Hair thickness and ancestry

[florenonite]

I've got iii hair, and here in Canada, where people come from all sorts of backgrounds, my hair is considered thicker than average, whereas in Scotland, where people mostly come from Scotland, it's much more common. Amongst my group of friends, I'd say close to half have iii hair. It occurred to me that maybe people from colder climates tend to have thicker hair for warmth, so I thought I'd do a poll and see.

Obviously, we need to define "colder climates". Let's say it's places where the temperature regularly goes below 0 C (32 F) in the winter.

We've also got to all be in agreement as to what constitutes "mostly" from a cold climate and "half or less" from a cold climate. "Mostly" is if more than half of your ancestry is from a place with a cold climate, "half or less" is 1/8 to half because (a) a lot of people probably don't know any further back than their great-grandparents and (b) by the time it gets to 1/16 of your ancestry it probably does not have a significant effect.

ETA: If your hair has thinned due to illness (eg. thyroid problems) then please answer with the way your hair was prior to illness.

[akevita2002]

Hmm, well I don't really know what to vote, because half of me is from a temperate climate (and during winter it goes way below 0 C ) and half from a mediterranean climate which is warm. And when I say half, it means half :D (grandparents do not have other ethnicity than my parents).
Although the theory with colder climate and thicker hair sounds quite plausible, I don't think there is a direct connection between them. If you think of all these oriental countries, which of course have warm climate, and hair thickness, you will find that they mostly have thick hair; or I'm pretty sure I have seen people here from Finland (or some other nordic european country) commenting that in their country you would see mostly thin haired people..
I think hair thickness depends on so many factors, and nowadays, when the whole world is mixing, is quite hard to tell whether or not thickness depends on the climate factors.

[Morrighan]

This topic is very interesting!

I'm ii and all of my known ancestry is from cold climates. But it's the thicker side of ii.

[Periwinkle]

Interesting idea!

I have iiiiiiiiiiii hair and I'm English to at least my great-grandparents, I think. If not English, then German...same difference.

[Dementia1013]

Hmmm. I think i'm breaking the mold here... I have iii hair, but my ancestors were definitely not from cold climates. My dad has thin hair... i got my hair from my mom who is Filipino...Lord knows the phillipines aren't really cold. :shrug:

[darkwaves]

I wonder what the results would be if you asked about F or F/M hair only? I suspect you might find more of a pattern there.

Anyway, I find your observations interesting as I just came back from Scotland, and noticed a LOT of people with hair like mine -- fine, dark, very thick, with lots of waves and curls. The same thing happened in York, and in Carlisle.

Where I live in Canada, however, the immigration mix tends not to be from northern Britain, and my hair type is highly unusual.

[freznow]

Well, I'm like 1/8 Russian, 1/16 Native American, the rest generic European. I'm assuming most of Europe counts as cold, but I have no idea which area I might hail from. I have almost exactly 3" circumference.

I think I'll go with lunar cheese...

[Roseate]

Hmm, I feel like this poll will tell us more about where LHC members come from than where iii hair comes from!

I live in a quite ethnically diverse area, and I see different types of thick hair from different parts of the globe. Folks of Indian ancestry seem to have iii hair quite often, from the braids I see around, and much of India is very hot. Ditto Asia, and the Gulf region (I know several Persian ladies with such thudworthy hair!)... it would be interesting to see statistics!

[florenonite]

I wonder what the results would be if you asked about F or F/M hair only? I suspect you might find more of a pattern there.

Anyway, I find your observations interesting as I just came back from Scotland, and noticed a LOT of people with hair like mine -- fine, dark, very thick, with lots of waves and curls. The same thing happened in York, and in Carlisle.

Where I live in Canada, however, the immigration mix tends not to be from northern Britain, and my hair type is highly unusual.

Fine, thick hair is really common in Scotland, but in the parts I've been to red, blonde or tawny hair is more common than dark hair (though there is still quite a lot of dark hair). I haven't noticed anything about the wave pattern, though; I know quite a few straighties or barely wavies like myself :shrug:

[HisForever]

Well my dads side of the family is from Finland, so I say cold for that and my moms side is a bunch of different things, and shes half mexican I guess. lol. So I voted at least half from cold climate with ii hair.

[nowxisxforever]

My ancestry is Germany (incl. what was once Prussia...when it was Prussia), English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish... some Danish too I think. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. I have ii thickness.

[LutraLutra]

I voted for "I have ii/iii or iii hair and up to half my ancestry is from a cold climate". My mum's family are northern Italian/German Jewish, and my Dad's family are distantly Norwegian. My Dad’s family have way thicker hair than my mum’s.

Interesting poll.

[Shikyo]

I got i/ii hair and I my whole family should be coming from Finland, I would assume that counts as a cold climate. I don't think there is anyone in my family tree that would have thicker hair than that.

[gmdiaz]

I have iii thickness and come from Texas. . .HOT HOT HOT!

My more distant ancestry is English/French, Scottish.

[getoffmyskittle]

I'm exactly half and half. :suspect: I can't vote.

[florenonite]

I have iii thickness and come from Texas. . .HOT HOT HOT!

My more distant ancestry is English/French, Scottish.

Well if you've got English and Scottish ancestry I'd count you as coming from a cold climate.

[Phalaenopsis]

All my family was from Belgium, like I am. So I'm from a cold climate. Even one couple of greatgrandparents lived in the same little village as I do. I can just walk by the old place. They lived near the church, whereas I live up the hill. :)

Me and my eldest sister have fine textured iii'hair, hers is a tad lighter as mine and she has some wave, but we both have lightcoloured hair.

My mother and my other sister have normal (ii), sleek hair (also F like me). Their haircolour is chestnut brown.

[florenonite]

I'm exactly half and half. :suspect: I can't vote.

If you're half and half, go for "up to half" your ancestry is from a cold climate. Sorry, I thought I made that clear in the OP.

[gmdiaz]

Well if you've got English and Scottish ancestry I'd count you as coming from a cold climate.


Yep, but it's my more distant ancestry. . .all my close relatives are Texans.

[florenonite]

Yep, but it's my more distant ancestry. . .all my close relatives are Texans.

As in born in Texas to people of British descent, or of Texan native descent? Because if hair thickness is linked to location, I imagine it would take centuries upon centuries to have an effect, so even if your ancestors are primarily British, but immigrated in the 18th century, then you've still got British genes, right?

[gmdiaz]

As in born in Texas to people of British descent, or of Texan native descent? Because if hair thickness is linked to location, I imagine it would take centuries upon centuries to have an effect, so even if your ancestors are primarily British, but immigrated in the 18th century, then you've still got British genes, right?

Right!

O'kay linking to cold climate.

[getoffmyskittle]

If you're half and half, go for "up to half" your ancestry is from a cold climate. Sorry, I thought I made that clear in the OP.

Yeah, but how do you know it's not the other half that's causing whatever?

[mira-chan]

I'm from Russia (Ancestry 1/4 Russian, 1/4 Belorrussian, 1/2 Ethnic Jewish) and my hair is realtively thick (ii/iii). Not sure how far south the Jewish part of my family came from, but they've been in north Russia for over 100 years now. So all northern here I guess.

[lyria]

All English ancestry and iii hair. Don't know what to tell you!

[florenonite]

Yeah, but how do you know it's not the other half that's causing whatever?

You don't, but that's why I split it into people who are mostly from colder climates and people who are half or less from colder climates. If the conjecture that thick hair is more prevalent in colder climates is correct, then one would expect to see a large number of people from cold climates with thick hair and a more or less half and half split amongst those who claim half or less ancestry. Does that make sense?

[RoseRedDead]

I have ii thickness hair, and my lineage is Scottish, Irish, German, Dutch, Lithuanian, and English... I think I might have checked the wrong box... I did "i or ii with up to half from a cold climate". I guess it could come out like that...

[rhubarbarin]

I am half English, 1/4 Scotch and quarter mystery..but I said 'from a cold climate'. Anyway my hair is only low ii.. I don't think a single one of my bio family is any higher than the middle of ii. Lots of little ponytails.

The people I know personally with the thickest hair are all of African or Asian (mostly the very hot parts) descent, so I don't see a connection. Also, don't Scandinavians tend towards thin and fine hair? People in cold climes don't really need extra-head hair to stay warm, they've been covering their heads with hats and hoods since the dawn of time..

[thankyousir74]

My ancestry is Central American and I have ii/iii hair. Same case for my DBF too.

[Susana]

It's interesting because I have noticed the opposite correlation (people from colder countries having thinner hair than people from hot countries). I too live in Canada and I must say that the people I have seen who have the nicest, thickest hair have generally been from countries such as India, Pakistan, a lot of Mediterranean countries actually, and many Latin American countries. It makes sense since (a) you get vitamins from the sun and (b) hair protects against the sun. On that same vein, people from hotter countries tend to have more body hair as well (that I have seen) than people from colder countries. I have read that wearing a headband (or ponytail) in the same place for an extended period of time can cause trauma to the hair. Thus it makes sense that having your hair covered with say a hat or headband for a large part of the year might lead to less hair than those of warmer countries. I remember talking to a girl from India who said that she has a smaller ponytail since she moved to Canada than she had in India. That being said, in the end it comes down to many factors such as diet etc. and it is a bit tricky when you are asking people for a background that goes back further than parents because then the weather of their current location could have done more to thicken the hair or vice versa and specially if it is a mixed background. I am afraid that the only way to find a more direct correlation would be to poll people in their actual countries and compare the results. That is tricky on the internet because generally colder (more developed countries) are going to have more access to the internet (Europe, US and Canada) vs Latin America, Africa, etc.. So you are going to have a very uneven number of participants.

