Long Haired Girl

A 2008 study by scientists from the Medical University of Vienna traced the origins of hair to the common ancestor of mammals, birds, and lizards that lived 310 million years ago. The study found chickens, lizards, and humans all possessed a similar set of genes that was involved in the production of alpha keratin. In chickens and lizards, the α-keratin produced was found in their claws, but in mammals it was used to produce hair. The scientists involved continued searching for the mechanisms that allowed mammals to use the keratins of animal claws to produce hair.
Human "hairlessness"
Human hair is barely visible as it is thinner, shorter, and more translucent than the hair of other mammals. Humans are part of a trend toward sparser hair in larger animals (fewer follicles per square inch of exposed skin). There are several African mammals that have very sparse fur, including the elephant and the hippopotamus, both at the upper end of this trend. The density of human hair follicles on the skin is about the average for an animal of equivalent size. It still is not clear why so much of human hair is short, under-pigmented vellus hair, rather than terminal hair, and the effect of testosterone on the hair follicles in both human and other mammalian species. Because most human hair is less apparent vellus hair, this gives the appearance of being hairless, especially in females.