Afro-textured hair

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Young woman with relatively loosely coiled afro-hair.

Afro-textured hair, or Black hair, are terms used to refer to the typical texture of Black African hair that has not been altered by hot combs, flat irons, or chemicals (by perming, relaxing, straightening, bleaching or coloring). Each strand of this hair type grows in a tiny spring-like, corkscrew shape. The overall effect is such that, despite relatively fewer actual hair shafts compared to straight hair,[1] natural afro-hair texture appears (and feels) denser than its straight counterparts. Due to this, it is often referred to as 'thick', 'bushy', or 'woolly'. For several reasons, possibly including its relatively flat cross section (among other factors[2]), this hair type conveys a dry or matte appearance.[3][4] It is also very coarse,[3] and its unique shape renders it very prone to breakage when combed or brushed.[4] Adjectives such as "hard", "kinky", "nappy" or "spiraled" are used to describe natural afro-textured hair in Western societies. Not all people of sub-Saharan African descent have natural afro-textured hair. Nonetheless the vast majority express this trait.

Afro-hair has no natural analog among mammals.[5] The texture is a remnant of an important period in human evolutionary history in that it likely evolved when proto-humans began to lose most of their fur to enable perspiration and thus needed to prevent their originally pale skin underneath from overexposing the body to UV radiation.[6][7][8] This is substantiated by findings that straight hair fibers allow UV light into the skin in a way that is analogous to how fiber optic tubes facilitate the passage of light.[6] By contrast, kinked fiber optic tubes do not allow light to pass through. Hence, "kinky" or natural afro-hair likely served to temporarily mitigate against the harmful effects of intense equatorial UV light on the originally pale-skinned proto-humans[7] until the evolution of a skin color that was dark enough to serve this purpose. In this sense, the trait ceased to be essential to equatorial survival upon the development of hairless dark skin. However, it continued to be expressed vestigially on the head and axillary regions. It is thus evident that there was once a time when all humans expressed Afro-textured hair.[citation needed] Today this trait is maintained almost exclusively among most Negrito (i.e. mainly Melanesian or Andaman Islander) and sub-Saharan African populations.

Contents

[edit] Structure

There are differences across ethnicity in the structure, density, and growth rate of hair. With regards to structure, all human hair has the same basic chemical composition in terms of keratin protein content.[2] However, Franbourg et al. have found that Black hair may differ in the distribution of lipids throughout the hair shaft.[2] This, in turn, may affect the sorption levels of Afro-hair which thereby explains why Afro-textured hair absorbs 10 to 15% less moisture than does straight hair.[2] Concerning density and rate of growth, Loussouarn found that Afro-textured hair was neither as densely concentrated nor as rapidly growing as Caucasian hair.[1] Specifically, the average density of Afro-textured hair was found to be approximately 190 hairs per square centimeter. This was significantly lower than that of Caucasian hair, which, on average, produces approximately 227 hairs per square centimeter.[1] Further, Loussourarn found that Afro-textured hair grows at an average rate of approximately 256 micrometers per day, while that of Caucasians grows at approximately 396 micrometers per day.[1] Finally, in most cases, unless natural afro-textured hair is left alone (i.e., not styled or grown into dreadlocks), its unique shape itself often limits the length that the hair can reach because the act of combing and brushing tends to break the ends of the hair; resulting in what is effectively a "natural haircut" each time it is styled. In other words, due to conventional grooming practices, loose natural afro-hair, upon reaching a certain length (which varies by the tightness of the coil), reaches a "steady state" such that it does not appear longer despite continual new growth.[9]

[edit] Evolution

[edit] Possible selective environmental factors

Tightly coiled hair is typically described as being an evolutionary adaptation to the warm, tropical climates of sub-Saharan Africa and Melanesia. Some hold that the texture may allow for greater moisture retention because sweat is able to remain on the scalp, as opposed to the sweat being evaporated and thus cooling the cranium.[10] Furthermore it has been asserted that, when the sun is directly overhead, the top surface of the hair heats up while leaving a barrier of cooler air between the scalp and the top surface of the hair. This barrier of cooler air assists in cooling the brain. This effect is most prominent in people with 'frizzy' (Afro-textured) hair.[11] However, despite these claims, the fact remains that a large proportion of people who currently thrive in or near equatorial regions (such as those from Southern Asia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia or indigenous South America) do not express natural Afro-hair (see all documentation of the peoples indigenous to Southern Asia, Mesoamerica, equatorial Africa, the Middle East, and Australia). Thus it is likely that this trait evolved to serve a different original purpose.

