Hair
Posted by Abdulwahab Al-Mutairi on April 14, 2008
Q: Explain how human's hair work as a good insulator?
Habitat: suburban/yard
State: Outside the U.S. and Canada
Habitat: suburban/yard
A: Hair is able to function as a good insulator simply by trapping air next to our body - air is the actual insulation. Keep in mind that hair is actually dead material even though the growing portion (follicle) in your skin is alive. Hair doesn't do anything more than the kind of insulation people put in the walls of thier homes - it just helps to hold the air next to our skin.
Of course, humans don't have much hair to begin with. People with a full head of hair (women and some men) are warmer as a result because we do lose a lot of heat from our heads. Ask any bald man whether he needs to wear a hat in cold weather and the answer is almost certainly "yes"!
Hope this helps and thanks for asking.
John Wiessinger ( April 15, 2008)