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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What nationality does thick hair come from? A gene variation of EDAR that arose about 30,000 years ago seems to give some people thicker strands of hair. 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.
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.
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.
The Hairiest Ethnicities: What Ethnicity Has the Most Hair? 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.
Still, there are genetically influenced variations in people: Whites tend to be hairier than blacks, and among whites, Mediterranean and Semitic people tend to be hairier than Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons. The least hairy peoples are Asians and American Indians.
Which country has the best 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.
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 ...
Because hair can be grouped into three different racial groups it can be used to identify if it came from someone of European, Asian, or African ancestry. As such, hair can be used to exclude people of certain racial group as suspects or as having been at a crime scene.
As a plastic surgeon sees it, there are structural reasons that people age differently. “Asians have a wider bone structure than a typical Caucasian face,” Dobryansky notes. “The soft-tissue loss is seen and felt to a lesser extent because of the wider structure.
Although Middle Eastern and Indian hair is typically thicker and fuller in comparison to other hair types, there are still many people who suffer from hair loss who have this type.
Thick (Coarse)
Thick or coarse hair texture is the strongest hair texture and typically feels coarse or thick to the touch. Coarse hair contains all three hair layers – the cortex, cuticle and medulla.
* East Asian hair has twice the diameter and a much thicker cuticle than Caucasian hair. Most hair types have around five layers of cuticles while East Asian hair has closer to ten.
There are racial differences, however, in the incidence of male pattern baldness. The highest rates are found among Caucasians, followed by Afro-Caribbeans. Chinese and Japanese men have the lowest rates. For some unknown reason, this form of hair loss is does not occur among Native Americans.
China is a country where the number of people who go bald is very low. Many of the other countries in this region, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Laos, Sri Lanka, South Korea, and Japan, also have very low percentages of male pattern baldness.
While studies have suggested almost all Caucasian men will eventually face some degree of male pattern baldness -- and around half can expect to lose their hair by middle age -- Asian men, and East Asians in particular, have historically experienced the lowest incidence of hair loss in the world.