[edit] Theory on the evolution of Afro hair texture

[edit] Context in which Afro hair may have developed

Evolutionary biologists suggest that the genus Homo arose in East Africa approximately 2.5 million years ago.[11] During this time new hunting techniques were innovated.[11] The higher protein diet led to the evolution of larger body and brain sizes.[11] In Skin: A Natural History, Nina Jablonski postulates that increasing body size, in conjunction with intensified hunting during the day at the equator, gave rise to a greater need to rapidly expel heat. As a result, these proto-modern-humans developed the ability to sweat and thus lost body hair to facilitate this process.[11] Notably, Pagel et al. (2003) argue against this hypothesis, stating that hominids without fur would not have been able to warm themselves as efficiently at night, nor protect themselves well enough from the sun during the day.[12] (Note that many early human remains have been found in high altitudes, where temperatures are much cooler than in the rainforest below, and the cooler temperatures allow for greater preservation of the remains). However, it is likely that increased intelligence, combined with sophisticated hunting techniques, enabled humans to warm themselves at night using animal skins. Furthermore, as the furless condition slowly developed, genetic evidence suggests that dark skin color gradually evolved to protect the body from UV during the day (and thus compensate for the sparse hair coverage).[7] Thus, it is likely that pre-humans lost fur mostly for the purpose of facilitating the evaporation of sweat and the corresponding cooling of the body.

Putatively, as groups of modern humans began migrating away from the equatorial lattitudes, straighter hair, which is more common in mammals, re-emerged as the dominant trait. As mentioned, the equatorial heat and higher proto-human activity levels were such that most body hair was eliminated 1–2 million years ago. However, Jablonski[11] agrees that at this time, it was evolutionarily advantageous for pre-humans (Homo erectus) to retain the hair on their heads in order to protect the skin there as they walked upright in the intense African (equatorial) UV light. Auxiliary hair in the groin and underarms was also retained; probably as a sign of sexual maturity.

[edit] The global distribution of Afro hair texture

[edit] Current distribution

Afro hair is a predominant characteristic of Black Africans, Andaman Islanders, and Melanesians. It is often posited that this hair texture is an adaptation to tropical climates. However, as mentioned, many relatively darker complexioned straight haired people (such as certain Southern South Asians, Southern Middle Easterners, Southeast Asian groups and Native Americans such as the Mayans) have also been found to thrive in similar types of warm equatorial environments. Thus the distribution of the trait likely has more to do with a) its strong selection in Africa more than ~1 million years prior to the exodus of a small group of people out of Africa b) the natural selection, migration and admixture patterns of those modern humans who left Africa to populate the rest of the world within ~60,000 years ago. Further, the currently uneven distribution of afro-hair at the equator has to do with the pre-Holocene retention of that which was adaptively essential at the equator (i.e. dark skin) and the loss of that which was no longer essential (i.e. Afro hair) following admixture.[citation needed] The pattern is particularly likely in places such as India where, despite the ubiquity of straight hair, skin colors are typically dark (putatively to protect from the equatorial sunlight); ranging from being light brown to very dark. This is supported by recent findings that continental Indians are genetically similar to Andaman Islanders; a group occupying islands to the east of India who bare strong resemblance to continental Africans in terms of hair texture and skin color.[13] This supports the suggestion that, after the migration of a group of modern humans out of Africa, those who settled in warm sunny regions similar to sub-Saharan Africa, like the Andaman Islands and Melanesia (and, in addition, remained isolated from straight haired northern migrants), did not experience adaptive (nor admixture) pressure for their hair to straighten. Thus it remained Afro-like. By contrast, those who did not settle in equatorial regions (and/or admixed with straight-haired northerners) came to express straight hair.

[edit] Straight hair in the tropics

The current evidence suggests that Afro-hair arose and rose to ubiquity long prior to the estimated 100,000-50,000 year old migration of a modern human sub-group out of East Africa. This indicates that the transition from dark skin and 'kinky' hair to lighter skin and straighter hair occurred in order to facilitate absorption of more UV radiation into the body in less UV intensive regions. Furthermore, it is likely that an independent series of mutations arose for straight hair in North East Asia relative to Northern Europe given recent demographic findings at the EDAR locus.[14]

