STRAIGHT OR CURLY?

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 75, 26 September 1933, Page 11

STRAIGHT OR CURLY?

TYPES OF HUMAN HAIR

"Tho classification of human races sometimes depends upon a hair," said Mr. Gilbert Arcliey, director of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, in a lecture recently (states tho "New Zealand Herald"). The two extremes of human .Jiair' were the typo which hung straight and lank and that which was curly. ' . . , Whether hnir was straight or curly ] depended fundamentally upon the tom-j pcruture of the climate in which a race lived. The hair of peoples in cold I climates grew straight from fairly deep j roots and the hairs were circular. In warmer climates, however, the human skin became thinner so as to increase., heat radiation. The result j was that the, follicles, or roots, of the hair1 were forced on-an angle and compressed to an extent. This compression flattened tho hair,, so that a crosssection became oval instead of circular, It was this "flattening" that caused the hair to curl, just as a wood shaving would naturally curl. "It must not bo imagined that these developments can take place in a few generations," said Mr. Arcliey. Thousands of years were occupied in the process and tho characteristics of the hair were most valuable in classifying races. ' ...