How Ethnicity and Weather Affect Hair Types? By Monica C. At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Have you ever thought why some foreigners have different-looking hair than yours, or why your hair appears coarser or finer than those from others? The reason for these discrepancies in hair type is ethnicity. Aside from the basic differences in skin color, different racial stratums have different hair types.

Why do people have straighter hair than others? Why do Africans have kinky hair? All these questions can be traced back to the fact that we live in different places on the Earth. Some places are warmer, some are cooler, still some are drier while some are quite moist.

All these variables in the Earth’s biospheres contribute to the development of different hair types that serve to support distinct communities that are required to live in certain places for very long periods of time.

How Ethnicity Affects Hair?

Most Europeans have very course and very thick hair. Under normal circumstances a person of predominantly European descent would have at least 100,000 active follicles on his or her head. Of course, 90% of these would be actively reproducing on a daily basis.

As for the regal Asians, the numbers of scalp hair are decidedly fewer because most Asian countries have more comfortable, bearable climes. An average Asian has over 80,000 active follicles. Asian hair is also less coarse than European hair, and yet it is the strongest when bunched together.

African hair on the other hand, has the lowest number, next to Asian hair. Under normal circumstances, a regular African scalp would only have around 60,000 active follicles. This applies to African Americans, as well.

How Weather Affects Hair?

You might be wondering, why do Africans have less hair when it’s generally hotter and drier where they live? The reason for this is that the hair is structured differently even if the density is lower. If you would care to observe a regular African scalp, the fine hairs of an African scalp are quite kinky and are grouped tightly into specific groups. This particular grouping allows the hair to more actively combat the weather and the natural forces like the radiation of the sun.

There’s a reason also why some Asian scalps are see-through. With lesser density, Asian scalps can breathe easier since some Asians live in the equatorial regions of the world.

The equatorial regions of the world typically oscillate between extreme heat and completely wet seasons. This oscillation of weather also require loose hair: loose hair can adapt more easily to air that "see-saws" between humid and bone-dry.

Asian hair is also quite protective because it has the highest concentration of melanin among the three hair types. Melanin is the natural pigment found on the human skin and in the hair. The darker the melanin, the more effective it is in deflecting the sun’s harmful radiation.

Therefore, if we compare the three hair types, it appears that Asian hair provides the highest degree of protection. Next to Asian hair would be the African hair, and finally, the European light-colored hair.

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