What genetic and dietary factors cause Russian women to retain very long hair?

[Fimu]

For example, do they have very coarse hair and round cross-sectional shaped strands just like East-Asian people?
Aside from the Vodka culture, do they eat nourishing calorie-dense winter foods like root vegetables and plenty of oils/butter? I don't understand Russian at all so it's less easy to find information online from Russians themselves.

[lapushka]

Why would you think a lot of Russian women have very long hair? I think the population is as diverse as everywhere else. Maybe some girls there just like to post their pictures online? So it's more noticeable?

[Hairkay]

For example, do they have very coarse hair and round cross-sectional shaped strands just like East-Asian people?
Aside from the Vodka culture, do they eat nourishing calorie-dense winter foods like root vegetables and plenty of oils/butter? I don't understand Russian at all so it's less easy to find information online from Russians themselves.

Why the curiosity over Russian hair? Part of Russia in in Europe and the other part is in Asia.

[AuNaturel]

We have a large immigrant Russian community where I live. The stereotype is short, coarse hair - thick, strong and healthy but not necessarily long.

[meepster]

Keep in mind that immigrants to the US from Russia are likely to be of minority ethnicities and thus not ethnically “Russian”. Ethnically Russian women have straight blond Scandinavian hair, but there are plenty of minorities in Russia who don’t have that hair type. My ethnicity tends to have curly or wurly dark hair. I’m an immigrant from Russia, but my hair is not representative of the majority ethnicity over there. (Most immigrants from Russia come here because they are persecuted by the 1a blond people).

[Servana]

I am Slavic but not Russian, although we are very aligned with Russia. I can't speak for everyone but Russians do tend to have a pretty good, varied diet including seasonal fruit/veg.

As for haircare, there are a lot of good Russian products with local ingredients and less weird chemicals than you find in other countries' haircare. I personally only use Russian products because I feel like they work best for Slavic hair. There's a big emphasis on using oils and a lot of girls don't use conditioner.

Having long hair is definitely a 'thing' for Slavic girls but times are changing a bit and short trendy styles are becoming more common. As for the hair itself I really have no idea about the shape of the cuticle but typically the individual strands are not coarse. From my personal experience Slavic hair is easy to grow and maintain long. My strands are mostly medium with some fine and a few coarse. Most Russian girls I know have quite straight hair although I'm a southern Slav and I have wavy hair.

Yes, genetically we have an easier time maintaining long hair. It's not coarse but it's definitely sturdy. I wear my hair down 24/7 and don't get damage. I also used to straighten daily and dye it and I had waist-hip length with no splits or breakage. It seems to be the same for a lot of Russian girls. By comparison, women from Nordic countries seem to have a much harder time growing and maintaining long hair because they typically have thin and fine hair that gets damaged easily so tends to stay around shoulder length.

I should also mention my dad has long beautiful MBL hair. He's almost 70 and no hairloss, treats his hair like garbage but it looks great lol. Just that resilient Slavic hair.

[Fimu]

Why would you think a lot of Russian women have very long hair? I think the population is as diverse as everywhere else. Maybe some girls there just like to post their pictures online? So it's more noticeable?

Yes my question is mostly based on what I see on Instagram, and I've read before here there is/was a strong long hair culture over there. But I've never spoken with a longhaired Slavic/Russian irl to learn more about it.


Keep in mind that immigrants to the US from Russia are likely to be of minority ethnicities and thus not ethnically “Russian”.*

I don't live in the US, so I'm mostly speaking about the natives but I'm aware of the different ethnicities over there.


As for haircare, there are a lot of good Russian products with local ingredients and less weird chemicals than you find in other countries' haircare. I personally only use Russian products because I feel like they work best for Slavic hair. There's a big emphasis on using oils and a lot of girls don't use conditioner.*

That's an interesting point! I already suspected there's also a difference in hair product habits. Not sure if I have access to Russian products online...

[Mariekeeee14]

Fimu, your hair is 3b so completely different from the long haired Russian women on Instagram. Don’t expect their hair care to work for you just because it works for them!

[SleepyTangles]

I would say that most people with an healthy lifestyle and nutritious diet grow beautiful hair, regardless of country.

