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Does Body Hair actually make you warmer when you are out in the Woods?

It was cold a few days ago here in Los Angeles, and as I and my room mate were going to a cafe in Atwater, I mentioned that I was very cold. I assumed he would do something gallant like offer me his coat. Wrong! Russians don't think like that. All that happened is that he was annoyed that we couldn't take a table outside because I was too cold. Instead, I got another OMON survival lecture. My room mate, a personal trainer, is here to cash in on the big trend of the rich here in Los Angeles: former military personal trainers. If you have money, you hire a former Navy Seal/Israeli Paratrooper/Russian Spetsnaz dude to give you personal training in diet/fitness/martial arts. So my room mate Pavel is trying to make a living in this. He shares my ghetto house and spends all his money on his high end BMW so his clients will think he is successful. And he spends his entire life polishing his image. He claims to be a high level expert in Russian Sambo (that's a martial art, not a name of an African American person, if you didn't know.) and Russian Kettle Bell (Kettle Bell is this bizarre Russian work out device which consists of heavy cannonballs welded to handles) Supposedly when you swing the Kettle Bell around, it requires your entire body to not lose balance and fall on your butt, so it gives you a workout from your toes to your neck. Supposedly. My roomate claims he was in OMON which is basically Russian Federal SWAT team. Russia is sort of strange because they send their police SWAT teams as special forces squads into the Chechen Wars. I guess he was in OMON. At least he has a lot of pictures, and papers, and stuff like that. Anyway, Pavel postures as this big time tough guy and self annointed survival expert. He really likes to give lectures. So I mention I was cold, so thus begins the lecture: "Newell, you cold because you have no hair. You shave hair like woman. Hair traps air. Air is insulation. Keeps you warm. You have hair, you have trapped air under pants. You keep warm. You always fight nature, so you cold. American fight nature, and they weak. Russians live with nature and they are strong. Also, you wash too much. You wash away natural oils on your body. That makes your skin weak, and is why you cold." Pavel was referred to the fact that I shave all my body hair below my eyebrows. This gets me a lot of strange looks at my gym when I take a shower or go to the sauna, but I have done it for years and years. And I don't believe that body hair keeps you warmer. I think you would need to have hair as thick as an Alaskan Malamute for it to do you any good keeping you warm. I don't think the amount of body hair even Italians or Armenians have would be enough to make any difference keeping you warm.

Public Comments

1. Unless you're a full blooded sasquatch, no. The whole key to staying warm is staying clean and staying dry. Outside of that it is dressing in thin layers.
2. actually, you will be warmer with a little hair on your body, it's the reason he have hair at all, to keep us warm. but the major ways to keep warm are keeping dry and having the proper clothing for the environment, you should even wear layers, because if you wear one big layer and start to sweat without a proper wicking layer, you'll get colder then if you had even a few layers with less insulation, but with a wicking layer.
3. It doesn't hurt. Still, bundling up will be better when you're going up to the hills. Ask Pavel why the average Russian life span has been dropping off since the Soviet Union broke up.
4. Q: "Does Body Hair actually make you warmer when you are out in the Woods?" A: Yes. The difference would be measurable through experimentation, but it would be simpler for you to wear additional layers of clothing. Quote: "Newell, you cold because you have no hair. You shave hair like woman. Hair traps air. Air is insulation. Keeps you warm. You have hair, you have trapped air under pants. You keep warm. You always fight nature, so you cold. American fight nature, and they weak. Russians live with nature and they are strong. Also, you wash too much. You wash away natural oils on your body. That makes your skin weak, and is why you cold." Comment: Essentially, he's correct. Hair does help insulate the body. Bald may be beautiful, but in cold weather it allows heat to flow away from the body more quickly. (Compensate by wearing extra layers of wool or synthetic materials designed for the situation.) In cold weather, the natural oils of the skin help prevent skin injuries (dry skin, chapped lips and splits or small cuts to exposed skin). If expecting to be active in cold weather, wash your body the night before (instead of the morning of the same day) so that your body has several hours to replenish the oils on the skin. This stuff isn't just a "Russian" thing. It's part of the cold-weather-survival training given to people around the world. And it's taught because it's been demonstrated to work.
5. WOW. I .looked at all your questions on your page, and it seems you ask in very good detail. LIKE 10 PARAGRAPHS WORTH. Do you like plan to type these or what? I have no clue if it makes you warmer, go try it.