Scientists believe that the earliest stages of human evolution began in Africa about seven million years ago as a population of African apes evolved into three different species: gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans. Some three million years later early humans stood nearly upright and had developed larger brains, about half the size of the modern brain.
The first known humans to make clothing, Neanderthal man, survived from about 200,000 B.C.E. to about 30,000 B.C.E.
Evidence concerning the way early man clothed and decorated his body has lasted for thousands of years, but very little has been discovered about how early humans cared for or styled their hair. Even the best-preserved bodies of ancient man reveal nothing about how hair was worn.
The existence of identifiable body decorations on some Neanderthal humans from as early as 75,000 B.C.E. provides intriguing evidence of the first human use of adornment or decoration, and thus the first incidence of fashion.
As with many other elements from the life of prehistoric humans, little can be known about the nature of footwear at that time. Archeologists, scientists who study the physical remains of past cultures, have discovered fragments of leather shoes and foot-wrappings from a variety of different locations that give some insight into how prehistoric peoples protected their feet.