Russia is very big, many people in rural areas eat their traditional foods and have a very active lifestyle, and maybe indulge less on styling tools and dyes (but maybe they're not the ones most active on Instagram).
Also, people from turkic altaic minorities tend to have most beautiful hair, but I think that's genetics.

[lapushka]

Yes my question is mostly based on what I see on Instagram, and I've read before here there is/was a strong long hair culture over there. But I've never spoken with a longhaired Slavic/Russian irl to learn more about it.

Ah Instagram... wish that were real life. ;) Pictures like these have been circling the net (before there was IG) for years. Sometimes I wonder... Are these real? Are they Russian? Are these perhaps models?

[Belgrade Beauty]

I am Slavic but not Russian, although we are very aligned with Russia. I can't speak for everyone but Russians do tend to have a pretty good, varied diet including seasonal fruit/veg.

As for haircare, there are a lot of good Russian products with local ingredients and less weird chemicals than you find in other countries' haircare. I personally only use Russian products because I feel like they work best for Slavic hair. There's a big emphasis on using oils and a lot of girls don't use conditioner.

Having long hair is definitely a 'thing' for Slavic girls but times are changing a bit and short trendy styles are becoming more common. As for the hair itself I really have no idea about the shape of the cuticle but typically the individual strands are not coarse. From my personal experience Slavic hair is easy to grow and maintain long. My strands are mostly medium with some fine and a few coarse. Most Russian girls I know have quite straight hair although I'm a southern Slav and I have wavy hair.

Yes, genetically we have an easier time maintaining long hair. It's not coarse but it's definitely sturdy. I wear my hair down 24/7 and don't get damage. I also used to straighten daily and dye it and I had waist-hip length with no splits or breakage. It seems to be the same for a lot of Russian girls. By comparison, women from Nordic countries seem to have a much harder time growing and maintaining long hair because they typically have thin and fine hair that gets damaged easily so tends to stay around shoulder length.

I should also mention my dad has long beautiful MBL hair. He's almost 70 and no hairloss, treats his hair like garbage but it looks great lol. Just that resilient Slavic hair.

As a Slav myself, I can confirm this. The norm however is that our women, once they have children, tend to cut their hair short, for convenience. The hair type varies, but fine here is rare here in my opinion. I'm the only one in my family that has fine hair. My baby sister for instance has C/iii and can't maintain it longer than BSL cause it gets so heavy ,her head hurts all the time. I notice now more than before (cause I wasn't into hair that much) that girls in high school have hip length...Just older ladies with kids cut it short..Younger girls have really long hair..:) I never noticed that before I started growing my own..:)

[nycelle]

As a Slav myself, I can confirm this. The norm however is that our women, once they have children, tend to cut their hair short, for convenience. The hair type varies, but fine here is rare here in my opinion. I'm the only one in my family that has fine hair. My baby sister for instance has C/iii and can't maintain it longer than BSL cause it gets so heavy ,her head hurts all the time. I notice now more than before (cause I wasn't into hair that much) that girls in high school have hip length...Just older ladies with kids cut it short..Younger girls have really long hair..:) I never noticed that before I started growing my own..:)

My mom is an ethnic Russian. She has 1a hair, the kind that can't even take a perm, but it's dark and coarse.

No one in my mothers family has long hair, but they all have very straight hair that comes in a variety of natural colors from blonde to almost black.
What they all have in common is none have long hair by this communities standards. Bra strap is probably the longest, and that would be among the youngest

Russians come in all different shapes, sizes and hair colors. There's Mongol in their ancestry, as well as northern European that's mixed with their Slavic. There's a ton of diversity in hair as well as everything else.

[nycelle]

I know a lot of Russian women. The stereotype is short, frizzy, red-brown hair. Coarse, thick, strong and heatlhy but NOT long.
They struggle with frizz and it's generally shoulder length, puffy and frizzy. They eat vegetarian diets (vegan seasonally) because of the RO church. Short hair at all ages.
Just my observation of the community in my metro area, which has a large immigrant Russian population.

The frizzy, red-brown hair is usually dyed.
I'm on the east coast, and during the 80's- early 90's, that color was a favorite among the Russian women here too. No idea why. These days you don't see it as much, if ever. At least not here.