The Study of Racialism Discussion of U.S. Racialism Please read The Rules before posting.    FAQ   Search     Register     Log in  ' What causes differences in hair textures?          The Study of Racialism Forum Index -> Molecular Anthropology and Genetics Author Message Grasshoppa Mentor Joined: 07 Oct 2007 {Posts: 248 } Location: United States Posted: Fri 09 May 2008 16:08    Post subject: What causes differences in hair textures? I would assume it has much to do with climate and maybe the humidity of the region? I mean, after all, there is a correlation between skin color and hair texture, but there are also exceptions. Dark skinned Indians that I've seen tend to have hair that's more wavey. Why don't those people have frizzier hair? Back to top Grasshoppa Mentor Joined: 07 Oct 2007 {Posts: 248 } Location: United States Posted: Sun 11 May 2008 15:06    Post subject: Nobody knows? Differences in melanin levels are the result of adaptations to climate, so wouldn't something similar be true of differences in hair textures? Back to top Bischoff Mentor Joined: 20 Jan 2008 {Posts: 395 } Posted: Sun 11 May 2008 16:58    Post subject: Yeah many Indians are Black as hell yet have hair texture that is as bone straight as a Swede's or a Jap's. Back to top DucorpsToo Mentor Joined: 19 Jan 2006 {Posts: 223 } Location: Southern California Posted: Sun 11 May 2008 19:09    Post subject: Quote: Yeah many Indians are Black as hell yet have hair texture that is as bone straight as a Swede's or a Jap's. Please use the term Japanese. "Jap" is deemed as an offensive slur by many. Back to top msmochachina Regular User Joined: 03 Mar 2008 {Posts: 69 } Posted: Mon 12 May 2008 00:42    Post subject: Ditto darling DucorpsToo wrote: Quote: Yeah many Indians are Black as hell yet have hair texture that is as bone straight as a Swede's or a Jap's. Please use the term Japanese. "Jap" is deemed as an offensive slur by many. You read my mind. I was gonna say the same thing! Back to top BlackHaze Experienced User Joined: 29 Dec 2004 {Posts: 114 } Posted: Mon 12 May 2008 08:27    Post subject: I was going to post the same question. Seems that wolly/nappy hair is a uniquely African trait. Some populations in the pacific islands also have this trait but I don't know whether they develped the hair texture before or after they colonized those islands. An interesting article about this subject... http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=107 Back to top Bischoff Mentor Joined: 20 Jan 2008 {Posts: 395 } Posted: Mon 12 May 2008 08:54    Post subject: I have seen some Pacific Islanders/Samoans that can give Black people a run for their money in the nappy hair department. That is why I have been guilty before of confusing some Samoans who do not have good hair for being part Black. Back to top BlackHaze Experienced User Joined: 29 Dec 2004 {Posts: 114 } Posted: Mon 12 May 2008 23:14    Post subject: Bischoff wrote: I have seen some Pacific Islanders/Samoans that can give Black people a run for their money in the nappy hair department. That is why I have been guilty before of confusing some Samoans who do not have good hair for being part Black. Yeah, like this guy. He could easily be mistaken for light skinned Afrcan American. [/i] Back to top Grasshoppa Mentor Joined: 07 Oct 2007 {Posts: 248 } Location: United States Posted: Thu 15 May 2008 05:08    Post subject: BlackHaze wrote: I was going to post the same question. Seems that wolly/nappy hair is a uniquely African trait. Some populations in the pacific islands also have this trait but I don't know whether they develped the hair texture before or after they colonized those islands. An interesting article about this subject... http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=107 Interesting. I can't imagine what would be the cause of such a trait. What benefit does wirey, breakage prone hair have? The only thing I can think of is that it breaks and stays short because lots of hair isn't needed in a warm climate. Could that be it? Back to top fwsweet Administrator Joined: 26 Nov 2004 {Posts: 5376 } Location: Palm Coast, FL Posted: Thu 15 May 2008 10:30    Post subject: Grasshoppa wrote: The only thing I can think of is that it breaks and stays short because lots of hair isn't needed in a warm climate. In that case, why bother to have head hair at all? After all, humans are pretty hairless almost eveywhere else. If any particular environment penalized head hair, you would think that encouraging the baldness gene (which humans all carry anyway) would be a