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Black hair is the darkest and most common of allhuman hair colors globally, due to large populations with this trait. This hair type contains a much more dense quantity ofeumelanin pigmentation in comparison to other hair colors, such as brown, blonde and red.[1] In English, various types of black hair are sometimes described assoft-black,raven black, orjet-black. The range ofskin colors associated with black hair is vast, ranging from the palest oflight skin tones todark skin. Black-haired humans can have dark or light eyes, but more commonly dark.
Black hair is the most common inAsia andAfrica.[2] Though this characteristic can also be seen throughoutEurope as well, it is considerably less common.[3] It can be found inCeltic populations such as inIreland,Scotland andWales.[4] Black hair can come in a variety oftextures, just as any hair color. Generally, the East Asian, Central Asian and Native American population hasstraight hair with a very thickcuticle layer[5] and South Asians have thick, wavy orcurly hair,[6] while the general hair type seen in black African hair is thick, curly and dense with more hair growing from the head. The curly quality comes from the shape of the hair follicle, as straight hair grows from more circular hair follicles, and curly hair grows from more oval-like follicles.[7]
Naturally, hair reflects light, which is why even black hair does not appear fully dark in the light. However, the darkest shade of black hair, raven-black, does not behave as other hair would in the light. The name of the color comes from a raven’s wing due to similarities in behavior. Appearing as being almost blue in some conditions, this hair color is mostly found with people fromAfrica,South andSoutheast Asia,Central Asia andLatin America.[8]
True black hair is similar to ablack cat's fur.
Native Americans,East Asian,Southeast Asian,Far East Russian,South Asian,Central Asian andHimalayan black-haired people have thicker hair due to thederived EDAR gene allele that is linked to thicker and potentially straighter hair in some parts of Asia, andshovel-shaped incisors. The derived EDAR gene arose approximately 30,000 years ago inChina.[10][11][12] One study[which?] shows thatPaleo-Indians had both variants of the EDAR gene, the derived G-allele and the ancestral A-allele. When they[who?] testedancient DNA remains found in theAmericas of the individuals named USR1,Anzick-1 and Laranjal-6700 the results showed that they carried the ancestral A-allele.[citation needed]
11,000-year-old remains of Cuncaicha andLauricocha individuals fromSouth America sharealleles at the highest rate with present-dayAmerindians, indicating that the derived G-allele increased infrequency in parallel with the ancestral A-allele.[13]
One of the most studied genes that producebrown hair isMC1R, which helps the body to produce themelanocortin protein. This protein in turn helps the body's hair follicles to produce the type of melanin calledeumelanin. To have black hair, one must have genetically inherited this gene from both of their parents, and brown hair is achieved when it is inherited from one parent. This gene is demographically common, as 90% of the total world population carries this gene. Black hair, along with brown hair, comes to turn grey in old age as the hair follicles can no longer produce the pigmentation, but the cause of this inability has yet to be determined.[14]
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Media related toBlack hair at Wikimedia Commons