[Igor]

I’m an iii from a cold climate (Danish ancestry with a few drops of Spanish and German blood) but most other Danes seems to have fine, thin hair :shrug:

[Babyfine]

Scandanavian mostly with some English, Spanish and French with fine, thin hair
(Fi/ii). My Mother's relatives all come from Sweden. My hair is finer than hers, though.

[Peter]

If you're born in a place like India, the weather is hot year-round and you would expect thin hair for that -- but South Asians typically have thick hair. Also, in Scandinavia, thinner hair is very common despite the cold climate. Maybe I misunderstood the options?

[Eden_Rayn]

I am of Irish and German ancestry. I was told from family members that I also have some scottish in me as well. My family as far as my knowledge have lived mostly above the Mason-Dixon line (1826).

My one best friend is 100% Russian and has about a ii maybe a iii, my other best friend is a Jewish with Eastern European and has a iii. As for family members my Fiancé is a i and is mainly Croatian (southern european) and German, my step Father is a ii and is Hungarian, and my mother was a ii and was only Irish and German (needless to say I don't think I got my hair from her).

[teela1978]

To be honest... I would actually expect the opposite of your hypothesis. As humans moved towards the poles and into cooler climates, they seem to have adapted towards being paler and having less hair. A typical 'northern' type person in my mind is usually paler than their southern counterpart (on most continents) and seem to have less/thinner hair. I would think that the need to cover bodies in more clothing/furs for warmth would make having less hair be an advantage in that case (at least that's always sorta been my theory).

Using a place like Scotland as an example of a 'northern' area seems kinda tricky to me. That region (to my knowledge) has a rather vast history of different people coming into/out of it... calling it one thing seems kinda simplistic.

[florenonite]

To be honest... I would actually expect the opposite of your hypothesis. As humans moved towards the poles and into cooler climates, they seem to have adapted towards being paler and having less hair. A typical 'northern' type person in my mind is usually paler than their southern counterpart (on most continents) and seem to have less/thinner hair. I would think that the need to cover bodies in more clothing/furs for warmth would make having less hair be an advantage in that case (at least that's always sorta been my theory).

Using a place like Scotland as an example of a 'northern' area seems kinda tricky to me. That region (to my knowledge) has a rather vast history of different people coming into/out of it... calling it one thing seems kinda simplistic.

I was just using my own personal experience. Most of the people I know are either Scottish or Canadian. The Scots are of Scottish descent, the Canadians come from all over the world, but the Scots in general have thicker hair. And although different people have come into Scotland, those people mostly came from northerly places, too, chiefly Scandinavia, England and Ireland. I also think Scotland's had far less immigration than a lot of other places, because quite frankly it doesn't have a very appealing climate, unless you're like me and like it cold and wet :p

[dulce-de-leche]

I have iii hair and I'm from Mexico.It's warm were I'm from.

[kwaniesiam]

My hair is very thin and fine. I'm Irish, Scottish, English, Welsh, and Dutch. Maybe a small bit of others mixed in there, but definitely all Western European. My hair used to be thicker, and thinned due to thyroid problems, but it was never particularly thick to begin with.

[ChrissieM]

I'm of Scotch/Irish/German/Swedish ancestry, ii thickness hair (3 in ponytail) mostly fine-textured hair. I've always been told by hairdressers that I have fine hair, but a lot of it. This is an interesting theory. I get my fine hair from my father's side of the family, which is Swedish/German. My mother's side is the Scotch/Irish, and they all have coarser dark hair (except for one aunt, who has coarse curly red hair). I got the red hair gene from that side, but the fine texture from the other.

[zen_oven]

Scottish and German ancestry here, and most of my family seems to have pretty thick hair. My waves seem to come from the Scottish side, though. The German side of my family seems to mostly have pin-straight hair.

[teela1978]

I was just using my own personal experience. Most of the people I know are either Scottish or Canadian. The Scots are of Scottish descent, the Canadians come from all over the world, but the Scots in general have thicker hair. And although different people have come into Scotland, those people mostly came from northerly places, too, chiefly Scandinavia, England and Ireland. I also think Scotland's had far less immigration than a lot of other places, because quite frankly it doesn't have a very appealing climate, unless you're like me and like it cold and wet :p

Aren't the British Isles a big mish-mash of people from the mainland though? It seems like that genetic pool has really had a lot of influx from many places (e.g. rome... that would be a warm place to me) and hasn't been a stable population for thousands and thousands of years that would be capable of any significant genetic drift/adaptation. I dunno. Just my own scattered thoughts.

[teela1978]

It's interesting because I have noticed the opposite correlation (people from colder countries having thinner hair than people from hot countries). I too live in Canada and I must say that the people I have seen who have the nicest, thickest hair have generally been from countries such as India, Pakistan, a lot of Mediterranean countries actually, and many Latin American countries. It makes sense since (a) you get vitamins from the sun and (b) hair protects against the sun. On that same vein, people from hotter countries tend to have more body hair as well (that I have seen) than people from colder countries. I have read that wearing a headband (or ponytail) in the same place for an extended period of time can cause trauma to the hair. Thus it makes sense that having your hair covered with say a hat or headband for a large part of the year might lead to less hair than those of warmer countries. I remember talking to a girl from India who said that she has a smaller ponytail since she moved to Canada than she had in India. That being said, in the end it comes down to many factors such as diet etc. and it is a bit tricky when you are asking people for a background that goes back further than parents because then the weather of their current location could have done more to thicken the hair or vice versa and specially if it is a mixed background. I am afraid that the only way to find a more direct correlation would be to poll people in their actual countries and compare the results. That is tricky on the internet because generally colder (more developed countries) are going to have more access to the internet (Europe, US and Canada) vs Latin America, Africa, etc.. So you are going to have a very uneven number of participants.

lol. I think I must've been writing/editing while you were posting :)

[masterofmidgets]

I'm English/German/Slovakian/Guatemalen, with probably some other bits thrown in for good measure - and I definitely get my hair from my dad's (Guatemalen) side of the family. My mom and all her sisters have fine, thin, pin-straight pale blonde hair, and when we get together, my medium thick dark curls really stand out.

[noelgirl]

I'm Portuguese/German/Russian/Tunisian, so pretty much half and half with hot and cold, but looking at my family members, it seems like those from warmer climates have thicker hair. My grandma of German descent had very fine, thin hair, but my grandpa from Portugal still has very thick hair - even in his 80's!

[vindo]

I am mixed but all cold climate countries.:)

Most people in my Family have medium to thick hair. I was often considered the "thinnie" but thats actually a misconception because I am the only straight haired. My circumference is similar.:p

[freznow]

Okay, so far it seems that:

A. Most LHCers are ii/iii.
B. Most LHCers are from cold climates.
C. Percentagely, more i/iis than ii/iiis are from cold climates. Meaning, few people with thinner hair come from warm climates. That there's a better chance of being thick haired when you come from a warm climate than there is if you come from a cold climate.

[mwedzi]

Interesting topic. I have to guess at my thickness because the i/ii/iii measurements only seem applicable if your hair is straight or kinda straight (3b or below). After that, curls can make your ponytail huge. But people on LHCF say my hair is pretty thick. Who knows where my ancestors are from, though? Probably west Africa like most people on that forum. :)

Funny, you'd really expect people from colder climates to have thicker hair. But it's hard to tell here, since it seems like at least 3/4 of the board has primarily European ancestry. I mean, what would the answers be if there were a sizable Asian, African, or S. American presence here?

[GoddesJourney]

I have ii hair and a little less than half my ancestry is from cold climate. I have some ancestry of warm climate that have iii hair and mine is not. My family sheds a lot. I wonder if I would have at least ii/iii if I did not shed so much. That said, I'm from a warm place that never gets near freezing and that may account for why I shed so much. I wonder if I could gain that desired thickness if I were living elsewhere. Genetically, I should have very thick hair, especially since at least a third of my hair is very coarse.:confused:

[florenonite]

Aren't the British Isles a big mish-mash of people from the mainland though? It seems like that genetic pool has really had a lot of influx from many places (e.g. rome... that would be a warm place to me) and hasn't been a stable population for thousands and thousands of years that would be capable of any significant genetic drift/adaptation. I dunno. Just my own scattered thoughts.

England is, Scotland's a different case. England had the Romans, Scotland didn't (they were scared of the crazy Picts :p); England had the Norman invasion, Scotland didn't. There was a fair bit of intermarriage between the Scots and English nobility in the middle ages, and again after the Union of the Crowns, but the average Scot was descended from Scots, with maybe a bit of Irish or Scandinavian thrown in.

Myself, I probably have some Viking ancestry, given the prevalence of blonde hair in my family (and it's really common where my mum comes from, particularly on small children), which is why it's news to me that Scandinavians tend to have thin hair, as all my family has iii hair and both my parents come from areas of Viking settlement in Scotland. We all got the blonde hair as children, which was unusual in Scots prior to the Viking invasion (they tended to either have red or dark hair), but we've also all got fine, thick hair.

In short, Scotland really had a lot less of the whole hodge-podge of continental European than England, mainly because it was seen as a cold, barren wasteland. Furthermore, England was closer to the continent, and the English and Scots were rarely on good terms, so a lot of people from the continent got skewed views of Scotland from the English without ever setting foot in Scotland.

