Millions of years ago, humans had a dense layer of hair just like monkeys. Even though we have been purified from a large part of this hair with the evolutionary process, dense hair can be seen especially in the chest area in men. We see that men, especially in countries with a coast on the Mediterranean, have a high rate of chest hair. We can easily see this ratio by looking at the chest hair ratio in our country.
So why do men still have chest hair and especially these hairy people are found in and around the Mediterranean? Today we’re going to explain to you why some people retained their chest hair in the evolutionary process.
First of all, let’s get to know what they are: What is chest hair, also known as breast hair among the people?
One of the types of body hair, chest hair or popularly known as breast hair, is located between the neck and abdomen. These hairs, which start to grow after puberty, develop together with androgenic hair types. These hairs, which usually appear in men, can also grow in women in some cases. These hairs, which develop depending on the androgen level, can also be seen as sexual characteristics.
So why do men get chest hair?
Human evolution has been going on for a very long time. Many years ago, we had fur-like dense hairs, just like our other primate cousins. Standing on two legs, perhaps humanity’s greatest evolutionary leap, changed the structure of hair growth as well as many other things. Standing on two legs, man realized over time that hunting did not just meet his food needs. The need for a fur covering the bodies of people who used the skins of the animals they hunted to protect themselves from the cold began to disappear. Over time, more hairless humans began to emerge through natural selection.
The main reason why humans still have facial and chest hair today is seen as sexual selection. At the point where people lost body hair, women liked men with chest hair more, and that’s how men evolved. Men, on the other hand, preferred women who did not have hair on their bodies.
We move on to the main topic: Why do men in the Mediterranean and its region have more chest hair?
First of all, the map you see above shows the average body hair of males in indigenous human populations. As you can see from the map, we see that people in and around the Mediterranean have more hair. Native Americans have less hair.
Sexual selection, perhaps the most important building block of evolution, also played an important role in chest hair. Of course, sexual selection proceeded differently in different ethnic groups. For example, Native American women found hairless men more attractive than men with chest hair. As a result, humans who evolved in this region became less hairy.
The reverse of this situation was experienced in the Mediterranean and its region. Among men of Mediterranean descent, men with more chest hair were able to pass on their genetics to future generations. Men without chest hair were not able to pass on their genetics during natural selection. The same is not true for chest hair alone. The fact that men in and around the Mediterranean have more hair and beard comes from similar sexual selection. We can also add that men are generally beardless in regions such as China and Korea.
Today we explained to you why people living in and around the Mediterranean have more chest hair. If you want more content like this, you can write in the comments section.
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