TYPES OF HUMAN HAIR

Taranaki Daily News, 26 September 1933, Page 9

TYPES OF HUMAN HAIR

INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE.

CHANGES OVER LONG PERIODS.'

“The classification of human races sometimes depends upon a hair,” said Mr. Gilbert Archey, director of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, in a lecture on Sunday afternoon. The two extremes of human hair were the type which hung straight and lank and that which was curly. Whether hair was straight or curly depended fundamentally upon the temperature of the climate in which a race lived. The hair of peoples in cold climates grew straight from fairly deep roots and the hairs were circular. In warmer climates, however, the human skin becomes thinner so as to increase heat radiation. The. result was that the follicles, or roots, of the hair were forced on an angle and compressed to an extent. This compression flattened the hair, so that a cross-section be< came 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 be imagined that these developments can take place in a few generations,” said Mr. Archey. Thousands of years were occupied in the process and the characteristics of the hair were most valuable in classifying races.