more straightforward adaptation than the hassle of growing fragile head hair. Back to top DucorpsToo Mentor Joined: 19 Jan 2006 {Posts: 223 } Location: Southern California Posted: Fri 16 May 2008 00:03    Post subject: I'm wondering if the woolly hair gene(s) could be a sort of random mutation that while harmless, serves no specific purpose either. Back to top sagascend Moderator-at-Large Joined: 17 Jun 2006 {Posts: 2410 } Posted: Fri 16 May 2008 12:25    Post subject: Flat follices produce hair that is coiled. They look like slits. What I always heard is that this kind of hair is better to have in really hot, arid climates like a savannah but I never understood why this hair was unique to Africa until reading the articles below. Natural oil, sebum, which everyone secrets from their scalps easily comes down a straight hair shaft but has increasing difficulty doing so the curlier the hair shaft. That is why curly and coiled hair can turn brittle and coarse, is not shiny and tends to be more fragile. Quote: Hair Biology has always interested me and no matter where I look I can never find the appropriate answer to my question. Now I understand that African American hair has a curly follicle, which is what produces the curly hair texture as in many ethnic groups, but how come African Americans are essentially the only ethnic group with coarse curly hair? I don't mean to be rude while asking this question, but it has always been of interest to me. I want to understand the genetics behind it. Hair follicle-An undergraduate student from Georgia Having an interest in understanding our differences isn't rude at all! Hair texture is just one of the many obvious physical differences that exist between ethnic groups. Although hair growth rate, size, shape and texture are unique to every person, we can see trends among groups of people. While genes are likely to be involved in determining these traits, not much is known yet about the actual ones involved. So what is known about hair type? Hair follicles are tiny pockets in our scalp out of which our hair grows. As you hinted above, the thickness and texture of our hair depends on the size and shape of these follicles. They help to form and contour our hair as it grows. Our hair thickness results from a combination of both the size of the follicles themselves and how many of them line our scalp. The size of the follicles determines if the individual hair strands are thick or thin. Large follicles produce thick hairs. Small follicles produce thin hairs. It is that simple! Equally important to our hair thickness, the number of follicles on our scalp determines the actual number of hairs crowning our head. Lots of hairs equal thick hair. Sparse hair equals thin hair. On average, our heads are covered with over 100,000 follicles! Our hair texture can range anywhere from pin-straight to extremely curly. Follicles that are round in cross-section give rise to straight hair. Those out of which curly hair grows are oval. Very tightly coiled hair is due to the nearly flat, ribbon-like structure of the follicles. This hair texture is very common in people of African ancestry. Not only is African hair wiry, it is also frequently coarse. So why is this? African hair produces plenty of protective oils, called sebum. In fact, African hair actually produces more oils than Caucasian and Asian hair. However, due to the tight curls, the oil fails to spread evenly along the hair fiber. Without lubrication, the fibers become very dry. This causes the brittle strands to flake and roughen, resulting in hair that is coarse to the touch. Very curly hair from all ethnic groups often lacks the silky smoothness of straight hair. This may due to the same reason, but to a lesser extent. The brittleness of African hair adds to the illusion that it cannot be grown long. The tight curls create stresses at each turn in the hair fiber. The hair strands become weak and fragile, making them prone to breakage. As a result, tightly coiled hair tends to stay quite short. So is this hair quality genetic? There are two strong reasons why we would expect African hair texture to be genetic. Firstly, the texture is universal in Africans, while nearly absent from other ethnic groups. Secondly, it is consistently passed down to the children in each new generation. Despite this, I could not find any identified gene shown to be responsible. Of course, that doesn’t mean that a gene isn’t involved! Scientists have just not found it yet. However, we may be able to pull clues from rare occurrences of non-Africans