The Connection between Ethnicity and Hair Texture

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It is no surprise hair texture varies based on ethnic background. But what exactly determines the hair texture of someone based on their ethnic background? In today’s society, image is everything and hair is a great part of one’s image. In fact, the total revenue of the hair care industry in 2013 was $64.8 billion, according to the 2013 Professional Salon Industry Haircare Study. Because the hair industry is so lucrative, it is safe to say that hair is important to many.
When researching a topic on genetics or human adaptation, there are limitations in understanding the connection between the texture of human hair and ethnicity. Such limitations include the variation of hair textures amongst a specific ethnicity. Because there is no uniform hair texture for each ethnicity, my research will require more digging to figure out the cause of this. This makes it more complex to figure out what determines what type of hair texture someone will have. Caucasians are a prime example of an ethnicity with different hair textures since they could have straight, wavy, or curly hair. Another limitation would be the fact that everyone in the world has mixed ancestry. No human’s ethnic DNA is 100% anything. This wouldn’t be possible considering the fact that humans all have a single origin, which will be discussed later on. One problem that is also considered a limitation is understanding the meaning of ethnicity. Figuring out if it is a social term or a biological term is hard because there is no correct answer. In Humanity: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology by James People and Garrick Bailey, an ethnic group is defined as “ a named social category of people based on perceptions of shared social experience or ancestry”(People; Bailey 389)...

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...ased on will either be answered or very close to being answered. When the original question is answered, maybe hair care products can be made to work for all hair textures. By discovering exactly why hair differs among ethnicities, society can see that one should not be judged based on their hair.
In conclusion, the question of how hair texture among an ethnicity is determined has yet to be answered. However, new developments such as the evidence that all humans have the same single origin in Africa and mutations in the P2RY5 gene can determine the hair texture of a human, have shown that researchers are quite close in determining the hair texture of an ethnicity. These developments have the possibility of leading to new hair removal and hair growth treatments. The future looks bright for hair research and hopefully in the next 20-50 years the question is answered.

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