[3azza]

Maybe this poll tells you where most lhcers come from rather than where most iii come from?
You have some theory about thick hair to protect from cold, but there is the opposing theory that thick hair protects from sun.
Anyway i'm iii and come from warm temparate climate.

[3azza]

or you could calculate the ratio of i/ii to iii in mostly cold, i/ii to iii in half cold, and i/ii to iii in not cold gives an idea of your theory

[Islandgrrl]

Russian/German/Norwegian. I think they qualify as cold.

[florenonite]

or you could calculate the ratio of i/ii to iii in mostly cold, i/ii to iii in half cold, and i/ii to iii in not cold gives an idea of your theory

That's a good idea. I was wondering how to best analyse it, but this seems good.

ETA: So the current ratios are as follows (i/ii to iii):

Mostly cold: 19:27
Half cold: 1:2
Warm: 3:13

In general, then, regardless of background, more voters have thicker hair than thinner hair. In colder areas it's close to a 2:3 ratio (thinner to thicker), whereas in warmer areas it's closer to 1:4. For those who are more or less half, it's a 1:2 ratio. Hence, it can be surmised thus far that thicker hair is in fact more prevalent in warmer areas.

[Eden Iris]

My hair is on the thin side of ii, and more than half of my ancestry comes from temperate climes, and if you count Wales as Not Cold, then it's 100 percent. I mean, it's not exactly Norway, but then again, I come from California.

One thing that may skew the results is that the population on this board is not exactly consistent with the rest of the planet; we have a far larger percentage of people with truly amazing hair here.

[sweet*things]

Very true!:cool:

I had iii hair before I experienced thyroid related thinning issues:rolleyes:, now I'm a ii (2.75" ponytail). While thick,my hair is very fine in texture.

I am about half German, then a mishmash of Scotch, French, English, Swedish, Native American and god knows what else. People tell me I look eastern european, and a couple people have asked if I'm part Asian. :confused:

I don't know if thickness of head hair has as much to do with climate as thickness of body hair does. Forgive me for making a gross generalization, but I'm under the impression that many ethnic groups from warm areas of the world have much less body hair than the peoples from cooler climates.

[florenonite]

I don't know if thickness of head hair has as much to do with climate as thickness of body hair does. Forgive me for making a gross generalization, but I'm under the impression that many ethnic groups from warm areas of the world have much less body hair than the peoples from cooler climates.

This is a good point. I've got really thick body hair, as do quite a few of my Scottish friends (DBF's very hairy), but East Asian girls I know tend to have very little body hair. I used to have a friend in high school whose parents were Chinese and she didn't shave her legs because the hair was so thin it wasn't visible.

I did a poll a while ago wondering if most people with thick hair had thick body hair (like I do) and vice versa, but didn't see much of a correlation.

[VanillaTresses]

Honestly, I think that I am so melted in the melting pot that I couldn't answer this question. How could I answer with any certainty what type of climate my ancestors came from-- So I voted cheese!

[florenonite]

Honestly, I think that I am so melted in the melting pot that I couldn't answer this question. How could I answer with any certainty what type of climate my ancestors came from-- So I voted cheese!

You're living on the moon! Did you have to sell your house to buy the fuel?

(If you don't know Fight the Bear, and chances are you don't as they're not a well-known band, they've got a song called "Moon" that goes "We're living on the moon ... I had to sell my house to buy the fuel".)

[Laylah]

I have a love/hate issue that my hair is so darn thick. I'm part chinese, east Indian, german, and scottish so that's about half cold half hot climate :confused: the base of my ponytail is 4.5 - 5 inches depending on the humidity

[Rain]

"I have ii/iii or iii hair and am mostly from a cold climate"

It's not really right. I have a lot of countries in my background and they're not all cold. I picked the one that goes with my hair because I have my great-grandmother's hair as far as the fine strands and lots of them go. She was Danish.

[BranwenWolf]

I've go thick hair and ancestors from mainly cold climates... my mom's side of the family is French Canadian with some Cree blood, dad's side is Scottish and German.

For the record I do utterly terrible in the heat but that could be from any number of reasons.

[Bene]

i come from a long line of sun worshippers over by the equator, so very warm climate. my hair is on the higher end of ii, close to iii.

[lailmil]

my hair is iii and I'm from a very warm climate place

[windinherhair]

I have ii hair and am mostly from a cold climate. Ohio can be very cold in the winter. I have some American Indian on my dad's side of the family, and German on my mom's side (from each grandmother). I dont know too much about my grandfather's background on either side.

[drquartz1970]

I am of half Scots ancestry and the other half English with a bit of German thrown in. I have been to Scotland and have noticed that thick hairy heads are common there. I don't think cold or tropical climates really have much influence on whether your hair is thick or thin. Look at places in the middle east and in india. There are plenty of people with very thick hair there! Indian people are renowned for having thick heads of hair. And in some cold places like Sweden thin hair is common.

[Brownie]

My hair is relatively thick (ii/iii) and I'm from Northern Germany (my ancestors are mostly German as well). I've got thick body hair too, and more than enough of it :rolleyes:

[irreverent]

Hmm... I voted cheese. I'm 1/2 Italian, 1/4 Native American and 1/4 we're-really-not-sure-somewhere-in-or-around-the-northern-British Isles-maybe. My hair's a fine to medium ii/iii

[florenonite]

For the record I do utterly terrible in the heat but that could be from any number of reasons.

I'm the same. I even have issues with cold water; I've been known to scald myself in the shower before because I forgot to turn the temperature down from the ridiculous heat my flatmate had.

[rockkcor]

I guess I am 'ii' and I can trace my ancestry to very distant past - all from the cold climate (pretty cold)
As 'ii' is part of any answer - I really do not know how to vote...:eyebrows:

[Fractalsofhair]

Due to damage my hair falls right between an ii and iii, but I'm fairly sure without severe damage, it would be well into the iii range or above! I'm Scottish, but my family is also Jewish. We can trace it back fairly far, and the Jewish part came from the "south"(England? Germany?) during the middle ages, so I doubt it's a huge factor. I'm fairly sure I have a bit of Viking in me, but that's more debatable. My mother has thick hair as well, but I think it just varies depending on the particular genetic population. I have a lot of balding female and male relatives, so it's not a perfect means. I know my clan in Scotland considered themselves Pictish, which is going to be different than the predominately Celtic population of Europe, and there are many other small tribes of similar type(Basque, etc) in differing parts of Europe. I don't think it has to do with climate as the particular tribe you're related to. Indian people do seem to have thick hair, but it would be interesting to see a break down of different parts of India, and such. Hair thickness is probably partly genetic, so breaking it down into extended families is a good idea for figuring this out. (Obvi, diet and health affect it, but if we're talking about healthy people taking care of their hair with proper diet, that's the way to measure it.)

[ilandree]

I have thin fine hair....... all gathered my hair comes to about the diameter of a nickel and I am of 100% Northern European ancestry.

[enfys]

If the UK is cold the I'm from a cold climate through and through. ii/iii, or iii if you include my fringey bits.

[Xandergrammy]

Hmmm. I think i'm breaking the mold here... I have iii hair, but my ancestors were definitely not from cold climates. My dad has thin hair... i got my hair from my mom who is Filipino...Lord knows the phillipines aren't really cold. :shrug:



My first husband's first wife (got that?) was filipino and she had floor length, very thick hair.

[AlleyKitten]

My ancestry is mostly out of Scotland, and my hair was ii/iii (exactly on the border) before my medication-induced shed.

[Coriander]

Well, I voted on Cheese because I don't know half of my biological ancestry.

On my biological mother's side, I'm Cherokee, Irish and English. On my father's side, based on his last name, I'm assuming it's Scottish, English or Irish.

I have lived in California all my life, with a usually temperate dry climate.

[NeilTheFuzz]

I am from England, which normally hits 0 degrees celsius in winter. I have pretty thick hair, as does the whole of my mums side of the family. However, my dads side of the family doesn't have hair quite as thick.

[Feline]

I am of mostly English and German descent. Most of us in my family do have thick hair, although the men have a strong tendency to lose most of it by the time they are 45 or so :(.

[myrrhmaiden]

My ancestry is Finnish, but I am Canadian. I have VERY thick hair. I'm not sure if it's usual for Finns, but the climate in Finland can certainly be certainly cold.

[Arctic_Mama]

My ancestors are mostly from the British Isles and Northern mainland Europe and I have very thick, very fine wavy hair. My father's side is Scottish and has thinner hair, but my mother's side is mainly Irish and has fine, super thick and curly hair. My grandmother's hair was 3b and so thick, even in her late 80's, that hairdressers have a hard time cutting it.

[Aditi]

I have ii/iii hair and i live in hot and humid climate and as far as i remember none of my ancestors comes from cold climate.

[renarok]

My dad is from Norway, my mother from Chile. Both have bitterly cold winters. My pony is about 4.25". When I was in my 20s it measured 5.5".

[Phalaenopsis]

I discovered that my grandfather's side could be from Yugoslavia and I don't think it's cold there. Maybe that explains the sharp noses and dark hair from my mother's side?

Although I got my green eyes from the mother from my mother, which should mean Celtic ancestry. The father of my father had red hair and beard, and my hair looks quite the same as his, just a bit more yellowy.

Anyway, we Belgians have quite a mixture here. The Spanish invaded here, the French..., before all that the Romans and Germanic tribes. Clearly the Germanic tribes gave most of our ancestry, since we still speak a Germanic language in Flanders here.

[Mely]

When I was younger my hair would have been a iii--quite thick. It is also fine and curly (more frizzy than curly). My hair is dark, but it has the same texture as a lot of red-heads I've known.

