h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Why do Amazonians have no hair?

Why don't craneflies (daddy-long-legs) fly towards the light the way moths do? (Especially when you want them to leave your darkened room into a lighted one.) Have they watched Poltergeist too many times?

yeah why does some hair only frow to a certain length? my armpit hair for all i know, if i let it grow, could go down to my feet!

So do you keep it neatly trimmed? Layered for lightness in the summer but letting it get to it's full thickness in the winter?

Armpit hair stops at a certain length, normally not very long.

And Amazonians have hair on their heads, so they are not totally hairless.

What gives?

az

GASP! noooo! i shave it all off! i can't go round with hairy armpits, lookin like the french...or julia roberts.

is it the name that makes me seem like a lad? or is it the way i type?

neither, apparently, must be the way i smell then...

Why is 'footbacon' a male name? I don't know. 'Nigel'='Nigella'; 'George'='Georgina'; 'Footbacon'='Footbaconia'?

By the way, I see you're an Izzard fan. I just got a copy of 'Dress to Kill' and the sound quality on the second tape is rubbish. Is it just me?

Armpit hair (and pubic hair) is there to stop "chaffing" from happening......AND......they only grow for a certain amount of time before they fall out and start all over again, hence they usually stay the same length

I learnt that over 10 years ago in school!!!!

hi Footbaconita,

I always shave under my arms in summer (for the wearing of sleevless summer dresses) but often won't bother during the winter. Because I am part Canadian Indian (ohhh, please don't get on my case you PC-ers out there, I can call myself Indian if I like) I actually don't have much body hair. I don't even have to shave my legs except to get rid of a few stray leg hairs here and there (again, in summer).

Which is why I wonder WHY body hair still exists for humans at all. Surely it is a throw-back to when we were cave-people and, presumably, covered in body hair for warmth?

Still, why does head hair grow forever and body hair stop at a certain length? eh? eh?

az

There is a theory about body hair and the idea that humans once lived in a semi-aquatic environment, that the hairs on your legs especially do some kind of slipstreaming thing in water.

Hmmm.

simulpost Vicki!

Really? Pubic hair is designed to stop chaffing? Weird.

az

"Still, why does head hair grow forever "

It doesn't. Head hair also has a natural length, it just tends to be longer than other hair. A friend when I was a teenager was most disappointed that, even though his hair went uncut for several years, he was unable to grow it much past his collar. That was just the natural length for his head hair. An extreme example perhaps but you get the idea.

The only hairs that seem to grow forever unless tended to are nasal and ear hairs in old people

pubic hair is "designed" to do that. I'm not agreeing that it actually does!!

'designed' VV? That's very tricky ground you are on there you know!

Vicki,

Ah, but you said smugly that you had learned this at school!

If my pubic hair was designed to stop thigh chaffing in summer I'd hate to think how long it would need to be!

az

Why?

Well, cos then I'd need pubic hair that went down to the middle-top of my thighs!

brrrrrrr.

az

It's meant to stop "chaffing" of your nether regions!!!!!!

really?

I've never chaffed *there* in my life.

az

Neither have I, and I don't think I'd like it either!