Why Humans Are So Hung Up on Body Hair

Jan de Vries · 2026-10-20

Professor Tim Coulson has spent a lot of time thinking about something most of us barely notice until it's gone: our hair. Or rather, the hair we don't have. Humans are the odd ones out in the animal kingdom. We're the only species that looks at a full coat of body hair and thinks, "Nah, let's take it down a notch." Coulson's work digs into why that happened, and the answers are stranger than you'd expect. ### The Naked Ape Problem Compared to our closest primate relatives, we're practically hairless. Chimps are covered head to toe. We've got a patch on our heads, some under our arms, and a few other spots that seem almost random. Evolutionary biologists have argued about this for decades. Some say it helped us cool down when we started running long distances across hot savannas. Others point to parasites — less hair meant fewer places for lice and ticks to hide. Both theories have merit. But Coulson suggests there's a cultural layer that's often overlooked. We didn't just lose hair; we became obsessed with the hair we kept. ### Culture, Anxiety, and the Razor Here's where it gets interesting. Hair removal isn't universal across cultures, but the anxiety around it is remarkably widespread. Ancient Egyptians shaved. Romans did too. Victorian women used pumice stones. Today, the global hair removal market is worth billions of dollars, and the pressure to be smooth shows no sign of fading. Why? Coulson argues that hair sits at a weird intersection of nature and culture. It's biological, but how we treat it is deeply social. Body hair can signal adulthood, health, even social status. Removing it can feel like control — a way of managing how the world sees us. > "We're the only animal that looks in the mirror and decides whether its own fur is acceptable," Coulson notes. That's a powerful idea. It means our relationship with hair isn't just about evolution. It's about identity. ### What This Means for How We See Ourselves So why are we still so hung up on hair? Because it's one of the few parts of our appearance we can change easily. You can't alter your height or your bone structure. But you can pick up a razor. That sense of control is comforting — and a little unsettling when you think about how much of it is driven by outside expectations. Coulson doesn't offer a tidy conclusion, and that's part of what makes his perspective useful. Evolution explains the canvas. Culture paints the picture. And the rest is up to us. ### The Takeaway Next time you reach for a razor or book a wax appointment, it's worth pausing for a second. You're participating in something thousands of years old — a quiet negotiation between biology and belonging. Not many grooming habits carry that kind of weight. Hair, it turns out, is about far more than hair.