Two of my grandparents were from the far north of Scotland --Caithness. One was from the Aberdeen area of Scotland, and the other was from England.

[MollyBloom]

My hair is ii/iii, and I'm from Southern Italy, not a cold place at all.
Everybody in my family have lots of hair, my father in particular during young age was a red copper head, with coarse, thick and fizzy hair...

[Isa-belle]

My hair is ii/iii and my whole family comes from Northern France, which is a temperate climate. Not to mention the strong presence of Spanish traits in the population there, due to the Flanders being Spanish for a significant period of time. My mother's family's hair type and colour (which my hair takes after) is mostly considered to be a Spanish inheritance from long ago.

[flapjack]

My family is 3/4 northern climate and 1/4 temperate climate. We all have medium to thick hair, except for my father, who is probably a i/ii, but he's the odd man out.


Biologically speaking, blondes have the most hairs on their head out of any group. There are quite a few papers supporting that. From what I have seen in northern Europe, people have a TON of hair on their heads (and not much on their body, oddly), but the hairs themselves are fine and silky. So they might have 3-4 fine hairs compared to 1 coarse hair on the head of someone else.

[taliarose]

Well I'm a iii and half Cech and half Italian. Both of my grandmothers have very thick hair. My italian grandfather had thick hair and my cech grandfather had thin hair. Oh and the italian is half Scicilian... I don't think this helps you form a pattern though.

[QueenBean]

English, Irish & Scottish ancestry. My hair was iii when I was younger ............ but is thinner now (darn)

[KarpatiiSiv]

Irish mother and Scottish father. My hair is ii/iii with reddish tones to it and I have green eyes which also indicate by Celtic ancestry.

[Unnamed]

My ancestry is primarily (3/4 or so) Swedish/Norwegian/German. The rest is English/Irish/Scottish. So all cold climates.

And my hair has mostly been in the i to lower half of the ii range, which is also pretty typical for most of my relatives. Ie, thick hair is rare; thin hair is the norm.

[RocketDog]

My hair is about average thickness, maybe a little on the thinner side. My ancestry is english/german/scandanavian.

[Angela_Rose]

I've got iii hair, from my 1/4 Sicilian, 1/4 Welsh, 1/4 Irish, and 1/4 Norwegian heritage. Mostly cold with hairy Italians thrown in for good measure!

[JamieLeigh]

Mine is "ii", and I voted half my ancestors are from a cold climate. My mom's family are from Scotland and Ireland, and my dad's family are from Italy and Germany. Obviously I took more after my mom's side of the family, seeing as how my dad's family all have very thick, coarse hair. Most of our family is from northern Scotland, as I understand, so I guess that's a cold climate. :)

[Themyst]

All cold climate here.

My dad's family came directly from North Wales - they all have jet black hair that hardly grays as they grow older. North Wales has a somewhat different ancestry than the rest of Wales from what I understand. There is even a Sheridan from Ireland thrown in there (a great grandmother) and maybe that is why when my dad was younger, his beard had a lot of red in it.

My mom's paternal side came directly from Russia (the Carpathian Mountain region), the maternal side was mostly French.

I have fine, thin hair but have quite a bit of it.

[swanns]

I've got iii hair and all of my ancestry is from a (very) cold climate (northern Finland). Hair as thick as mine is rather uncommon here, Finnish hair tends to be pretty thin. There are more people in the north with dark & thick hair though, guess some of those genes have traveled on my father's side of the family.

This is an interesting topic :)

[Aisha25]

I have iii hair. I always see hotter climates have thiicker hair and cold climates have the thinnest. My whole family has thick hair even on my moms side from mexico and american side has thiner hairs than us.

[BeatlesFanGirl]

Thicker hair for those, who come from cold climate?? I've never heard that. What about the beautiful thick hair of Indian/Arabian/Mediterranean/South-American-Native people then?

I'm ii (or ii/iii?), I'm from the middle of Europe, my ancestry come from mostly warm climate. Dad: Hungarian-jewish German, Mom: Croatian-Italian from maternal side and Polish from paternal side.

[Rhiannon7]

Very interesting thread. joining.

I am a fine haired ii, ancestry is on Dad's side : Scottish and Norse. Mom's side is : Germany, France and Scotland. so i consider myself more than half scottish, part german and part french with some norse in the scottish and german mix.

I've been told i have alot of hair but very fine and delicate. so i would guess that more than half my ancestry if not all comes from a cold climate? I mean Norway is almost always cold, so is Germany in the fall and winter, Scotland and France too right? Never travelled to anywhere in Europe, do want to go and visit all the places my ancestors come from.

[scata999]

If from "cold climates" you mean Northern Europe, then yes they do have the thickest hair in that they possess the thinnest hair strands but most amount of them.

[MandyBeth]

I'm 1/2 Scottish (Dalkeith if you want an exact town), 1/2 American Southern Mongrel (that's what my mom calls herself) which comes from as far north as Iceland and as far south as Argentina, as far east as Egypt, and your generic Americanized mixes of German, French, Irish and English. I've got half my hair "issues" from my mom - it's super soft, baby fine, silky texture - and half from my dad - the thickness that's crazy to deal with.

It evens out ok in that at least I look like I have a fairly normal amount of hair - but grrrrr, it's tangly and snarly and likes to break.

[ArienEllariel]

I've got ii hair, but it's on the lower side of ii at 2.75in. ponytail circumferance. I'd say I'm half english and a quarter Finnish with some Italian and Irish thrown in. My mom's side of the family has fine straight thin-medium hair (English, Finnish, and Italian) but my dad's side has very thick, wavy, wirey hair (English and Irish). I have the fine hair from my mom's side with average thickness and kind of a mix in terms of wavyness from my dad's side (some but not as much as my aunts and my dad). Hmm.. I don't know if there is any corrolation between climate and hair. More likely it's just genetics (not sure how much they are effected by climate). It's interesting to note that most ethnic groups from colder climates have fairer skin and that most people from warmer climates have darker skin though. Wonder if that applies to hair as well?

Edit: I forgot to mention that my aunt says I have really thick hair. I suppose the fine hairs get compressed down to look like not very much then? I don't know. She's one of the exceptionally thick haired ladies on my dad's side. I never felt that my hair was thick (at least in terms of pony tail circ. but she was a hair dresser for some years... maybe she's right? I think I'll continue to be confuzzled by this for a long time. heh (:

[walterSCAN]

Sicilian on my Dad's die, Irish/Scotish/English/German mutt on my mom's side... I voted i/ii hair and half of my family is from cold climates, but I'm on the thicker side of ii.

[bumblebums]

My impression is that very thick hair is uncommon in Scandinavia. There may be differences depending on where in Northern Europe you look.

[Amoretti]

I am from Spain, which normally hits 0 degrees celsius and lower in winter. We also get lots of snow in some places so I guess it's a cold place in spite of the "Sunny Spain" label. It can be sunny and freezing at the same time! LOL.

My thickness is ii/iii and my hair is quite fine and slightly wavy.

Spaniards are such a genetic mix due to countless historical influences that we have all sorts of hair types/colours here. It's impossible to come up with a typical hair type.

[Katrina]

I've got ii hair and all of my ancestry is from a cold climate. They are all Finnish (mostly from East Finland), as far as I know.


Finnish hair tends to be pretty thin.
This is an interesting topic :)

Yes, very interesting :). I hear all the time that Finnish hair is both thin and fine. In addition to that, it is said to lay flat and be slippery ("glasslike" is also a very common description of Finnish hair), so hairdos won't hold very well.

I am grateful that my hair is not typically Finnish. It is not babyfine, but a mix of fine, medium and some coarse hairs. Hairs are predominantly fine, but my hair feels always quite coarse even if it is not overly dry. It is not thin either. Even hairdressers used to say that I have lots of hair. But I am only ii. And my hair is not at all slippery.

I find it interesting that my hair is finer than my parents hair and I have less of it . Mom has M/C/iii hair and Dad M/Cii/iii hair. Besides, they both have naturally dark brown hair, but my natural color is nowhere near as dark as theirs. They have even less typical Finnish hair than I :D.

[Sammich]

This is a very cool thread. I'm so in! :)
I'm half and half, half my family's ancestry is colder, not that cold but below 0c most winters, England. Half my other ancestry is hotter. (Vietnam/china...) And wow, it seems like your theory may just be correct! ;)

[Kuchen]

:shrug: I know British people with super thick hair and those who are a i (and how do we fit male pattern baldness into this? ;) ) and everything in between.

[Anywhere]

ii hair and mostly from a cold climate.

darn you, cold weather!

[Katurday]

I always thought colder climate = thinner and finer hair. I am 100% from Croatia which can range from a warm climate to a quite cold one, but my ancestors come from the warm Mediterranean coast. My hair is iii thickness, but I remember that hair in my home town ranged from i to iii depending on how fair skinned the person was. I do remember that curls and tight waves are VERY common, so my relatively straight hair would fit the i prototype, and it made me unusual there.

[Jeni]

I am ii and voted cold climate

Mother's side- Scandinavian/Nordic, were pretty much Giant Viking people with a little German added in.

Dad's side- German, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh with a tad of Native American that lets me tan so I'm not transparent...

[sonng]

My family came from Korea which is really not hot or too cold(only in winter). :O But I always had really thick hair and when I was little, my mother would always take me to hair salons to thin my hair out. :(

[JenniferNoel]

I have straight up iii hair, and more than half of my ancestors come from a warm, mild climate, pure air, and land/water containing lots of nutrients, etc.
All of my family has/had very thick, fast growing hair, including myself.
I do my best to keep up with the ancestors!

