Afro-textured hair characterizes all African populations and is the likely ancestral condition for humans. It may have evolved as thermoregulatory adaptation to help keep the scalp and brain cool under condi- tions of high environmental heat and strenuous exercise.
African hair is typically dense, thick and/or curly, to provide extra protection for the fragile skin on the scalp from the exceptional heat of the sun typically found in Sub Saharan Africa. It's a feat of beautiful evolution!
The Unique Structure of Black Hair
Black hair is structurally different from non-black hair. Black hair tends to be much thicker than any other type of hair, and its shape is totally different too. Strands are flat, but it also has a curl pattern that tends to be much tighter than other kinds of hair.
Also, there is the retrocurvature of the hair follicle, which is different from the straight shape of Caucasian follicles. Knot formation due to intertwined hair fibers makes combing difficult and predisposes the African hair to breakage during normal grooming.
The MC1R gene holds the alleles for hair color. There are many recessive and dominant alleles for hair color. Simply, Caucasians have far more variations in the MC1R alleles than most other groups. This will change over time now that air travel and immigration is so common.
Asian hair and Caucasian hair handle stress and fatigue well. Asian hair has the highest hardness and elasticity. It is resistant to stretching and can withstand a traction force of 60 to 65 grams.
Results: Findings indicated that non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanics have accelerated aging, and non-Hispanic Whites have decelerated aging. Racial/ethnic differences were strongly tied to educational attainment. We also observed a significant difference by birthplace for Hispanics.
Asian hair is by far the thickest of all hair types – 80 - 120 µm in diameter. Because of its extra diameter, it is also the strongest, and most resistant to damage.
70 Together with the evidence from studies of heat gain and loss in birds and nonhuman mammals, these findings suggest that short, curly, Afro-textured hair evolved because it can maintain a boundary layer of cooler, dryer air near the scalp, and thereby protect the thermo- genic and thermosensitive brain.
Another advantage of black hair is that darker hair seems to always look healthier than lighter colors. The darker hair dye can make the strands look thicker, leaving you with fuller looking hair. Plus, black will reflect light better, so your hair looks shinier and more nourished.
Many African groups braided hair to identify with their tribe. Braids indicated wealth, marital status, power, and religion. Slaves used braids to communicate escape routes. White slaveholders forced slaves to shave their head and keep a “tidy” appearance.
After a certain population analyzed, researchers found that women with brown eyes chose blond hair more often, while women with other eye colors preferred brunette hair. Furthermore, the results showed that women care about hair length, with long black hair being preferred by the majority of women.
Because of the opportunities offered to those with European features, enslaved women used various hair straightening methods including slathering the hair with butter, bacon fat, or goose grease and then using a butter knife heated in a can over a fire to straighten their hair, wrapping the hair in string, nylon, ...
Black hair follicles have an elliptical shape that grow in a spiral and results in the slowest growth rate, at only about a third of an inch per month. It is also more fragile and prone to breakage. Asian hair follicles are round, usually very straight, and strong.
Distribution. Black hair is the most common in Asia and Africa. Though this characteristic can also be seen throughout Europe as well, it is considerably less common. It can be found in Celtic populations such as in Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Many black women are using hair jewelry like beads, gold cuffs, and multicolored string to accentuate natural or protective styles such as braids, locs and twists. This "trend" however is rooted in the black hair experience.
Studies have shown that the morphology of the hair follicle can be influenced by a person's race. Individuals of African ancestry, for example, are more likely to have curly hair due to the oval shape of their hair follicles.
People of all ethnicities, including Caucasians, can have type 4 hair, although it is highly uncommon.
A black haired person. Or brunette/brunet (you almost never see the second one but it's what you are supposed to use for men), but that could also mean brown haired. Same with "dark haired".
Skin barrier function is reportedly stronger in darker skin tones (the stratum corneum is the skin barrier). Asian skin is reported to have similarities with Caucasian skin in terms of water loss and has the weakest barrier function.
Genetics (which controls ethnicity) is the number one cause of hair loss. Certain races have higher rates of hair loss compared to others. Caucasians have the highest rates out of all the ethnic groups. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Native American Indians, Inuits, and Chinese have the lowest rates.
There is no scientific basis to claim that any particular ethnicity or race has "more dominant" genes than others. Genetic diversity exists within and across all human populations. All humans belong to the same species, Homo sapiens, and share the vast majority of their DNA sequence.
The scientists analysed the genetic variation within the DNA of more than 3,000 Africans and found that the San were among the most genetically diverse group, indicating that they are probably the oldest continuous population of humans on the continent – and on Earth.
Darker skin tones have a compact dermis in the deep layer of the skin, with more active cells and a stronger collagen network. Because of this, dark-skinned people typically do not start wrinkling until 10 to 20 years later.
Among adult men (20 years and older) in the largest race and ethnicity groups, Blacks were the most likely to be jobless (with an unemployment rate of 5.8 percent), while Whites (3.0 percent) and Asians (2.7 percent) were the least likely. The jobless rate for Hispanic men was 3.8 percent.