As for feathered dinosaurs go, the feathers aren’t preserved in just any sort of sedimentary deposit but in lagerstatten deposits, usually anoxic lagoon floors that lack many bacteria that degrade skeletons or ash falls, quickly covering the animals. This deposits are so fine and the burial is so rapid that the minor details of covering can be ascertained, and although I’m not an expert, I don’t know of any hominid lagerstatten sites. There are ash falls, and I wouldn’t be surprised if hominid remains were found in ash falls deposits (there are footprints, after all), but it seems that many of the fossils come from areas that lack this fine preservation. Perhaps a close look might be good, but if I came across a fragmentary skull from a riverbed that did not have a body outline around it I wouldn’t think that any hair would be found.

And as far as the hairy/hairless issue goes, I’m sure you’ve heard before that we’re just as hairy per square inch as apes, just our hairs are often shorter and lighter so it doesn’t seem as prominent. If a fine-preservation specimen were found that was less hairy microscopy would still be able to determine the presence of hairs, perhaps, even if they were reduced in length.

In any case, that is a very good idea, DD, and perhaps one day a more well-preserved specimen will be found. Time will tell.

I’ve an OT question that relates to dinosaur feathers and hominids.
When homonid researchers in the field find a skull, what is their priority? To pick and brush it off right? Since we know that feather imprints can be retained if the critter was covered in fine mud (rare but not unusual), shouldn’t skull diggers be looking at the inverse of the skull for hair imprints on the dried mudstone? Of course once the skull’s soft tissues decomposed, the surrounding silts collapsing inwards would destroy some of the features, but the dead hair protein would probably leave an imprint, possibly visible through MRI or micro or nano Xray analysis or something. I for one would like to know the precise hair/beard patterns, as I’m tired of paintings, drawings, models of ancient neandertals, erectoids and apiths with short haircuts, since sapiens have hair that grows a yard long when left uncut.

But then again, some people think our ancestors were like chimpanzees on savannas, where long hair is useless. I do wish the bone & stone folks would check on hair, probably the only soft tissue recognizable after 20k years in the hardening mud.