Three Women Standing Cheek to Cheek

African-Americans surprisingly have very similar hair to Caucasians. It is actually very thin even though it may appear to be thick and coarse. Their hair is very long but it is bunched together extremely tight which gives it the appearance of being short and thick. While black men and women seem to suffer the same sort of hair loss challenges as Caucasian men and women, African American men and women seem to suffer a higher percentage of problems with hair loss for a variety of other, culturally specific reasons. Hair replacement solutions to African American hair loss can be equally complex.

You might be wondering why Africans have less hair when it’s generally hotter and drier where they live. The reason for this is that the hair is structured differently even if the density is lower. If you were to observe a regular African scalp, the fine hairs of an African scalp are quite kinky and are grouped tightly into specific groups. This particular grouping allows the hair to more actively combat the weather and the natural forces like the radiation of the sun. It is well understood that the shape of African American women’s hair is more susceptible to breakage than Asian or Caucasian hair. African American women have an elliptical-shaped hair shaft and curved hair and hair follicle, in addition to less-moisture in the hair shaft as compared with other women. These factors may play a role in the increased breakage and observed fragility in African American women’s hair.

Asians, on the other hand, have very coarse hair and is said to have the thickest hair of all of the ethnicities however, they do have the fewest amount of hairs on their heads. Asian hair is also quite protective because it has the highest concentration of melanin among the three hair types. Melanin is the natural pigment found on the human skin and in the hair. The darker the melanin, the more effective it is in deflecting the sun’s harmful radiation. There’s a also reason why some Asian scalps are see-through. With lesser density, Asian scalps can breathe easier since some Asians live in the equatorial regions of the world.

In conclusion, Asians tend to be the least affected by hair loss of the three major ethnic groups because of their thick protective hair that adapts to climates quite easily. Caucasian hair loss seems to be more shocking to our society because of the amount of hair they typically have. Lastly, African American hair is the hardest to keep healthy because of how fragile it is, which contributes to hair loss amongst their ethnicity.