African-American hair or Black hair refers to Afro-textured hair types, textures, and styles that are linked to African-American culture, often drawing inspiration from African hair culture.
Afro-textured hair is a human hair texture originally prevalent in many regions with hot climates, including in sub-Saharan Africa. Each strand of this hair type grows in a tiny, angle-like helix shape.
So, you're hearing terms like 'African descent hair,' 'hair of African origin' or 'textured hair. ' Textured hair seems to be the catch-all phrase that everyone from influencers to haircare brands are now using to describe the panoply of afro hair textures.
There's such a distinction of natural hair within the African American community because, throughout history, a lot of chemically altered hair through perms and relaxers. As many of us decided to stop using heat and chemicals, we came up with the term “natural hair” to describe our hair when it's unaltered.
Afro hair is predominantly black and a healthy person possesses about 50,000 to 100,000 hairs on their head but they have the slowest growth rate of about 0.9cm per month.
Distribution. Black hair is known to be the most common in the continents of 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.
Researchers often use the terms European hair and Caucasian hair interchangeably to refer to straight or wavy hair. They typically consider East Asian hair to be very straight and use African or “afro” to describe curly, kinky, or coily hair.
The average diameter, or thickness, of Asian hair is from 80 to 120 µm, compared to 65 µm in Caucasian hair and 55 µm in Black hair. The average diameter of Hispanic/Latino hair tends to fall between that of Asian and Caucasian. Caucasians have the highest hair density among the ethnicities studied.
The texture of black hair originates from the curl pattern of their African ancestors who spent a long time in the sun. As with any genetic trait, certain hair types are more dominant than others in a family lineage. These genetic factors also mean that curly kinky hair is very common in many African tribes.
Ever since African civilizations bloomed, hairstyles have been used to indicate a person's marital status, age, religion, ethnic identity, wealth and rank within the community. In some cultures, a person's surname could be ascertained simply by examining the hair because each clan had its own unique hairstyle.
African hair is seen to be much thicker and more dense meaning that the hair follicles are larger. Density represents the amount of hairs that grow from the head, with denser hair resulting from more hairs growing closer together from the scalp.
In fact, African hair actually produces more oils than Caucasian and Asian hair. However, due to the tight curls, the oil doesn't spread evenly along the hair fiber. Without lubrication, the fibers can become dry. This causes the strands to become more brittle, which contributes to the hair's texture.
There are two reasons why we believe African hair texture is 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.
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.
The African hair is generally curly or frizzy, and grows almost parallel to the scalp. It has the slowest growth rate of 0.9 centimeters per month due to its spiral structure which causes it to twist on itself as it grows.
Black hair, because it's curly, can be weaker than straighter hair. Each bend in the strand represents a weak point in the hair shaft, which makes it more prone to breakage. All this means is that it takes a little more TLC to avoid breakage. So we tend to have shorter hair, but that doesn't mean it doesn't grow.
Many Asians have naturally straight hair, but there is a significant group of us who do have naturally curly or wavy hair! However, because it's the norm to see straight and sleek hair, curly haired boys and girls tend to think that their hair is some kind of unruly straight hair that isn't behaving.
Individuals of African ancestry, for example, are more likely to have curly hair due to the oval shape of their hair follicles. Additionally, the Keratin Associated Protein (KAP) cluster genes, responsible for the structure of keratin fibers, have been found to have variations in many African populations.
African Americans have the lowest hair density, averaging around 130 hairs per square centimeter and about 60,000 hair follicles on an adult scalp.
The rarest natural hair colour is red, which makes up only one to two percent of the global population. You commonly see these hair colours in western and northern areas of Europe, especially Scotland and Ireland. However, natural redheads may not exist for much longer.
It actually is the dark brown hair, when we notice hair to be black. If we examine it in natural light you can see highlights that are reddish colour. To get hair that is absolutely black such as black as night, you may make use of black hair dye. It will give you the artificial pigments that will result in dark hair.
In many African tribes, braided hairstyles were a unique way to identify each tribe. Braid patterns and hairstyles were an indication of a person's tribe, age, marital status, wealth, power, and religion. Braiding was and is a social art.
Higher Concentration of Melanin
Most Africans have high levels of melanin that results in yellow eyes. Melanin determines the color of your skin, sclera and eyes. When this concentration increases, the eye color becomes light yellow or muddy brown.
Black hair and blue eyes is a much more rare combination than is blonde hair and blue eyes. The reason why these two traits are linked is that the genes responsible for hair and eye color happen to be close together on the same chromosomes.
Less than 20% of the world's population is born with naturally curly hair, so in terms of pure numbers, it's fairly rare.