Nationality and Hair Type?

[Brandt]

I think this is such an interesting thread! I'm of Irish, Asian, English and Scottish descent and am very interested in how much our ethnicity affects the type of hair we have and its growth habits. Is it just our DNA or is it also influenced by the foods, grooming habits, and even the geographical climate of where we're raised? It seems like countries that use a lot of hot spices have a tendency to have thick luxurious hair--look at India and Mexico. Does the heat from spicy food stimulate our hair follicles?

Climate definitely plays a role on hair. The biggest example I can think of is solar radiation, especially the UV radiation which makes especially finer and lighter hair change to a lighter color, and this effect will be greater in sunnier climates (like where I live).

And I agree--diet plays a role with hair being shinier, though this is the first time I have heard the suggestion that hot spices would play a role (including thick and luxurious). I love eating hot spices (I even came in second place one time long ago in a jalapeño eating contest--though there were only 4 contestants), so I would have quite a delight if I found out that's helping my hair!

But, yes, seeing the ethnic variations of hair is fascinating!

[Hellebore]

My background is uninteresting and I barely have any hair but my husband, whose heritage is exclusively from one particular Middle Eastern region (he's obsessed with 23&me and has shown me the map several times), has a ton of thick, black, wavy hair. His entire family has the exact same hair. It doesn't bleach in the sunlight, break easily, and he grew it from very short to TBL in about four years before cutting it. Meanwhile, I'm here, on year 5, struggling at waist and am considering chopping it all off and giving up.

BRB, I need to go yell at my husband for having enviable hair.

[Glitch]

Ethnically, I am Southeast Asian and pass as such. I am mixed but this is how I both look and identify! I think because of this, is why I'm the only one among my family and relatives to not have pin straight hair. Mine is super wavy and kind of wild, and I rarely see other Southeast Asian folks with hair anything like mine. My father is German, but also mixed... I don't know him but it's been interesting seeing how different my hair is compared to the people related to me that I know!

Everyone tends to be pretty 1a-1c, with super sleeky, thick and course hair that can't even hold curls, but for me I'd have to dry it a special way if I want a super straight look. A lot of my hair is fine textured, and I definitely don't have thick hair, it's just normal (although it can appear to be very thick depending on how it was dried or styled).

I've had a massive journey even learning to be okay with my hair type, because all around me all I saw was naturally straight or straightened hair, and started feeling like the odd one out. It's why I began obsessively straightening my hair as a kid and things only got worse for my hair from there I'd also get told to go straighten my hair whenever I'd wear it naturally. Now that I'm much better at taking care of my hair type, I've even gotten compliments from those same people! Wild world. Anyway I think I'm going on a tangent now, but this topic really fascinated me hahah. The amount of time I've spent in my childhood wondering just which person I got my hair from...

[Amiraaa]

My hair is fine, wavy and light brown! I'm Egyptian and Moroccan

[Gwendolynn]

I am Dutch, with some German and Indonesian genes further up the tree.

My hair is 1A, quite fine, medium thickness and a cold tone of brown (medium to dark brown depending on who I ask) that at times gets confused for black. Really soft and smooth, very durable when bleaching/perming. It does not want to hold any curl at all, even my very small curl-perms would fall flat after a day or two.

My mother has very similar hair to mine, slightly less thick, especially now she's getting older. My father on the other hand has dark waves. Not very coarse but definitely less fine than my hair.

My grandmother only grew grey very very late. Getting her first grey hair at 64. My mother got hers at 53 so who knows where I shall fall in the getting grey journey. I do hope to get to enjoy having a full head of grey hair some day though when I am older.

[Inazina]

According to Ancestry DNA test I'm about 1/3 Greek, 1/3 Ukrainian, and 1/3 from the south of Romania. My natural hair is a mousy level 7-8 dark blonde and I have green eyes which I think are a combination between my father's blue eyes and my mother's hazel eyes. I have pale skin that burns easily, I don't really tan. My mother has dark brown curly hair (3a/b) and my father's hair is very slightly wavy light/medium brown hair. Again, mine seems to be a combination of these, annoyingly much curlier underneath the canopy.

[Maiden Fair]

I'm roughly a quarter Swiss, a quarter German, a quarter French, and a quarter English. My hair is quite thick, grows at almost 1" a month, and can't figure out what it wants to do with its life. Most of it is a medium-textured dark brown but it has almost every texture and color somewhere, from straight blonde hairs that are so fine as to be nearly invisible, to lazy white/silver wavy hairs, to bright orange-red, to the occasional jet black, wiry, kinky one on my crown. It wants to be wavy/wurly (I can get actual ringlets around my face on vacation in places with high humidity, or if I spritz face-framing wispies with water), but in my arid climate, it's pretty much just unruly: won't actually be straight no matter how much I brush/ignore it, but also won't stay in distinct waves for more than a day after washing no matter how much I baby it.

[cackle]

Half Italian (Sicily and Calabria), a quarter Mexican (Coahuila), and the rest is Welsh, Scottish, and English. I have somewhat thick hair with medium waves, and it is dark brown with reddish and blondish highlights.

[Death-Within-Me]

100% Southeast Asian here (specifically Vietnamese) and I look it. Dark brown/light black hair with strands that vary between fine and medium depending on the location. It's relatively thick, but not too thick. It compresses easily so you wouldn't realize how 'full of hair' it actually is.
It's typically straight-ish as is the majority of my people, but there are those with wavy/curly and even afro texture. Which is pretty cool.

[shelomit]

My hair is fine, wavy and light brown! I'm Egyptian and Moroccan

I'm Egyptian/Moroccan and my hair is wavy and dark brown ( ; I always thought it was fine in comparison to the rest of my family, but being on this site has made me realize that a lot of people have WAY finer hair than I do.