Polynesian, Australian, and South American populations are believed to have been influenced (either slightly or entirely) by migrants from Eurasia. For example, in the case of Australia, when northerners arrived, they intermixed with the dark skinned, Afro-haired inhabitants of the region[15][16] giving rise to a (possibly sexual) selective sweep for straight hair and dark skin. Furthermore, presuming that natural Afro-hair was the initial texture of anatomically modern humanity, and that groups that migrated to more northern latitudes were the sources of genes expressing straight hair, the following migration and/or admixture scenarios are supported. In the case of Polynesians and South American Indians, archaeological and genetic evidence suggests that straight haired migrants of northern East Asian descent were the first to populate these regions.[17] This made them the predominant inhabitants until modern times. Thus, straight hair (combined with relatively darker skin compared to the Northeast Asian source population) likely came to dominate among certain equatorial groups due to pre-Holocene waves of migration into these areas from the north, followed by selection for dark skin to protect against UV overexposure.[citation needed] As mentioned, in the case of Australia, early demographic evidence suggests that admixture occurred in this region such that the Afro-haired phenotype of the original inhabitants was replaced by straight hair; yet dark skin color was maintained likely due to either sexual selection or natural selection for UV protection.[16]

[edit] History in the Western context

[edit] Antiquity

Several Greco-Roman ethnographers have made references to the hair of Africans. Herodotus (7.70) distinguishes the hair of "Ethiopians" (lit. "people with black faces", including the Ethiopians proper as well as the Libyans) in terms of its "woolly" (οὖλος) quality:

The eastern Ethiopians [...] differed in nothing from the other Ethiopians, save in their language, and the character of their hair. For the eastern Ethiopians have straight hair, while they of Libya are more woolly-haired than any other people in the world.

However, authors such as classicist scholar Frank M. Snowden hold that, given that the Greek term "Ethiopian" simply meant "dark/burnt faced", and the fact that Alexander the Great had encountered East Indians at around that time, Herodotus may have alternatively been referring to dark skinned East Indians when using the term "eastern Ethiopians".[18]

Benjamin Isaac's The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity, [19] discusses an alleged role of classical writers such as Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Galen in laying the foundations of the scientific racism as it developed in the 19th century. The quality of hair along with skin color, eye color and body stature has played a role in racial classification since antiquity. Isaac quotes Vitruvius (70–25 BC) who, relying on Posidonius, wrote "those races nearest to the southern half of the axis are of lower stature, with swarthy complexions, curly hair, black eyes and little blood on account of the sun."[20]

On this point, Snowden notes that the key difference between the comments of the writers of antiquity and those of racist European scholars within the past 500 years revolved around the greater tendency for the ancients to judge others based upon whether they were Greek or Roman citizens (ex. the way they dressed was one clear sign of this status) rather than by skin color.[18] In fact, given the large numbers of northern European-descended "Barbarian" tribes that were also seen as "other" at the time, the Greeks and Romans did not occupy a context in which "race" held salient political or social meaning.[18] Thus, the ancients' articulation of the physical characteristics of "Ethiopians" were likely more descriptions than vilifications.[18] This stands in sharp contrast to the more recent approach to the same topic by modern European racist scholars. Hence, 19th century racists are likely to have simply read into the comments of ancient Greek and Roman scholars that which served their own social and political purposes.

[edit] Modern times

Diasporic Black Africans in the Americas have been experimenting with ways to style their hair since their arrival in the Western Hemisphere well before the nineteenth century. In the U.S. following emancipation (between the late 1890s and the early 1900s), Annie Malone, Madam C. J. Walker and Garrett Augustus Morgan revolutionized African American hair care by inventing and marketing chemical (and heat-based) applications to alter the natural tightly curled texture. These approaches were (and are) in high demand in light of a sexual and racial climate in the West that deemed(s) that beauty, especially feminine beauty, necessarily included(s) having long and/or straight hair. During the 1930s, conking (vividly described in "The Autobiography of Malcolm X") became an innovative method in the U.S. for Black men to straighten kinky hair (whereas women at that time tended to either wear wigs, or to hot-comb their hair (rather than conk it) in order to attain the straight look).

It has been debated whether hair straightening practices arose out of a desire to make the hair more manageable (given the limitations of the almost exclusively fine-toothed combs available in the West at the time),[citation needed] to conform to a Eurocentric standard of beauty, or some combination of both. Supporters of the second theory believe that the same prejudice that viewed lighter skin as preferable to darker, held that straight or wavy hair (i.e. "good" hair) was preferable to tightly curled hair, and that this prejudice originated not from African Diasporic peoples but from European slaveholders and colonizers as part of the rhetoric used to support slavery and racially-based social class stratifications. Some claim that the dominant prejudice for Eurocentric ideas of beauty pervades the western world.[21]. Further, the tendency to judge people, especially women, based upon their physical appearance speaks to the fact that this issue is especially poignant for African American females. In other words, it is a clear example of an inherent, interlocking conflict that Black women face with Western norms that involves both race (i.e. the fact that the natural afro-hair texture of sub-Saharan African descended peoples deviates starkly from the global 'norm'), and gender (i.e. the fact that the disproportionately strong need for women to be physically 'beautiful' is heavily marketed to all Westerners, and is thus reinforced by men (and women) of all races).