[Bellona]

I'm not sure what's considered "cold," but I'm French and Irish/Scottish. I have iii hair (4.5" pony...that was back when my hair was very damaged, might be more now.)

[Felix_D]

Hm, I'm not sure. I have i hair, and am from Russian/Irish/British roots. Now in freezing cold Canada, and still not any thicker.

[verene]

I have i/ii fine hair. For the last 4 generations or so my family has been in the U.S. Grandparents hailing from Up-state NY, South Dakota, Oregon, and Alberta, CA (born to American parents).

Ethnic background is a mix: Scots-Irish, Manx, English, French, Swiss, Prussian, Danish, Norwegian, and Native American.

[Squeaky]

I have very thick iii hair and my dad's side of the family is mostly Puerto Rican with a little Italian. Mom's side is Native American and German for the most part. My mom's hair was never really all that thick, but if my dad grew his out I'm sure it would be. So I guess I have mostly warm areas with a little bit of cold. :)

On a side note, my best friend who is Indian has SUPER thick hair, and every strand is very thick as well. All the women in her family I've seen have super long super thick hair, and I know it isn't cold in India! (Especially not in her house! :p)

[GuinevereMay]

My ancestry is Welsh on Dad's side and German on Mom's. I have pretty thick hair, but it's fine. (I always thought that was a contradiction until I started posting here.) I've had someone comment that my hair is of an unusual thickness for its color.

[Gingevere]

I live in Wisconsin and I think all of my ancestors came from relatively cold climates in Europe. I have ii hair, but lots of it. My hair is also much thicker on one side than the other... go figure.

[LadyJennifer]

I have iii and I'm from Louisiana. My mom's hair is so thick it makes mine seem i/ii in comparison! My mom's family is French (Cajun), and my dad's is mostly English with a bit of Native American.

[beez1717]

This is interesting. I am adopted and my parents assume that i may be of Mayan decent, in guatemala which is not a cold climate. I have ii/iii hair and i like how thick it is. (I have not officially measured but it could be iii easily)

I wish I could give you more history into my ancestry so I could help you guys out but I can't.. hehehe I should get my genealogy done one day!

[Arrow Juniper]

To the best of my knowledge I'm 1/4 German, 1/4 Delaware (with some Cherokee and "other" mixed in), and half Spanish (bio father's exact whereabouts and ancestry unknown).

[lora410]

For the first 20 years I lived in a cold climate. I am on the cusp of ii/iii. I live in Florida now and my hair is about the same. I am Lituanian and a bunch of other mixed so I can't be sure it's genetic.

[Liss]

I have i-thickness hair and I'm not from a cold climate.
However, my parents are French/Belgian and Indian/English.
I don't think it is reguarly below 0º in any of those countries, especially India!

Both of my parents have dark brown wavy hair, while mine is dark blond & straight. Apparently my genes came primarily from my English grandmother, as everyone else was dark haired. I also have grey eyes, that no one else in the family has.

[Pr0sperity]

I have fine hair and my ancestry is English, Irish and German.

[Mae]

I voted for i-ii hair and not from a cold climate. My ancestry is almost all central/western/northwestern European (mostly German and English). So I come from temperate ancestry.

[lillithnight]

I'm Bedouin, swedish, french, german jewish, Irish, English, Indian, Native american(crow and black foot), African american and indiginous chilean. I have iii hair wether curly or straight. My hair is extremly hard to straighten baring alot of stretching before hand.

[ilovelonghair]

I can't even fill in any of the polls answers, my family is a mix. Some came from the tropics, some from cold climates (europe counts as cold? for me it does hehe), and I don't know much about their hair types. I have ii hair that is medium, but my aunt has I think (it's short) iii hair and it is very coarse. My parents have medium type hair, but no idea of the thickness, too short to know that. I'm the only person with long hair in the family!

[girloctopus]

I have Danish, Irish, English, Italian, French and Portuguese history that I'm aware of and I'm probably forgetting something. Anyway, I know I got my thickness from my dad, who contributed the Irish, Italian and Portuguese parts. His hair is also extremely thick, but his is really really coarse! Mine is much more fine, which probably comes from my mom. She has F/i hair if I had to guess.

[guccixx]

I have baby fine hair which is the complete opposite of what most Asian (east and southeast) people have...no one else in the family has hair like mine. My mom is Thai/Chinese and my Dad is Cambodian and both have coarse, pin straight hair - the kind that when it's short it sticks straight up. My hair on the other hand has a little body wave and feels like silk.

[Nanni]

My hair is ii and my family comes from really cold weather. Brrr

[Khiwanean]

I have i/ii hair and the paternal side of my family originates from Norway, while my maternal side are of mixed German and Irish descent (more German than Irish though). I'm not sure about my dad's hair since his is too short to tell, but my mom is likely to have i thickness based on how small she told me her buns were when she had butt-length hair.

[italianamama]

I am half Italian and half Irish- and I'm pretty sure my iii comes from my Italian side because all the ladies have been lucky enough to get the gene :D I grew up in a warm climate, but I've always shed a ton no matter where I was at.

[sarahramen]

i have ridiculously thick, wiry hair as does everyone in my family (Ireland so cold). i have a bit over 5.5 inch circumference ands its heavy. all the women in my family end up with above the ears hair length because the weight gives us headaches.

[Ven]

Ok, I voted with the first option: Mostly Cold Climate with ii/iii hair.

My ancestry is mainly English/Irish on my fathers side and English/German from my Mom.

~Ven

[christine1989]

I have to plead cheese on this poll! I am German, Swedish, Italian, French, Irish, Greek and Japanese. Way too many countries to consider!

[burns_erin]

I picked cheese because I am a mutt. I have very thick hair, but while some of my ancestors are from Germany and Ireland, my dad's side is predominantly Blackfoot (cold I believe) and Cherokee (not necessarily cold).

[autumnsdaughter]

I have ii, leaning to iii hair, and am mostly Scandinavian, with some Scottish, northern French, and southern German thrown in for good measure. My mother, who is 100% Scandinavian has very fine, thin, straight as a pin hair.

[Cirafly24]

I have ii hair and I am mostly Irish and Italian, with some German, Swedish, Dutch, Bohemian, and Scottish mixed in.


-Jenna

[aililiú]

i chose the first option... i believe my hair is ii/iii,
and my background is celtic/english mutt on both sides, and some iroquois on my dads.

[LucyHope]

My hair is iii, F/M and in the gingery-cinnamon-strawberry range.

- my dad's family is Northern English (dark, iii, M-C) and Welsh/Scots (auburn/strawberry/ginger, ii, F/M)

- my mum's family is Southern English/Highland Scots (med brown/auburn, ii, F/M) and Black Irish (y'know, the darker skin, blue eyes, and ii M/C black-brown corkscrew curls).

So... :confused:

[LunarAurora]

I have i or ii hair and am mostly from a cold climate

My dad's family is German and my mom's a mix of French/German
In fact I live very near the germany/france border (cold winters and temperate summers... Warmer and warmer summers, in fact... )

[morecowbell]

Both of my parents are european (Mom is 1/2 Swedish, Dad is a mutt), and my whole family has nice thick hair. One thing that's strange, my Mom went gray fairly early (mid-late twenties)and my 22 yr old sister is finding more and more silver recently in her own hair...

[Tookii]

Thats interesting because I live in England, where it can be cold, but my parents are from pakistan where most of the people have really thick hair like indians, but India/Pakistan isnt very cold though. I dont think climate really has anything to do with thickness but it might.

[virgo75]

I voted for cheese because my ancestry is mixed 50/50 cold/warm climate and the climate that I live in has all 4 seasons - temperate Spring and Fall, hot summer, cold winter.

I guess it cancels everything out because I have a solid ii in thickness - right in the middle with a little over 3 inches. :shrug:

[Braidy]

I think ancestry has something to do with it but I don't think it's the climate. Genetics seem to me a more reasonable explanation. Besides, history has had so many population groups mixed up that climate related changes in our physique must have been messed up a long time ago.

[Haldir]

I'm also not entirely sure if it's strictly climate that determines hair thickness. I have extremely thin hair. My father is from Ecuador (South America) and my mother is from Hong Kong (Asia), both places - especially the first - are hot climates. This would make more sense though if my siblings also have hair like mine, but my sister has insanely thick hair. To the point where she's thinned at least 3/4 of it off, and it's still double the thickness of mine.

[milagro]

I'm 3/4 Russian, 1/4 Belorussian (which is actually almost the same :)) and I am iii. I know a lot of people of Northern descent with i hair though, and I notice people from Middle East and South East have thicker hair in general. The most beautiful thick and long hair I ever saw was in India and Pakistan.

[Hylia]

My ancestry is half Spanish from my Mom, and my Dad`s side is Irish, English and probably French. Where my mom grew up the climate was always hot, while my dad lived in Canada his whole life,so cold/ normal climate. My hair is very thin, straight and fine like my Mom`s, my Dad has extremely thick and wavy hair.

[witess.writer]

My lineage is from different parts of Asia -- fairly hot climates. Basically desert folk but my hair is odd for my own community. It's curly but not wiry or thick. Fine but lots of it. The curls that can be wavy or tightly coiled. It's a mixture of both my parents' hair types: curls from my mother and waves from my father but I have my father's hair texture (when he had hair).

