hair style of MS players - badminton related trait?

It came to me that latest crop of top MS players have similar natural hair style: spikey to puff daddy, like they all have used fabric softener as hair shampoo conditioner. Picture shown are from different MS players, there could be more of them out there.

 

close, the first one is chen hong. I got the pics from the BF photoalbum

 

I think there is a genetic advantage - better heat loss. Wavy hairs tend to trap more body heat then spikey hairs. Heat, lactic acid and CO2 are waste byproducts of metabolism. Spikey hairs enhance thermal radiation and convectional heat loss (air drag) from the head. Of course a bald head would create better heat loss but in most cultures, having hair is also an desirable trait so spikey hair is a balance of having a set of hair with good heat loss.

 

LOL, it is only a statistical trend, not a direct one to one relationship. ie,i presented 5 cases. Having 1 exception case of baldness isnt enough derail my little theory, yet

 

your point isnt solid because the advantage of better cooling supercede the benefits of lower air resistance which is very very negligible. If your point is valid, then all badminton players should shaves their head and legs as well. The body hairs actually enhance cooling because it give the body more surface area for the sweats to dry off. Better drying = better cooling. Wavy or low air resistance hair cut guide air AROUND and OVER the head, defeating cooling ability.

Now you understand why XZX fold up his shirt collar If lowering air resistance is so important, all pros baddy players would wear those tight body wrapping cyclist jersey and pants, not loose clothing.

 

Jonno, the anders boesen case bugs me because it doesn't fit well with my original postulation and my general observation of top athletes.

First: Yes, having less hair improve aerodynamics but in badminton, player aerodynamic is less so important as compare to other sport like marathon or swimming or cycling. Badminton players cool off from sweating more so than from rushing fluid over body.

Second: I did some more research and found this. Bald headed people actually sweat less efficiently. There are 2 major kinds of sweat glands, one kind (Apocrine) is connected to the hair follicle. If # of hair follicle is reduced or shut off, rendering this class sweat gland ineffective. These Here is the description:

Sweat Glands
Sweat is a watery substance that is made up of urea (waste product of protein change in the kidneys), fatty acids, and salt. Perspiration is an important function of the skin that cools the body through evaporation and clears the body of waste that can be expelled through its pores. In order to manage such a critical task, the body employs a system of sweat glands that runs throughout the skin. A sweat gland is an elongated tubular structure that originates in the subcutaneous tissue beneath the dermis and extends up to the surface of the epidermis, where it ends at either a pore or a hair follicle. At its secretory base, the gland is coiled and bunched, but its emerging duct straightens as it reaches toward the surface. A sweat gland is one of two types, eccrine or apocrine.

Eccrine sweat glands, of which there are a greater number than apocrine glands in the body, terminate in a pore. Therefore, eccrine glands are predominantly responsible for sweat secretion and cooling the body. They are found everywhere on the body except the rim of the lips and most of the xxxxx. There may be as many as 2,000,000 to 5,000,000 eccrine glands in the body, with the greatest accumulation on the palms.

Apocrine sweat glands open into and feed hair follicles explicitly. They are typically larger than eccrine glands and are more developed in women. They are found in greatest number in the xxxxx region and in the armpit. When an apocrine gland secretes sweat, some of its cells disintegrate. The product of this disintegration contributes to sweat, which, depending on the amount and type of bacteria it produces, carries an odor that is characteristic of perspiration.


Third: Bald people tend to have less sweat glands overall. This is just one case study and may not be 100% conclusive but it is an indication.

A total of 85 members of a family in which several individuals presented with hypodontia, hypotrichosis, and hypohidrosis were examined. Of these, 77 were evaluated clinically and the results compared with those obtained in an equal number of carefully chosen controls. The main symptoms among the affected males and females involved changes in the quantity and texture of head hair and in the distrubution of body hair. More than half of the males also showed precocious baldness. The average of missing teeth was 12 among men with the syndrome, but only 2 among the obligate female carriers. The sweat pore counts were lower in the two sexes (42% and 60% of the normal values, respectively), and a much higher degree of asymmetry was observed especially among the affected women.

 

sorry....