Why is African hair stiff and other hairs relaxed?

Question

Why does African hair always want to stand upright and other ethnic hair lay flat?

Answer 1

The texture of ones hair has to do with the shape of the strand of hair. When you look at a cross-section of a strand of hair, the shape varies from flat, like a sheet of paper, to perfectly round. The flat the strand, the more curly the hair will be and round strands lead to straight hair. Since African or ethnic hair tends to be curly and pretty dense (more hair per unit area on the scalp), the strands coil up like springs making it easier for it to stand upright.

If you want to compare it to something, think about the difference between cooked sphaghetti and rotelli. If you tried the cooked spaghetti to stand on its end it would fall right over even if you stacked a bunch of them together. However, the rotelli would be able to stand up.

Answer 2

not sure if this is what you're looking for...
hair is made of amino acids, just like proteins are. just imagine a long long chain of connecting links. some hair is pretty straight, the links in the chains aren't cross connected to each other. but some hair is curly because the links can cross connect to each other. the curlier the hair, the more cross connections.
African genes code for more amino acids in the hair that can make these cross connections. other genes don't code for this as much.
also interesting, when you get a perm you are adding cross connections to your hair. when you relax your hair, you're taking the cross connections out.
hope that helps!

Answer 3

That's because a lot of Africans cut their hair very short.

Answer 4

because thats the way god made us honey. I'm gonna be nice and think this is a naive question.