“Europeans have straight hair due to the mutation of one genetic variation and it is a different one in the case of the Asians. When they reached America, they hybridized with the native people and the result is like shuffling a deck.
Asian hair is also the straightest hair of any ethnic group. According to HealthGuidance, African American hair texture varies. Some people have thicker, coarser hair whereas others have finer hair. Many have a mixture of fine and coarse hair.
Why do Europeans and Asians have straight hair? This change in shape also occurs due to different genetic variations in different groups of people. Straight hair in Asians is due to a variation in two genes, genes different from the ones that influence hair texture in Europeans and Africans.
In Europe, 45% of individuals have straight hair, 40% have wavy hair, and 15% have curly hair. Asian-specific alleles of the EDAR and FGFR2 genes that are associated with thick, straight hair arose after the divergence of Asians and Europeans.
Evolutionary trait
It is known that 45% of European people have straight hair, 40% have wavy hair and 15% have curly hair. They had previously established the heritability of curly hair, finding there was as much as a 90% chance of it being an inherited trait.
Hair type 1A is super-straight. It doesn't even hold a curl! 1A is the rarest hair type. It is usually found on people of Asian descent.
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).
Caucasians have the highest hair density among the ethnicities studied. Black people have the lowest. Asian people have hair density that falls somewhere in between.
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.
Hair type and texture are determined by several factors, including genetics. The African hair is more coiled and drier; Asian hair (Korean, Japanese) is straighter and thicker; and Caucasian hair is somewhere in between with around 45% having straight hair, 40% having wavy hair, and 15% having curly hair.
Ironically, wavy, curly hair is not a rarity in South Asia. In fact, it's quite the opposite, with many women having some sort of texture to their hair. Some embrace their curls, while many have been straightening their hair for years.
In fact, more people prefer curly hair to straight hair. Though beauty is seen differently by everyone, one thing is for sure; curly hair is getting a lot of love lately. In fact, in a survey conducted by StyleCaster, a surprising 58% of guys thought curly hair was sexier than other hair textures.
The story of human migration and evolution is written in hair DNA. In sub-Saharan Africa, genes favour tight, curly hair. But in east Asia, mutations have led to straighter, thicker hair. In Europe, other mutations brought wavy and straw-coloured hair.
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.
Hair Curvature
In contrast to African hair that is more flattened and often has twists and turns, Asian hair tends to be round in shape, straight, and more cylindrical. The low values of average curvature in Asian hair suggest a relatively straight hair.
Straight hair is considered “recessive.” To put that in simple terms, that means that if one parent gives you a curly-haired gene and the other parent gives you a straight-haired gene, you'll be born with curly hair.
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.
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!
What nationality has thick 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. Meanwhile it's almost nonexistent in people of African and European descent. Both age and sex can also affect your hair shaft thickness.
Racial gaps in life expectancy have long been recognized. The same CDC data show that nationally, Hispanic Americans have the longest life expectancy, followed by white and then Black Americans.
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.
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. African hair has a flattened shape.
The gene for curly hair in Caucasians
It has been long established that curly hair is a dominant trait in Caucasians and straight hair is recessive.
Less than 20% of people have naturally curly hair. The percentage gets even smaller when you consider the scores of guys out there who don't embrace their curls.