[CariadA]

My hair is super fine and thin. Since at least the 14-15th centuries, my family has only lived in the UK (Well, I was born in the States). My mother is from Wales and my father is from Scotland. My hair is very very different from both sides of my family. My Welsh family, including my mother, has thick, curly hair. My father's family has thick, wavy hair. My siblings and I all have fine, thin hair. I have no idea why.

[irishlady]

I am from a colder climate and mine is ii.

My hair is not very thick overall, but each strand varies between thick and medium, and there are lots of them, which makes me hair appear to be thick compared to how it really is. Overall it's just medium.

My mom's hair however is very thick, definitely iii.

I am from Ireland and the majority of my family are "Celtic Nation" ie. Irish, Breton and a tiny bit of Scottish.

[Tatybird]

I am Belorussian. The climate in Belarus is relatively cold. My hair is ii. I guess because my Dad's hair is not really thick. Though my Mom and my sister are iii.
I don't think that there's a connection between hair thickness and cold climates. For example, I've met a lot of Indian people with really thick hair. But India is a warm place.

[Taur5684]

Well, my family has been in the US since before it was the US, and they've probably been all over - but I think they've mostly stayed in the northeast (so yeah, cold). Before that, I know I have ancestry from England, Holland, and some from Germany. I don't know what winters are like there, but I assume it gets cold :)
I have my hair listed as ii because it's fine, but it's not super-fine. I've had hairdressers tell me it was thick, but I strongly disagree lol On the spectrum of thin to thick I'd say it's...eh...almost to the middle? But leaning on the thinner side. It's very straight.

This is interesting - I've always wondered about this sort of thing, and about the differences in hair between different ethnicities too.

[squee]

My dad's half (Mutt) is mostly from cold and my mothers is from warm (Italy).

I have ii/iii very close to just iii hair.
I have also lived half and half in cold and warm places

dad's mutt side (not in any real order):
English, native American, African, Czech, German
Think I am forgetting a few....

[ooo]

I would not agree with the way you defined cold climate. Plus travelling around a lot gave me the impression, that people from cold areas usually have thinner hair. Although I still would not make assumptions.

[Fethenwen]

I have a little thicker hair than the usual Finnish person. I often hair Finns complain about their typical Finnish thin hair :shrug: I don't know how it is in Sweden. But over here, it seems almost like very thick hair is even a bit exotic. That is my impression.
Thin and blonde hair is something I see as typical Finnish, and yes, we have a pretty cold climate.

[JulietCapulet]

I don't know how to interpret all those little i's but my hair is thick curly and dark mostly from Mexican and Russian ancestry.

[LadyinTheMeads]

Type ii with German and Norwegian ancestry.

[Ostelot]

I have ii/iii thickness and all of my ancestors come from a cold climate. Well, as far as I know, or can trust to the given information. So the first option described my situation the best.

[GeoJ]

Most of my ancestry is from cold places, and I used to have iii hair (ii now after multiple sheds from anaemia, stress, and scalp problems, and a couple from hormonal changes).

[Red_Rose]

As far as I know Scottish, German, Mi'kmaq and French is what my family is made up of but mostly Scottish and German and my hair is iii.

[Elysium]

Mostly German ancestry and ii/iii here :)

[Mesmerise]

Well, I'm not convinced there's a connection between climate and hair, because really most white caucasians (as opposed to those with olive or darker skin) are ancestrally from cold climates, while people with dark olive to black skin are ancestrally from warm climates... and I'm pretty sure that not all blacks have thin hair, and whites have thick hair!

For example my kids all have the same genetic ancestry as each other (obviously) and yet my daughter would be a clear iii, while my youngest son would probably be a i maybe i/ii (he's never had long enough hair to test :p but it's super thin and fine), my oldest son would probably be a iii too (but he has thicker hair strands than my daughter, so she has a lot more actual hair on her head than her brothers). I'm a ii (i/ii at the moment due to massive shedding, but I'd say it would be at least 3" if I hadn't lost so much hair, I just never knew to measure it prior to LHC and my big shed).

My ancestry is Scottish/English, my kids are Scottish/English/Dutch/German/Irish.

[Alex Lou]

Fair skin developed in cold climates and blondes tend to have thinner hair, right?

[Amber_Maiden]

I have ii/iii hair and my ancestry is Scottish/Norweigan ...

[Diamond.Eyes]

What an interesting thread idea! I'm 1/2 Norwegian, 1/8 German, 1/8 Irish, 1/8 French, 1/8 Cherokee (I'm a mut :D), and my hair is quite thick for being almost stick straight.

[Venefica]

I have 4 inches around my ponytail now but not long ago I had an enormous tangle and had to cut off a little so normally I have 43 inches. I am Norwegian. My ancestors are as far as I know Norwegian though one of my great grandfathers where German. I should also mention that my hair is very straight.

[PinkyCat]

Polish, Puerto Rican & Italian.
:ale::disco::pizza:

[misspurdy06]

I think it has a lot to do with a regions diet. A diet rich in fish and oils like in the Mediterranean people tend to have thick dark hair.

Regions like the Netherlands where red meat and veggies are more common and omega 3's less common hair will be lighter and thinner.

If you want thicker healthier hair take fish oil pills.

[celebriangel]

I'm scottish/irish- generally celtic - and have iii hair (or you could call it ii/iii I suppose, it's between 4" and 4 1/4"

[Krentje]

I would argue for the opposite. Most continental/ East-European people I know have i or ii hair, and for sure a cold climate, wherease my friend and neighbour from India has gorgeous lush iiii hair!

[PrincessBob]

I have iii and I'm mostly Cherokee and (I believe) Snohomish native American. Frankly, we aren't sure about what tribes we descend from... about four generations back I had a Scandinavian grandmother,

[SunnyRainStorm]

Irish ancestry ii/iii natural blonde

[Orangerthanred]

I choose cheesy hair because my ancestors are from no particular place.

My mom is English, Spanish, Norwegian, German, Scottish, Swedish, Polish, Italian, Greek, Irish, Russian, Portuguese, French, Finnish, Ukrainian, Icelandic, and a few more. Her hair is ii/iii, and bright red.

And that's just my mom's side- my dad's side is completely unknown... My dad has hair that used to be quite thick- ii/iii but he's lost most of it.

My hair is thicker than thick. It's four heads of hair combined. And it's extremely poofy.

[vanity_acefake]

I have iii hair. I am Scottish through and through.

[PlainLight]

My hair is iii (if I understand how to measure it right, I put a string around my ponytail and it was just under 5"?). I live in Canada and half my ancestry is from eastern Europe (Denmark, Ukraine, Germany) and the other half is an unknown mix of possibly Scottish and native Canadian.

[akuamoonmaui]

ii/iii: Norwegian, Czech, Irish, a teeny, weeny Native American from Wisconsin (Potawatami). Pretty chilly.

[Shepherdess]

Most of my ancestors came from cold climates and my hair is thick. iii

[Five of Five]

Interesting poll.

I'm equal parts English, Scottish, Irish and German. I have the stereotypical German fine textured blonde hair, at just over 4 inches.

I seem to be an exception here as in my experience, I actually see very little, if any, correlation between overall hair thickness (not texture) and climate / ethnic background.

[melusine963]

I'm not really sure what counts as cold/not cold, but hair thickness seems to vay quite a bit in my family. I don't think I see a connection between this and ancestry.

[nobeltonya]

As far as I can ascertain from my ancestry, it's from mostly cold climates. I know for sure I have welsch distantly somewhere on my mom's mom's side, cherokee, and english from my dad's side. Possibly Irish also, as my dad is fair skinned and red-headed. Not sure. My thickness is at the end of ii, measured at like 3.5" or so the last time, if I did it correctly..

[sunshine-locks]

My mum's welsh and english, and my father is english, and my hair is on the thinner side of ii.

[ladylowtide]

I said ii hair half of my ancestors from a cold climate, but I have seen the opposite in my family.

The half of my family from Mexico have beautiful, thick, sleek hair. (in my opinion perfect)

And the half of my family that are americans with ancestry from germany england and ireland have more thin fragile hair. It tends to be fine and predominantly i

Unfortunately I seems to take after my Caucasian relatives.

[CurlySasha]

I have ii/iii (I'm starting to think it's iii) and my parents are from Russia and Canada!

[wendylai]

Yep.. I'm from Finland and here most of the people's hair is very thin. Mine is maybe a bit thicked than average, but still on this forum definitely thin.

Funny thing about ancestry.. You just have to go 400 km east and cross the russian border and you'll see nearly every other woman with this long, massive hair..

Well.. you have to do with what youve been given. Still in nordic countries the perception is that the southern europeans and slavics have got biggest hair.

[catamonica]

I have i hair. It is med fine. On my moms side their English. On my fathers side Scottish & Canadian Indian.

[SacantRoese]

um... not sure what i/ii/iii means. I'm guessing if iii means something like "really thick" than I'm like a ii?

Half of my family is from England. The other half is from like, Iceland and Germany. Most of my family seems to have have pretty thick hair. But I know some that have noticeably thin hair too. (those are the ones from the English side. But then again most of them are old, or damage their hair a lot.)

[QueenOfTheSkye]

I'm probably i, though I've never bothered to actually measure so just put i/ii, and am one-fourth Norwegian and a substantial bit Scotch-Irish, I think. That counts as cold, doesn't it?

[Springpaw]

All my relatives I know of are Swedish, and have thin hair. Most of my friends have ii thickness too.

[Kittykins]

I'm ii. My mum is English and my dad is English and a bit Scottish. However my little sister has thinner hair than me.

