More than 90% of Han Chinese, 70% of Japanese and Thai people, and 60% to 90% of Native Americans carry the “thick hair" version of the gene. Meanwhile it's almost nonexistent in people of African and European descent. Both age and sex can also affect your hair shaft thickness.
Hair texture.
Caucasian hair usually appears thicker since it is more difficult to see through the scalp than other ethnic hair types. However, Asian hair is the thickest and coarsest hair of any ethnic group.
Hair follicles come in different shapes and sizes, affecting hair texture and width. Some people have wider follicles-and therefore, thicker hair strands-than other people. Genetics influence hair thickness, but other factors like hormones and age are important factors, too.
Most people of East Asian descent have thick, straight hair. This corresponds with a SNP (rs3827760) in the EDAR gene which is involved in hair follicle development. The ancestral allele of this SNP is the A-allele. The G-allele is the newly derived allele that leads to the thick, straight hair.
Caucasian, Asian and Indian hair samples were put to the test for the World's Best Hair study. Their results put an end to any splitting of hairs over the issue: in terms of health, the Indian hair is the best, topping other ethnic groups on all four counts.
Caucasians Lose The Most Hair
In terms of which ethnicity tends to experience the most hair loss, Caucasians are the undisputed leaders.
Japan, Spain and Sweden are widely known for having people with healthy hair, but there are also other countries like India, France and Russia that are also known for helping people keep their hair natural and not messing with any artificial coloring.
Follicles that are more oval in shape cause curlier hair to grow. Very tightly coiled hair is due to the nearly flat, ribbon-like structure of their follicles. This hair texture is very common in people of African ancestry. Not only is African hair often coiled, it also has a unique texture.
Geneticists at the University of Tokyo and several other institutions in Japan, Thailand, and Indonesia have now used the HapMap to explore why Japanese and Chinese people have thick hair: The cross-sectional area of East Asian hair fibers averages about 30% larger than that of Africans and 50% larger than that of ...
More circular-shaped follicles cause hair to grow straighter, while more curly hair is caused by more elongated, oval-shaped hair follicles. Hair follicles can also affect the thickness of hair strands. African hair is seen to be much thicker and more dense meaning that the hair follicles are larger.
The thickest strand of human hair is 772 micrometres (0.03 inches) and was plucked from the beard of Muhammad Umair Khan (Pakistan), in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, as verified on 3 March 2021.
Genetic factors appear to play a major role in determining hair texture—straight, wavy, or curly—and the thickness of individual strands of hair. Studies suggest that different genes influence hair texture and thickness in people of different ethnic backgrounds.
The cuticle layer in Asians is thicker with more compact cuticle cells than that in Caucasians. Asian hair generally exhibits the strongest mechanical properties, and its cross-sectional area is determined greatly by genetic variations, particularly from the ectodysplasin A receptor gene.
Asian hair, usually smooth and brown to black in color, grows perpendicular to the scalp. It has the fastest growth rate with about 1.4 centimeters per month. Asian hair has a rather round and uniform shape. Nevertheless, the density of Asian hair is the lowest of the 3 ethnic groups.
According to Personal Health via the New York Times, Caucasians are the hairiest ethnic group, with Semitic and Mediterranean people being the hairiest out of all Caucasians.
Africans have the widest and most prominent nose compared to other ethnic groups. Their noses are featured with enlarged nostrils, wide and rounded tips and a lack of protruded nasal bridge. West Africans have the widest noses (widest nostrils), while north Africans tend to have the smallest wide noses.
Thicker strands of hair are more likely to have a defect, making them more prone to breakage, the researchers believe. Lustrous, thick hair may be desirable but it is not necessarily the strongest. Scientists said thin hair tends to be stronger than thicker locks, after looking at the way they break.
And even if it is still in a relatively natural state, Irish hair tends to be quite coarse in texture – compare it, for example, to the silky manes of our Asian sisters.
This means two things: 1) if a person carries one allele for curly hair and another for straight hair, this person will have curly hair; 2) curly hair is a simple trait and is most likely determined by one single gene.
Genetics. Native Americans, East Asian, Southeast Asian, Southwest Asian, Middle Eastern, Far East Russian, South Asian and Himalayan black-haired people have thicker and straighter hair due to the derived EDAR gene allele that is linked to thicker and straighter hair and shovel-shaped incisors.
Afro-textured hair, or kinky hair, is a human hair texture originating from sub-Saharan Africa. Each strand of this hair type grows in a tiny, angle-like helix shape. The overall effect is such that, contrasted with straight, wavy, or curly hair, afro-textured hair appears denser.
Curly hair is not certain to a race or ethnicity, it appears all over the world in many forms. White, brown, black and everything inbetween! There is also a scale on which curly hair is classified (2a-4c).
It's thick.
Hair tends to have 5-10 cuticle layers, so Asian hair has the most layers possible, making the hair thicker and stronger.
Caucasian, Asian and Indian hair samples were put to the test for the World's Best Hair study. Their results put an end to any splitting of hairs over the issue: in terms of health, the Indian hair is the best, topping other ethnic groups on all four counts.
You see, the women of the Red Yao tribe have some of the longest hair in the world – as in their hair is almost the same length as their height!