The civil rights movement and black power and pride movements of the 1960s and 1970s in the U.S. created an impetus for African Americans to express their political commitments and self-love by the wearing of fairly long, natural hair. This contributed to the emergence of the Afro hairstyle into American mainstream culture, as an affirmation of Black African heritage, that "black is beautiful," and a rejection of Eurocentric standards of beauty. It has been used in songs, as a symbol of Black African heritage, notably in I Wish by Stevie Wonder. By the 1970s natural hair had evolved into a popular hairstyle.

Over the years, the popularity of natural hair has waxed and waned. Today, a significant percentage of African American women elect to straighten their hair with relaxers of some kind (either heat or chemically based). This is done despite the fact that prolonged application of such chemicals (or heat) can result in overprocessing, breakage and thinning of the hair. Nonetheless, over the past decade or so, natural hair has once again increased in popularity with the emergence of styles such as cornrows, locks, braiding, twists and short, cropped hair, most of which originated in Ancient Africa[citation needed]. With the emergence of hip-hop culture and Caribbean influences like reggae music, more non-blacks have begun to wear these hairstyles as well. There has been a boom in marketing hair products such as "Out of Africa" shampoo to African American consumers. Slogans that promote a pan-Black African appreciation of Afro-textured hair include "Happy to be nappy," "Don't worry, be nappy," as well as "Love, peace and nappiness."

As mentioned however, most black women in the West, continue to relax their hair.[21] For, even today, people (particularly women) are subtly (or overtly) discouraged from wearing their hair in a natural style in the workplace and/or by their families, friends, or significant others (see the section below for examples). Notably, the Western standards of appearance are growing in strength throughout the world as a whole. Hence, the American marketing strategies that have inspired Black women throughout the African diaspora to straighten their hair are now being directed at Black Africans themselves. For this reason, in many urban areas of the African continent, and increasingly in some rural areas, straightened hair (and all of the mentioned complications associated with it) is common among adult females, and traditional hair care methods are being increasingly discarded and forgotten.

[edit] Controversy over natural hair in the United States

Although there has been a reemergence of natural Afro-textured hair, there is still the fact that straightened hair is a more acceptable or professional hairstyle. This is evidenced by the fact that high-profile black women in professions such as journalism and politics still wear straight hair.

A 1998 incident became national news when Ruth Ann Sherman, a teacher in Bushwick, Brooklyn, introduced her students to the book Nappy Hair by African American author Carolivia Herron. Sherman, who is white, was criticized by parents of black children, who thought that the book presented a negative stereotype.[22]

On Wednesday, April 4, 2007 radio talk-show host Don Imus referred to the Rutgers University women's basketball team playing in the Women's NCAA Championship game as a group of "nappy-headed hos" during his Imus in the Morning show. Bernard McGuirk then compared the game to "the jigaboos versus the wannabes," alluding to Spike Lee's film School Daze. Imus apologized two days later, after receiving criticism. CBS Radio canceled Don Imus' morning show on Thursday, April 12, 2007.

During August 2007, American Lawyer Magazine reported that an unnamed junior Glamour Magazine staffer did a presentation on the "Dos and Don'ts of Corporate Fashion" for Cleary Gottlieb, a New York City law firm. There was a slide show where the woman made negative remarks about black women's natural hairstyles in the workplace, calling them "shocking," "inappropriate," and "political." Both the law firm and Glamour Magazine issued apologies to the staff.[23][24] However, natural afro hair texture continues to be an issue in US workplaces.[25]

