Why did beards evolve? Most non-reproductive physical sex differences in our species are pretty easy to decipher. Most of them function to make male humans larger, more robust, and more athletic than females on average. And there's nothing unusual about this. You can find the

same kinds of sex differences in every other great ape species. And all of these adaptations

seem to have something to do with males being the more violent sex. Males are more violent to each other and to other species, and they've evolved

to deliver that violence more effectively as a result. The beard is a little harder to explain.

Some scientists do try to gerrymander the beard into this suite of fighting adaptation.

Some suggest that the beard evolved as a cushion to take the edge off strikes to the face.

Now, I intuitively wouldn't think that hair is a good mouthguard, but I've got a study in front of me that suggests that dense fur, a substitute study

material for a dense beard, could absorb 37% of the energy from a blow, which could totally

be the difference between taking it on the chin and taking a nap. And I remember when I used to

compete in the golden gloves, they'd force us all to shave before fighting.

And the rationale was that beards provide an unfair advantage.

My dad and I used to laugh at that rule, but reading this study, I wish they let us grow them.

Others argue instead, alternatively, that the beard is an ornament rather than a shield.

Darwin and more recently many other scientists have hypothesized that beards evolved to make

males more attractive to females, like a peacock's tail.

Maybe that's true, but even in saying that, I can feel half the wives listening, just looking to

their husbands and saying, don't even think about it, right?

Half the guys I know who have beards also have wives or girlfriends just begging them to ditch

it. And I can't imagine male peacocks

having to deal with that type of pressure. That's all anecdotal, of course. There's some research

on this topic, and it goes both ways. Some of it shows that female humans do prefer beards,

and some of it shows they don't, and some of it shows that

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