why do they exist, and why only exist in men?

In the early days of beard research, evolutionary biologists thought that beards could have the same effects as hair or hair on the genitals. It is to keep body temperature and avoid bacteria coming into mouth contact. It sounds plausible, but when it comes to another aspect, these inferences must be discarded.

That is 50% of the population worldwide, women with absolutely no beards. There are also differences between males and females in the wild, but rarely an important trait appears only in males, whereas females responsible for breeding do not.

If the beard has an important role to the human body, it should be in both sexes. Instead, beards or mustaches appear only in men, in adulthood and until old age. They are simply there doing nothing, and they will keep growing no matter how many times we shave.

Beard can help attract sex partners?

Professor Geoffrey Miller of the University of New Mexico, one of the preeminent evolutionary psychologists in the field, explained that: 'The two main explanations of facial facial hairs in men are another attraction. gender (attracting women) and threatening the same sex (competing with other men). Beard can help signal a potential partner (sexual maturity and vigor) '.

It's basically the same way other animals choose a mate. Male peacocks with the most colorful feathers are more likely to attract females, or antelopes with the most beautiful horns are more likely to reproduce. In the modern era, however, the beard did not function as much as a reproductive signal.

In fact, researchers have shown that some women like men with beards, some don't and some don't care. But one thing is quite interesting, is that if in an environment with many beards, women will find it attractive by a smooth person and vice versa.

In evolutionary genetics, this is known as 'negative frequency dependence'. Science believes that within a population, a rare trait tends to be more advantageous. In guppies, for example, males with a combination of unique blobs have a greater chance of mating.

Therefore, the beard does not really mean attractive to the opposite sex, but it also depends on many other factors. So we can conclude that beards are really useless in human life. 

The existence of the beard in history

Throughout history, people have grown beards or shaves as a reaction to the choices made by enemies and opponents. The ancient Romans had shave clean for 400 years, because their rival the ancient Greeks saw the beard as a symbol of position and wisdom.

For 270 years, the British lived under the threat of Viking invasion, the period 793 to 1066 was considered the 'Age of Viking invasion'. The British had shaved off their beards as an anti-Viking culture with bushy beard.

Another influence comes from rulers and high-ranking individuals. Emperor Hadrian brought his beard back to Rome in the second century AD, and the entire ruling class of the Roman Empire followed suit, including several Hadrian successors.

In the Middle Ages, Henry V was the first king of England to shave, and because he was a great king, British society and the next seven kings followed in his footless footsteps. It was not until Henry VIII wanted to distinguish himself from his predecessors that he put his beard back on.

To this day, the beard still does not have a biological role to help the human body, apart from the decorative effect. They even have the opposite effect, which is harmful. In a 1916 documentary by McClure magazine, a doctor blamed facial facial hair for the spread of many known infectious diseases.

'There is no way to calculate the amount of harmful bacteria and germs that could lurk in those Amazon jungles. But the number of them must be an army, 'said the doctor.

Isabella Humphrey

Update 21 December 2020