[edit] See also

Search Wiktionary Look up nappy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d Loussouarn G (August 2001). "African hair growth parameters". The British Journal of Dermatology 145 (2): 294–7. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2133.2001.04350.x. PMID 11531795. 
  2. ^ a b c d Franbourg et al. (2007). "Influence of Ethnic Origin of Hair on Water-Keratin Interaction". in Enzo Berardesca, Jean-Luc Lévêque and Howard I. Maibach. Ethnic skin and hair. New York: Informa Healthcare. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-8493-3088-9. OCLC 70218017. 
  3. ^ a b Arrojo, Nick; Jenny Acheson (2008). Great Hair: Secrets to Looking Fabulous and Feeling Beautiful Every Day. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-312-37743-4. OCLC 213300783. 
  4. ^ a b Johnson, Dale H. (1997). Hair and hair care. New York, N.Y: Marcel Dekker. p. 237. ISBN 978-0-8247-9365-4. 
  5. ^ Berardesca, Enzo; Jean-Luc Lévêque and Howard I. Maibach (2007). Ethnic skin and hair. New York: Informa Healthcare. ISBN 978-0-8493-3088-9. OCLC 70218017. [page needed]
  6. ^ a b Iyengar, Bhanu (1998). "The Hair Follicle: A Specialised UV Receptor in the Human Skin?". Neurosignals 7: 188–194. doi:10.1159/000014544. 
  7. ^ a b c Rogers AR, Iltis D, Wooding S (2004). "Genetic Variation at the MC1R Locus and the Time since Loss of Human Body Hair". Current Anthropology 45: 105. doi:10.1086/381006. 
  8. ^ Harding RM, Healy E, Ray AJ, et al. (April 2000). "Evidence for variable selective pressures at MC1R". American Journal of Human Genetics 66 (4): 1351–61. doi:10.1086/302863. PMID 10733465. 
  9. ^ Khumalo NP, Gumedze F (September 2007). "African hair length in a school population: a clue to disease pathogenesis?". Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology 6 (3): 144–51. doi:10.1111/j.1473-2165.2007.00326.x. PMID 17760690. 
  10. ^ Cavalli-Sforza on human adaptations
  11. ^ a b c d e f Jablonski, Nina (2006). Skin: A Natural History. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24281-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=L6oMocBcaO0C. [page needed]
  12. ^ Pagel M, Bodmer W (August 2003). "A naked ape would have fewer parasites". Proceedings 270 (1): S117–9. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2003.0041. PMID 12952654. 
  13. ^ Barik SS, Sahani R, Prasad BV, et al. (May 2008). "Detailed mtDNA genotypes permit a reassessment of the settlement and population structure of the Andaman Islands". American Journal of Physical Anthropology 136 (1): 19–27. doi:10.1002/ajpa.20773. PMID 18186508. 
  14. ^ Mou C, Thomason HA, Willan PM, et al. (December 2008). "Enhanced ectodysplasin-A receptor (EDAR) signaling alters multiple fiber characteristics to produce the East Asian hair form". Human Mutation 29 (12): 1405–11. doi:10.1002/humu.20795. PMID 18561327. 
  15. ^ Redd AJ, Stoneking M (September 1999). "Peopling of Sahul: mtDNA variation in aboriginal Australian and Papua New Guinean populations". American Journal of Human Genetics 65 (3): 808–28. doi:10.1086/302533. PMID 10441589. 
  16. ^ a b Windschuttle K, Gillin T (June 2002). "The extinction of the Australian pygmies". Quadrant. http://www.sydneyline.com/Pygmies%20Extinction.htm. 
  17. ^ Diamond, Jared M. (1997). Guns, germs, and steel: the fates of human societies. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-03891-0. [page needed]
  18. ^ a b c d Snowden, F. "Blacks in Antiquity." Harvard University Press. 1995[page needed]
  19. ^ Princeton University Press, 2006[page needed]
  20. ^ Benjamin Isaac, The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity, p. 83
  21. ^ a b Byrd, Ayana D.; Tharps, Lori L. (2001). Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-28322-9. 
  22. ^ Leyden, Liz (1998-12-03). "N.Y. Teacher Runs Into a Racial Divide". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/frompost/dec98/hair3.htm. Retrieved on 2008-06-05. 
  23. ^ Moe (2007-08-14). "'Glamour' Editor To Lady Lawyers: Being Black Is Kinda A Corporate "Don't"". Jezebel. Gawker Media. http://jezebel.com/gossip/your-roots-are-showing/glamour-editor-to-lady-lawyers-being-black-is-kinda-a-corporate-dont-289268.php. Retrieved on 2008-06-05. 
  24. ^ Kym Platt (2007-09-07). "Glamour Apologizes". Ask This Black Woman. http://askthisblackwoman.com/2007/09/07/glamour-apologizes.aspx. Retrieved on 2008-06-05. 
  25. ^ Having ethnic hair in corporate America

[edit] References

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