Does Asian black hair sun-bleach?

**iforgotmylogin** · June 22nd, 2019, 08:27 AM

A poll born from a discussion on the LHC discord. Trying to figure out if the black hair of Asians naturally sun-bleaches (so no lemon juice or anything like that)

**GrowlingCupcake** · June 22nd, 2019, 10:46 AM

Asian here (of Indian descent). Never seen sun-bleached Asian hair, and mine definitely does not sun-bleach.

**nondescript** · June 24th, 2019, 02:29 AM

Asian here as well (Sri Lankan). As far as I know, we don’t. And we go out in the blazing sun a lot as well.

**Aredhel** · June 24th, 2019, 04:08 PM

I'm half Chinese and my hair has definitely bleached in the sun. My roots are black but transitions into dark brown at the ends.

**GrowlingCupcake** · June 24th, 2019, 04:57 PM

Originally Posted by Aredhel

I'm half Chinese and my hair has definitely bleached in the sun. My roots are black but transitions into dark brown at the ends.

Is the other half non-Asian? Because I don't think that qualifies since your genetics would include genes that code for non-Asian black hair, you know?

**Ylva** · June 24th, 2019, 05:20 PM

Originally Posted by GrowlingCupcake

Is the other half non-Asian? Because I don't think that qualifies since your genetics would include genes that code for non-Asian black hair, you know?

Not every Asian is as Asian as could be, either. It's a bit hard to determine who is "Asian enough" to have Asian hair. Even phenotypes can betray us from time to time. In order to have the poll results be as accurate as possible, we'd need to DNA test everyone claiming to be Asian to see if they're indeed Asian enough to qualify to answer. I think we'll just need to resort to looking at the overview of the results once there are enough answers, then maybe take into consideration the replies of those that at least know they aren't fully Asian.

**GrowlingCupcake** · June 24th, 2019, 05:26 PM

Originally Posted by Ylva

Not every Asian is as Asian as could be, either. It's a bit hard to determine who is "Asian enough" to have Asian hair. Even phenotypes can betray us from time to time. In order to have the poll results be as accurate as possible, we'd need to DNA test everyone claiming to be Asian to see if they're indeed Asian enough to qualify to answer. I think we'll just need to resort to looking at the overview of the results once there are enough answers, then maybe take into consideration the replies of those that at least know they aren't fully Asian.

Honestly, half-Asian is pretty clear cut if the other half is not Asian.

If you can go back several generations, and there are no non-Asian ancestors, that seems plenty reasonable. For instance, I know I have no non-Asian ancestors for like 8 generations prior. Beyond that? It's unlikely but I cannot tell you for certain. I'm not saying that's the cut off, but it's not really that hard either if you know your ancestors somewhat.

It might be because it's Asia but there's quite a lack of mixed offspring (in the past; mixed marriages are a lot more common now), even marriages like Sri Lankan with Indian. Mostly marriages tended to stay with caste/dialect-group/etc. as well.

ETA: Even North Indian with South Indian isn't common much less something like Tamil with Telugu, both of which are South Indian.

ETA #2: I'm not just talking about India or Sri Lanka either. I just used them as examples. But I also know that Malays didn't have a lot of mixed marriages, Chinese tended to stick within dialect groups, etc. And while these trends are changing, there's still a strong tendency towards non-mixed marriages, staying within your groups, etc. to (even if you don't like it) please your parents/family/relatives.

**Ylva** · June 24th, 2019, 05:43 PM

Originally Posted by GrowlingCupcake

Honestly, half-Asian is pretty clear cut if the other half is not Asian.

If you can go back several generations, and there are no non-Asian ancestors, that seems plenty reasonable. For instance, I know I have no non-Asian ancestors for like 8 generations prior. Beyond that? It's unlikely but I cannot tell you for certain. I'm not saying that's the cut off, but it's not really that hard either if you know your ancestors somewhat.

It might be because it's Asia but there's quite a lack of mixed offspring (in the past; mixed marriages are a lot more common now), even marriages like Sri Lankan with Indian. Mostly marriages tended to stay with caste/dialect-group/etc. as well.

ETA: Even North Indian with South Indian isn't common much less something like Tamil with Telugu, both of which are South Indian.

Yes, but even so, there are always areas that are naturally a bit on the border. Would a Chinese person hailing from near the Russian border be considered Asian enough? He/she likely has black hair and identifies as some type of Asian (and would look relatively Asian to a lot of the world's population), but genetically, there's a lot more going on in that area and has been for generations.

**GrowlingCupcake** · June 24th, 2019, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by Ylva

Yes, but even so, there are always areas that are naturally a bit on the border. Would a Chinese person hailing from near the Russian border be considered Asian enough? He/she likely has black hair and identifies as some type of Asian (and would look relatively Asian to a lot of the world's population), but genetically, there's a lot more going on in that area and has been for generations.

Given Russia is partially in Asia... I see no issue? Especially given it's on the Chinese border, where it's definitely part of Asia. Sure, there's more genetically going on but they're still full-Asian. It would be great if they commented on here telling us where they were from since the comments allow us to expand things more, and ask questions, but I'd still see that as full-Asian if their ancestors have been Chinese, and from the Asian-part of Russia for several generations.

ETA: If someone like that were to post, I'd also love to know the hair colours that they know of in their family/ancestry, as that would help us to see if there may be other colours 'hiding' (yes, I know they're not hiding xD).

**Ylva** · June 24th, 2019, 05:58 PM

Originally Posted by GrowlingCupcake

Given Russia is partially in Asia... I see no issue? Especially given it's on the Chinese border, where it's definitely part of Asia. Sure, there's more genetically going on but they're still full-Asian. It would be great if they commented on here telling us where they were from since the comments allow us to expand things more, and ask questions, but I'd still see that as full-Asian if their ancestors have been Chinese, and from the Asian-part of Russia for several generations.

ETA: If someone like that were to post, I'd also love to know the hair colours that they know of in their family/ancestry, as that would help us to see if there may be other colours 'hiding' (yes, I know they're not hiding xD).

A Russian Asian and a Japanese Asian have a rather different kind of genetic makeup, no? Even though they are both "Asian". They're not going to have the same hair genes. Considering how broad the "accepted" group is here, the results are going to be skewed no matter what. A half Asian or whatever isn't going to "ruin" the results as they're not going to be accurate anyway.