Even today, when various cosmetics and paints allow people to radically change their appearance, we are accustomed to imagine people of southern origin with black, tar hair. Almost the entire indigenous black population of Africa appears with curly dark hair.
Arabs, Indians, Iranians, many other dark-skinned peoples are also famous for the natural blackness of their hair. But why is this so? In nature, something accidental is extremely rare, the dark hair of the black population of the planet is no exception in this case.
Melanin and the body's defensive reaction
Hair is on the skin of a person. Bulbs are in the layers of the skin, fully participating in the metabolism occurring in its depths. Many substances come into them from the skin, including the dark pigment melanin. Skin color is formed precisely by pigments, they also form the shade of hair. Theomelanin gives a red color, and eumelanin - directly black. Tanning on the skin, moles, spots after scars appear due to melanin.
Pigments are essential for skin protection from the sun. Sunlight has multiple effects on the body, not only beneficial, but also harmful when exposed to excessive radiation. And the closer to the equator, the more intense the sunlight, and the higher the need to have constant protection from it. Therefore, southerners are predominantly dark-skinned, while the indigenous inhabitants of regions with more moderate solar activity have light skin - and the ability to sunbathe in the bright sun, receiving temporary protection.
In the case of periodic tanning, hair can only fade in the sun, their natural color does not darken. Naturally black people, an increased amount of melanin in the skin is transmitted to the hairproviding them a shade from black to dark chestnut. In old age, the synthesis of melanin is often suspended, which leads to the appearance of gray hair, which happens in blacks.
Are all black brunettes, or is there an exception?
The one exception to the color of black people’s hair is the Melanesians. About 10 percent of the local population has a light shade of hair with dark skin. The phenomenon has been studied since the 19th century, there is still no definite answer. There were opinions that the hair of Melanesians fade under the influence of sea salt or the sun, as they have a highly sensitive structure, and in addition, a diet consisting mainly of fish could play a role.
The assumption that the cause of the anomaly is an admixture of the European gene pool does not justify itself. However, the assertion that fair hair with dark skin is a genetic feature of the local population fully justifies itself.
Albinism
Blacks can have fair, even white hair. and in another case. If we are talking about such anomalies like albinism, both hair and skin will be white. There are similar cases in the world, they are not so rare. But in Africa itself, albinos are treated with great suspicion, in the past they could even be expelled from the village.
Interesting fact: forced isolation, the ability to start a family with only another albino has led to the fact that in Africa today there are villages of “white blacks”.
What hair color did humanity have in the past?
Today, the dark-skinned and dark-haired population of the planet is concentrated in the equatorial, tropical, subtropical territories. Closer to the temperate zones, territories populated by fair-haired, white-skinned Caucasians begin. It turns out that this was not always the case, and according to scientists fair-skinned people with white hair appeared much later than dark-haired, about 30 thousand years ago.
How did blond hair appear?
According to most scientists, humanity was born in Africa, the dark color of the skin and hair to protect from the sun was natural. With the beginning of mass migrations and movement to the northern territories, it appeared and consolidated a new mutation that spawned not only fair skin and hair, but also blue, green eyes. In the past, all of humanity was also brown-eyed.
Thus, the dark hair color of black people is formed due to the pigment melanin, which enters the hair from the skin. A dark color is necessary to protect against excessive ultraviolet radiation, harmful to the body. If nature had not endowed the southerners with such protection, life under the scorching sun would have been impossible.
