[andywattbulb]

How many women like facial hair anyway? Very annoying to kiss a man with a beard. Is it not that both sexes strive for youthfulness? In most (ancient)art representations a man without a beard is considered to be the standard of beauty. Also, I recall that most cultures did not allow their women much choice in picking mates because it was the patriarch/father/men who would choose for them. A woman, a lot of times, had no say in the matter. Then again, we have no idea of how primitive humans lived. For all we know the women helped with/did the hunting (which wasn't so uncommon as usually thought and there are still tribes where women do the hunting)so the insulation theory falls flat + our ancestors did not all live in the cold. Also a beard is a liability in fights. Alexander the great commanded all his men to shave their faces so that the enemies would not yank on them. A lion's mane might protect him against claws and teeth but a human beard will not protect you against a human's greatest weapon; his hands. Also it is unhygienic and high maintenance. Certainly back in the days when basic hygiene was lacking. Humans seem to be quite filthy creatures by nature. Maybe that is why we lost our hair or vice versa. The most agreeable theory is that we lost our hair to beat the parasites. Oh yeah...that reminds me. Beards = flies.

Also we have forgotten a very important note.
We are assuming that all human races have beards. The more we go to towards Asian countries the less hair males have. Pure native Indians from south and north America have no facial hair at all. Also full-blooded Africans don't have facial hair either. Caucasian is the only race that is truly hairy hairy. It is thought that maybe this is due to interbreeding with neanderthals? Something that is exclusive to Caucasians and Mongoloids? Who knows.

[andywattbulb]

edit:I meant fleas not flies

[Roberto]

andywattbulb  You don't like beards much do you?

[Bonnie]

I prefer men with beards, and long hair, so the sexual selection idea works for me.

[Esquela]

Does this mean that women will not have leg and armpit hair?
If women shave for sexual, beauty and hygienic reasons, will women have less hair in a couple of generations?
If men shave, will those men have less amount of hair-if continued by each generation?

[Woody]

Women don't have hairy chests for the same reason they evolved larger than normal breasts (most mammals don't have such large mammary glands). Also, I have read before that women are selected for attractiveness based on the amount of unconsious emotional communication in their faces, ie rosey cheeks, red lips, fair skin, and that this can relate to how a girl looks in orgasm. This is parallel to the idea of a female looking youthful and thus more able to birth a child. Men didn't have these same pressures and didn't lose the hair as fast as females did during our species sexual natural selection process.

[Lidoffad]

There are a lot more women with beards than one thinks. Usually they get rid of them. I have only ever encountered one woman with a proper beard. It was very dark and silky - and not so very long. But I have seen many women with evidence of hair removal on their faces.

[Karen F]

Also something to consider, many women who were relatively hairy as post pubescent adults, when nearing menopause, often experience thinning or loss of body hair except on the face, where it often starts to grow, especially on the chin, even if they did not have hair on their chin previously.