[Phexlyn]

Well, I really wanted to choose the last option because it sounds so exotic, but I have i/ii hair and am from Germany (I guess that counts as cold? Where I live the climate is fairly mild compared to the rest of the country though), and my ancestry, as far as I know it, is German as well. There might be some small Czech influence at least 2 generations back, but we could not find that out properly.

[Johanna]

I think my family has been here since Australia was first settled by Europeans, so mostly English background. I think most of my family has a pretty similar bulk to me.

[Lady Neeva]

It amuses me to think that even if I live in one of the hottest climates in the world (so it seems: the year without a winter), I still have iii hair. Basic Luna Gouda sounds 'bout it.

[aldasbeke]

Just from people I know, it seems like those with thicker hair actually come from warmer climates and those with thinner hair tend to be from colder climates. My sister and I both have thinner hair. Our ancestry is eastern and western Europe, neither north or south-- Ireland and Hungary mostly. I'd consider those colder I guess. My BFF of Swedish/Norwegian ancestry has the thinnest, finest hair I know of.

I have heard that the composition of fine hair helps with cold climates and the composition of course hair helps with heat. I don't know if this is true or not but my fine hair holds onto heat and releases cold pretty well, which makes sense considering my ancestors came from what I would consider a colder climate.

[Jing]

I don't know, most iii pony tails I've seen have belonged to (East/South/West) Asians. My hair is right smack average, and my ancestry is mostly Swedish.

[Neneka]

Here in Finland most people have average or thin hair that is fine or fine/medium.

[Loreley]

I have iii hair and I'm from a temperate climate. My mum has i hair, though. Fortunately I inherited my thickness from my dad who's probably iii as well (he has always had rather short hair).

[RiotPrrl]

I'd say my hair is a ii and I (and my entire ancestry) am from Finland. So definitely a cold climate!

[sometimesginger]

I have ii hair, and considering I'm half-African, you'd think it wouldn't be so thin! Unfortunately, it is though, and it comes from the italian side of my family, as does my pale skin. I live in Canada though, so with all the different backgrounds here, there's tons of variations in hair.

[Ticky]

About half of my ancestors are from a cold climate, and other half from warm. They all seem to have hair on the thicker side/thick hair, and mine is on the thicker side aswell.

[Ephemeral]

I am a solid ii @ 3.25 inches and I am mostly Dutch/Norwegian

[Audrey Horne]

My hair is currently ii and I'm from a "cold climate". Some of my relatives are i and some are iii, all of them from the same climate.

[SnowWhite]

My hair is ii / iii or even iii and I'm half Dutch half Mexican...
The thickness of my hair is clearly inherited from my Mexican side. :) My Dutch family members have very thin hair...

[Freyariane]

Well, I voted "I have ii/ iii or iii hair and am not fom a cold climate" Because in France that's not very common to have the temperature that regularly goes below 0 C in winter. It's just sometimes. And my ancestry is from North AND South of France (not the same weather). I also know that I have Irish ancestry but I don't counted it.

[UpNorth]

Im a solid ii, sligthly on the border of ii/iii but I voted i or ii. My father has ancestry from the Sami people of Sweden, and also Siberia (Not much though but the rest of his ancestry is from up north too) So I guess that is counted as a cold climate. He has very thick but fine hair. My mum is from the absolute middle part of Sweden, Her hair is fine and an ii I would say, its hard to tell as both of them keeps it short.

[RileyJane]

hmm, not sure what I am, but I have a very colorful background. The ones that you can see is the Irish and Scottish side, my father's french side, and English side since I have pale white skin and dark hair but reddish tones. My hair is thin, but thankfully very thick

[cryptorchid]

Well my father and his family are from Albania so that's in the Mediterranean area which has a warm/mild climate. My mother is Swedish, German, Irish, English, and Scottish. Her and her siblings all had fine blonde hair as children, probably from the Swedish genes. I guess I'd consider ancestry half from a cold climate then. But I think climate has more to do with the actual texture of strands than the overall thickness

[lapushka]

My mother is Flemish (Belgian). My father is Flemish (Belgian) but has Spanish conquest (16th century) roots. The story goes that a Spanish soldier married a Flemish girl. The family name survived for centuries. Not a single girl in the line, all boys. I'm the first girl born into the line, and the last as well. It all dies down with me. Pretty interesting. At one point a family doctor with a genealogy hobby (his wife shared the same last name as me and my father) looked into the line and wrote a book on it (unpublished).

My dad has F hair, my mom as well. My mom has i/ii hair, my dad ii hair, used to be iii. His father and uncle both had iii hair as well. I get the waviness from both sides, but mostly from dad's side.

[Sarahlabyrinth]

My ancestors were from England/Ireland/Northern France. I have F/iii hair, blonde. Though we also have dark/black hair in the family. I think my waviness comes from both sides of the family.

[FairHairedDane]

I have a thin ii thickness and Denmark would categorised as a somewhat cold climat. For what I know of my ancestors, it is danish all the way back to the 15 th century, with a one or two people from germany, norway and a single scot.

[vivianne]

This is an interesting poll!

My hair is ii / iii. Because of lighten it up, it got thinner in lengths and the ponytail is not as thick, as it is when its not lightend up! . My natural hair can be real iii :-) I have to wait, when it´s grown down to measure it!

All my ancestors came from russia, germany oder danemark. So our family is from countrys with cold or really cold climate like alaska!
My skin is very thick, my hair grows amazingly fast :-) hey! to be originally from such aereas is an advantage i think! :)

[Begemot]

My ancestry is mainly from northern Europe and Scnadinavia and I'm from mostly cold climate. My hair is ii. There's people with i and people with iii hair in my family. My dad talks about our "viking blood" from his side of the family but I don't really know if there's any truth to that, I really should ask.

[chen bao jun]

I think South Asians hAve the highest density hair, on average. But I hAve iii hair and i'm black according to US standards. Anyone with any African ancestry is considered to be black here even if it's only a little. I have more than a little African ancestry. More than half. I have two biracial grandparents though and one multiracial and besides Africa, I have ancestors from England, Scotland and the Russian pale (modern Russia or Ukraine) so I guess it's slightly more than half warm climate and slightly less than half cold. I have much thicker hair than most of the people I know, either black or white, usually at least twice as much, and being tightly curly it appears even thicker than it is.

[Anje]

Hey, old poll! :D

I'm a low-ii in thickness. Personally am from WI, so quite cold. My ancestry is vaguely northern European, but I'm from a family that's been in the US long enough with little enough education that we're not sure which the home-country is. Heh.

[Bex505]

To sum up all I wrote below:

HAIR
Ponytail circumference-4 inches
fine hairs
high density(lots of hairs on head)
low porosity
dark golden blond
2C to 3A curls-tight wave/loose curls
grows really fast
dry hair
prone to splitting

ETHNICITY
1/4 each
German-Dad's Dad
Polish-Dad's Mom
Hungarian-Mom's Dad
Czechoslovakian-Mom's Mom

(Great grandparents immigrated to America from those countries in the early 1900's. Each grandparent full blooded.)


THE LONGER VERSION
The circumference of my ponytail is about 4 inches. I have fine hairs but high density which is what accounts for it being "thicker" or maybe fuller is a better word. Essentially thinner hairs but lots of them. The hairs are thinner than sewing thread. It is highly prone to splitting but not breakage as much. It is low porosity which is apparently odd with my other hair characteristics but it is what it is. I can't use coconut oil because of that. I have somewhere between a 2c and 3a curl pattern. The shorter it is the curlier. Basically a loose curl/tight wave. When I brush it I get a Pre makeover princess Mia from princess diaries effect. Poofy. My hair is on the dry side and frizzy if I don't treat it right. When I was younger my hair was very golden blonde. As I aged it got darker. Now it is a dark blond. It has golden glints in it and maybe a little copper/bronze. If I am outside during the sumer my hair lightens up a lot and will be golden blonde by the end of the summer. I am also blessed that my hair grows really fast. I can cut 8 inches off at the beginning of the summer and it will grow back longer than that by the end of the summer. Please don't hate I am blessed. I have donated 19 inches of hair twice. My family has always had fast growing hair. Apparently my grandmas was to her knees once and great grandma to floor. I am currently trying to see how long mine can go. It reaches the bottom of my butt.

To ethnicity: As far as I am aware, although I suspect there might be some things we don't know about, this is what I am. I am a quarter each; Hungarian, Czechoslovakian (I say that because that is what the country was when my family was there and we were born on one side but raised on the other, can't remember) aka Czech/Slovak, Polish, and German. My grandparents are all full blooded becuase my great grandparents immigrated to America in the early 1900's. My dads mom is Polish, his dad German. My moms dad is Hungarian and her mom Czechoslovakian.

Sorry if that was too much information. I wanted to be thorough and show all possible factors.

[RottenMango]

I have iii hair and most of my ancestry is from a warm tropical climate.

[BerrySara]

Yea somehow I doubt its all that related to cold climates. This poll is probably not very representative of global population considering the ratio of Caucasians to non-Caucasians on this forum is far higher than a global ratio.

Some of the most wonderfully thick haired inspirations I have admired have been from South America, Mediterranean or of African descend as well as others from South Asia or Russia. A quick search on google or pinterest shows some jaw dropping thick long hairs from all types of ethnicity/heritage/race/countries.

Frankly my perception prior to giving it some thought was more likely in line with those in warmer climates were more likely to have thick hair but alas I too am wrong on that. I highly doubt that it is so directly correlated.

