The hair in our nose functions like a strainer to catch larger particles suspended in the air so that they are not inhaled into our lungs. You can imagine how important it is to keep your airways clean and free of debris. You may have even experienced the unpleasantness of inhaling a bug through your mouth while biking or something. That's why it's better if we do most of our breathing through our noses, to get the benefit of that extra filtration. Why do you think we have hair on our heads?

Nose hair might just seem gross to a lot of people, but it has an important function.Nose hairs make the air flow into your nose turbulent. This means that the air doesn't come into your nostrils in a smooth, laminar flow, the air sort of crashes around, hitting the mucus that also lines your nose. The result is that particles like viruses, bacteria, dust, etc. can get trapped and blown out of your nose instead of entering your lungs and causing infections or other problems. What diseases affect your lungs? What harmful things might you breathe in? Where does mucus come from?