Racial hair variation

Rook, A., Racial and other genetic variations in hair form. Bn /. Dermatol., 92, 599, 1975. Steggerda, M. and Seibert, H. C., Size and shape of head hair from six racial groups, J. Hered., 32, 315,1941. 

Hrdy D., Quantitative hair form variation in seven populations. Am.. Phys. Anthropol., 39,7,1973. Gold, R. J. M. and Scriver, C. R., The amino acid composition of hair from different racial origins, Clin. Chim. Acta, 33, 465, 1971. 

With regard to racial variation, nothing has been definitely established. Hawk s data [22] appears to show subtle differences in the relative percentages of various amino acids found in the hydrolysates of Ethiopian hair as compared to Caucasian hair. Wolfram has compiled a more complete set of data from the literature of whole-fiber amino acid analysis of the three races, showing overlap in the amounts of all the amino acids from scalp hair for the three major racial groups [31]. Polypeptide isolation and amino acid sequencing rather than whole-fiber amino acid analysis will provide the best means for determining with certainty if any differences exist in the proteins of hair of different races. 

Table 8-13 summarizes data from Steggarda and Seibert [105], comparing scalp hair from the three major races. These data support the general conclusions on racial variation summarized in Table 8-12 and show that hair from Caucasians is finer than hair of Ethiopians or Mongolians (about 25% finer in mean diameter). 

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