I find several parts of the body without use in day-to-day life. Body hair, nails and wisdom teeth quickly come to my mind whenever I think of parts without any meaningful purpose. Nails are something we have to keep trimming as a part of our hygiene. If we did not have them, I wonder how it would make any difference to us. Except perhaps, we would be ill-equipped to scratch our backs without them. A humble comb would do the trick for us without much fuss.
I am terrified of the wisdom teeth that have suddenly decided to gatecrash my mouth to upset the otherwise perfect set of teeth. The only thing they are of any use is to remind us how terrible an ache can get when you are least expecting it. The irony is that these teeth are the ones that hamper the chewing of food rather than assist in the cause.
However, the one thing that I genuinely feel is unnecessary is our body hair. I have read our evolutionary process and marvel at how we have managed to outgrow the monkeys to become the refined and capable species we are today. However, the fact is that we have somehow failed to evolve past our animal lineage ultimately. The tailbone and body hair remind us from time to time of the monkeys we once were.
Body hair is something that evolution blessed us with when we were no less than animals. Our primal brains guided us in surviving back then. We were the weakest among the animals that abounded the earth. We neither had any fur to beat the sharp drop in temperatures. Nor did we have any claws or a jaw so strong that could pull apart our adversaries in a fight and carry them as a meal to our kin.
What remained was a thick growth of body hair, which, as we evolved, has become useless. Women and girls get their body hair removed for a clean look. Even a lot of friends I know shave their chest hair. One of my friends got a tattoo of Lord Shiva on his right hand, and his hair shaved off both arms so he could flaunt his body art.
I think, if evolution permits, we should shed our body hair along with the tailbone, which is the last vestige of our monkey ancestry.