with a similar coarse hair texture. You may think that coiled hair is unique to those of African ancestry, but it is not. It is, however, quite rare in other races. So rare, in fact, that when it is seen in Caucasians and Asians it is called a syndrome. Woolly Hair Syndrome. Described in much the same way as African hair, woolly hair is characterized by dry, tightly spiraled fibers. You may be wondering if it initially arose from the mixing of different racial gene pools. That is not thought to be the case. Since Woolly Hair Syndrome is so infrequent there is little reliable information about it. The actual causative gene or genes have not been singled out yet. However, the syndrome does run strongly in families. When the exact gene causing a syndrome is not known, scientists look at how the trait is passed along in families. It appears that most cases of Woolly Hair are inherited dominantly. This means only a single copy of the “woolly” version of the gene is needed, passed down from either the father or the mother. It may be possible that the gene responsible for Woolly Hair in non-Africans contributes to the coarse texture of African hair as well. If this were the case, the “non-woolly” version of the gene is virtually exclusive to Caucasians and Asians. This would explain the silky hair common among these ethnicities. Likewise, the “woolly” version is nearly exclusive to Africans. Its high prevalence could be explained by the fact that most Africans are carrying two copies of the dominant gene. This would assure that the coarse hair texture is maintained in the population. Whether the gene responsible for Woolly Hair in Caucasians causes the similar hair texture seen in Africans is hotly debated. Differences have been noted. For example, the curls of Africans tend to lie as separate ringlets, while the curls of woolly-haired Caucasians tend to merge. This model also raises questions regarding the hair texture of children of mixed race. Using this model we might expect kids with one African gene and one Caucasian gene to have the dominant African hair texture. This does not always appear to be the case. An “intermediate” texture is often seen. As time passes, genetics will certainly bring to light the reason behind many of our ethnic differences. When that day comes, there may then be a more definitive answer to your question. http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=107 Someone also found a gene for what they call wooly hair: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080225134233.htm Back to top William Moderator Joined: 30 Mar 2005 {Posts: 1082 } Location: New Jersey Posted: Fri 16 May 2008 16:07    Post subject: Thank you, Maya; that is very interesting. I was aware that not much was known on the subject (which both articles state), but not that a gene had been discovered for "woolly" hair. This of course should not be confused with "kinky" hair. Back to top MisterLawyer Moderator Joined: 02 May 2006 {Posts: 443 } Location: Île-de-France Posted: Fri 16 May 2008 17:04    Post subject: Could somone explain the difference between woolly and kinky hair? Back to top sagascend Moderator-at-Large Joined: 17 Jun 2006 {Posts: 2410 } Posted: Fri 16 May 2008 17:25    Post subject: MisterLawyer wrote: Could somone explain the difference between woolly and kinky hair? LOL kind of like the difference between a cotton ball and a Slinky. Some people have one, some have both. Back to top Grasshoppa Mentor Joined: 07 Oct 2007 {Posts: 248 } Location: United States Posted: Sat 17 May 2008 03:22    Post subject: sagascend wrote: MisterLawyer wrote: Could somone explain the difference between woolly and kinky hair? LOL kind of like the difference between a cotton ball and a Slinky. Some people have one, some have both. *still confused* I always thought they were synonyms. Back to top popz Probationary Joined: 21 Sep 2008 {Posts: 8 } Posted: Tue 23 Sep 2008 01:24    Post subject: Bischoff wrote: I have seen some Pacific Islanders/Samoans that can give Black people a run for their money in the nappy hair department. That is why I have been guilty before of confusing some Samoans who do not have good hair for being part Black. Silly thoughtless way to put across your point but I can see where you are coming from... But what the hey your suspended anyway Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First         The Study of Racialism Forum Index -> Molecular Anthropology and Genetics All times are GMT Page 1 of 1 Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group