[Ligeia Noire]

I still think warmer weather regions tend to have thicker hair.. South America, Southern Europe or African countries or India have definitely thicker hair than the average north Americans or north Europeans...

[lapushka]

I still think warmer weather regions tend to have thicker hair.. South America, Southern Europe or African countries or India have definitely thicker hair than the average north Americans or north Europeans...

Hmm. You think so? IDK about that. Belgium isn't particularly... warm. LOL

[MusicalSpoons]

Well, according to the poll, most of us (more than half) hail from a cold climate whether we have i, ii or iii hair :lol:

My own hair is in the middle of ii, and I'm 100% from a cool climate (English as far as I know, but even if there is some other European in there, it's highly likely to be from what's counting as a cold climate for this poll :shrug:)

[Ylva]

Aisto/Hallstatt Nordid with ii thickness.

[gingerninja]

I'm British (cold climate) but i do have some dutch ancestors and my hair is ii/iii thickness.

[Ligeia Noire]

I would say that most people i see around me with iii hair always happen to be south american, Indian, Southern european, as i worked with lots of them... but that counts for nothing... it is only my anecdotal personal experience in two continents because then you get Russian, Romanian or Ukrainian people with colder climates and with pretty thick hair too... it would be pretty cool to know though. We would need a broader and more varied scope than LHC though... i still think the odds of let's say a Finnish person having thicker hair than a Indian one are probably low..

[iforgotmylogin]

'I have cheesey hair and come from the moon'

lol'd

I got thick hair (not sure if density or strand thickness) and I am of N.W. European descent

I have pale skin and blue eyes, not adapted for sunny climates like where I live :F

[littlestarface]

'I have cheesey hair and come from the moon'

lol'd

I got thick hair (not sure if density or strand thickness) and I am of N.W. European descent

I have pale skin and blue eyes, not adapted for sunny climates like where I live :F

I dunno what was up with some of our ancestors coming to hell and settling, they had to know we were gonna suffer from the beast of a monster we call the sun. Its way too hot in oz and the americas heck i'm olive tone but i still burn and get sun poisoning.

[blackgothicdoll]

I have very thick hair and my ancestors are (presumably) from a hot climate (presumably being Africa, India, West India, Caribbean, Jamaica or otherwise, I don't know where my ancestry is from but it's safe to assume it's somewhere hot lol). Most of these ethnic groups have very thick hair, so I wouldn't say it's related to cold at all. I've always been curious about our texture, I believe the thickly coiled hair protects our heads from the harsh sun but who really knows.

[yahirwaO.o]

My ancestry is mexican mixed with lebanese, so I would have expected to have incredibly coarse thick curly hair like most people in my family.

Instead my hair is on the finer side, average thickness and towards a straight texture. I used to believe I was adopted because my parents have thick curly ringlets, but I do look like my grandfather, even tho his hair was wavy. When I was a kid i was the only one who got bowl cuts while everyone was doing feathered hair, mall bangs and mullets. ha ha ha :doh:

I'm quite noticiable in my family for having a fairly smooth texture, and also cause im a guy! :P

Mexicans around me tend to have a fairly smooth texture, its kinda strange to see super thick coarse hair.

[PallasAthena]

I'm Sicilian and Cajun so not cold climates-- I think the coldest place Cajuns have come from would be France, which isn't all that cold. My hair is super-fine. My half-sister, who is Sicilian and Czech, has thick, curly hair. I seem to take after my mom more hair-wise though, so it's super-fine and thin.

[iforgotmylogin]

I dunno what was up with some of our ancestors coming to hell and settling, they had to know we were gonna suffer from the beast of a monster we call the sun. Its way too hot in oz and the americas heck i'm olive tone but i still burn and get sun poisoning.

I laughed IRL at 'our ancestors coming to hell'. Summer here is a furnace. The skin on the back on my hands and forearms is ravaged after 30-something years of it and without sunnies my eyes squint like Clint. (Eastwood)

[Hairkay]

I've got thick hair like the rest of my family. My ancestry in order from the most to the least is African, Irish, Welsh, Scottish and Carib/taino. As you can see I am mostly from the tropics though I currently live in a temperate climate.

[guska]

My original thickness is iii, now it's ii (hair loss), but I put ii/iii in my stats. My whole family has coarse, iii hair.

According to my parents I'm 100% Chinese but I'm not so sure about that. There ought to be some Japanese or Korean (or both) ancestor many generations back. I'm still fully East Asian, I presume. Would really like to take a DNA test sometime.

[Ylva]

My original thickness is iii, now it's ii (hair loss), but I put ii/iii in my stats. My whole family has coarse, iii hair.

According to my parents I'm 100% Chinese but I'm not so sure about that. There ought to be some Japanese or Korean (or both) ancestor many generations back. I'm still fully East Asian, I presume. Would really like to take a DNA test sometime.

It’s very rare to be 100% anything so yeah, I agree with you, likely not 100% Chinese. :)

[Natalia_A00]

I don't know, to be honest. All my family is from Spain and I have thick hair. I thank my mother for it :p I think it's thicker than average here though, but I wouldn't say that Spanish or Mediterranean people have thinner hair than people from cold climates.

[CosmoCat]

German, Irish, English... ii

[TatsuOni]

I live in Sweden (so quite cold) and my hair's on the thicker side of ii. My family is from Finland.

[Genne]

I don't know, to be honest. All my family is from Spain and I have thick hair. I thank my mother for it :p I think it's thicker than average here though, but I wouldn't say that Spanish or Mediterranean people have thinner hair than people from cold climates.

Very thin, fine hair here, (ancestry is Norwegian, Irish, English, Dutch, French and Cree-Canadian.)
Jen

[Ilyem]

Interesting that you say that because I've noticed that most people from warmer climates have thicker hair. Europeans stereotypically have much much finer hair than Asians, Africans and South Americans. I know that fine hair doesn't automatically mean thin but it usually does when compared to those with coarser strands.

I'm from Scotland and people here do tend to have quite thick hair compared to other countries but definitely not as thick as those with backgrounds from other ethnicities.

[gottahaveflow]

Definitely we’ll into the iii thickness range. I’m of Indian decent so my strands are o. The thicker side as well.

[Decoy24601]

I have iii hair, 5" ponytail circumference, with the majority of the individual strands being C. My ancestry is mostly from Scotland, with a bit of English and Welsh, and perhaps around 5-10% Scandinavian (Norwegian/Swedish specifically) and maybe around the same from the northwest/mainland Europe.

[cactuses]

I am ii with very fine strands. My genetic report places me at mainly Southern Italian/Balkan and French.

[The-Young-Maid]

I'm a little over half german (iii from a cold climate) but idk where my hair came from. My hair color is from my father's side and thickness from my mom's side. I guess I'm a pretty even mix of the two in that sense. Blue eyes from my father's side and petite from my mom's side.

[0xalis]

I have ii hair and I'm a literal mutt from way too many cultures (and none of them want me :( )

[luzimerka]

I forget what I put in my stats, but at that time I didnt know what i, ii, or iii was so it's probably wrong haha. I have iii hair, and have heavy Komi (north Russian native people) heritage.
My Komi grandmother also has super thick hair, so perhaps there is some truth to the theory...

[Laurab]

This is an interesting thread!
It got me thinking, technically all of my ancestry comes from europe (England, Germany, the Czech republic, Ireland, and maybe a couple other things in that area) but my family's been in the United States for so many generations, I wonder if and how that changes things?
Like, I've got relatives who came over on the Mayflower and relatives who were at the first thanksgiving, so that's a long time out of europe.
The most recent part of my lineage outside of the US was my great grandmother from the Czech Republic (which I think is a colder climate?).
From then my relatives were in New England and Ohio.....
Now I'm in Florida, which is crazy hot.

Long story short, I think relatives of mine would be from cold climates, but I'm curious about if it's been so long now that it doesn't even matter, or if 400 years is still a crazy short amount of time as far as this stuff goes.

[Hexen]

Being Italian/Indian (Native American) my hair is rather straight. And it seems to have almost gotten straighter over the years. And if it gets any straighter, it might actually defy the laws of physics!

Nothing.....can be that straight!!!
It will rip a hole in the fabric of the universe.

However I will veer that which is straight.... off it's path.

Because I'm kinda crooked. :D

[Autunno]

I have ii hair because I had hair loss due to stress and severe iron deficiency but it was iii. As far as I now, my family is 100% Italian and all of them, my parents, my sister, my grandma, grandpa have iii hair

[Bri-Chan]

Interesting thread! I'm 100% italian, and I am on the middle of ii (3 inches) but usually people here seems having a lot of hair! I see a lot of iii hair. I also have very fine hair, very uncommon here too.

[Milady_DeWinter]

I have iii hair and I'm from Spain, don't know about any ancestor from outside. My hair is very thick (5,5") but fine, 2c/3a, a medium tawny color.

[Clollii]

I'm also 100% italian and have ii hair but most of the people I know in Italy have very thick hair and I wouldn't consider Italy as a cold climate region. I also remember reading an article that said that blonde or red haired people have less hair than dark haired people on average which I think is true in the majority of cases but I also know many exceptions.

[ExpectoPatronum]

I'm 75% mixed Mediterranean ancestry (sicilian, greek, middle eastern, north african - I seriously have it all) and I have iii hair, which looking at this thread seems to be fairly common. The other 25% of me is German which is definitely a cooler climate than the Mediterranean.

[beha]

I have very abundant thick hair. My dad had exactly the same hair and he is Filipino. My mom's hair is thin and fine.