PIGMENT:
There are two types of pigment that gives hair its color, eumelanin and phaeomelanin. Eumelanin is black, and pheomelanin is red. All humans have pheomelanin in their hair. How dark it is depends on how much eumelanin is present. A low concentration of eumelanin in the hair will give blonde hair, more eumelanin will give it a brown color, and much higher amounts of eumelanin will result in black hair. Eumelanin in low concentrations causes a yellow tone, in higher concentrations creates a brown color.
Pheomelanin is more chemically stable than eumelanin, so it breaks down more slowly when oxidized. It is for this reason that Egyptian mummies have reddish hair, as the pheomelanin is still present but the eumelanin has broken down. This is also the reason bleach will cause darker hair to turn red as it is processing, when it has broken down the eumelanin quickly but acts more slowly on the pheomelanin. As the pheomelanin breaks down, the hair will then become orange, then the chemicals turn it yellow.
EUROPEANS:
Why this color diversity? And why only in Europe? Some believe it to be a side effect of natural selection for fairer skin to ensure enough vitamin D at northern latitudes. Yet skin color is weakly influenced by the different alleles for hair color or eye color apart from the ones for red hair or blue eyes. Some have no effect at all on skin pigmentation
Also, the site said something about random allele selection..and mixing of different nations..and sexual polygamy and selection
I'm going to point this out because although your skin may be fair..it's not the same:
Do you know a white persons skin is more likely to become wrinkled than any other race? Every other races skin is alot thicker than that of a white person!
So the skin thing could be true too!
*I Tried to find the answer..i hoped it helped*
2007-07-05 19:09:45
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answer #1
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answered by ? 2
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From Wikipedia: "Lighter hair colors occur naturally in humans of all ethnicities, as rare mutation but at such low rates that it is hardly noticeable in most populations, or is only found in children.
In certain European populations, however, the occurrence of blond hair is more frequent, and often remains throughout adulthood, leading to misinterpretation that blondness is a European trait.
Based on recent genetic information, it is probable that humans with blond hair became distinctly numerous in Europe about 11,000 to 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. Before then, Europeans mostly had black hair and dark eyes, which is predominant in the rest of the world.
A long standing question has been why certain populations in Europe evolved to have such high incidences of blond hair so relatively recently and quickly in the human evolution timescale ....
Canadian anthropologist Peter Frost ... published a study in March 2006 in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior that says blond hair evolved very quickly at the end of the last Ice Age by means of sexual selection.
According to the study, the appearance of blond hair and blue eyes in some northern European women made them stand out from their rivals at a time of fierce competition for scarce males. The study argues that blond hair was produced higher in the Cro-Magnon descended population of the European region because of food shortages 10,000-11,000 years ago.
Almost the only sustenance in northern Europe came from roaming herds of mammoths, reindeer, bison and horses and finding them required long, arduous hunting trips in which numerous males died, leading to a high ratio of surviving women to men. This hypothesis argues that women with blond hair posed an alternative that helped them mate and thus increased the number of blonds."
2007-07-05 18:59:55
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answer #2
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answered by Anonymous
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Blonde or Brunnette.
2016-05-19 04:51:23
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answer #3
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answered by ? 3
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Genetics.
2007-07-05 18:46:12
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answer #4
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answered by evemarkra 5
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Asians have beAUTiFULL hair dont they? :) and Indians too-oh HispaniC women to wow, Native Americans yeh, blond hair dont even shine man-
2007-07-05 18:47:31
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answer #5
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answered by multicurious 3
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Adaptations to climate
2007-07-05 18:46:25
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answer #6
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answered by Author Unknown 6
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genetics and evolution.
2007-07-05 18:47:07
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answer #7
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answered by Anonymous
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genes.
2007-07-05 18:45:54
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answer #8
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answered by cindy h 5
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Idk, i am Asian and I have black hair...
....Except for Russians
2007-07-05 18:47:47
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answer #9
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answered by Anonymous
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why not?
2007-07-05 18:46:34
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answer #10
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answered by Dave 2
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