Is there a correlation between ethnicity and long hair?

I was at a mall last week, and I noticed that the Asian and Latina women seemed to have longer hair, in general. I wonder if it's a cultural thing, or more encouraged? The ones I noticed had long (BSL and longer), well taken care of, beautiful dark hair. Maybe this is just my area (Northern California), or does anyone else notice patterns like this?

I think that Latina and Asian women, in general, have thick, strong, beautiful hair that lends itself well to very long styles. This type of hair is easier to grow long, and it looks healthier during the process...

Caucasian is more of a "race".

It's a cultural thing. Up until the 1920's, women in most cultures had long hair. Societies were dominated by men and men liked it that way. (Why is a different subject.) As women got freedom here and in Western Europe, they became more assertive. They could look any way they wanted. Cutting one's hair was a sign of independence.

Asia and Latin America were much slower to catch on with that. And their societies tend to more familial and patriarchal. Girls have long hair because that's how daddy wants it. Short hair is perceived as less feminine.

Latino culture deals heavily with machismo. Men want long haired women and women comply. Asian culture deals more with obediency.

Most Asians and Latinos here are first generation, so they still have strong ties to the old world culture. As they become second or third generation and are more "American," they will have more diverse styles.

I agree with Katrink:
I live in the San Francisco Bay area and you see just as many Asian and Mexican women with short hair as with medium or long hair. No different than anyone else really.

In the Bay area, the majority of Asians are actually not foreign born, there has been a large Asian community here, especially Chinese and Japanese, since the 1840s.

I might add that in the cities in the far East, women wear the same variety of hairstyles that they do in America. If an immigrant woman is from Tokyo, Shanghai, Seoul, or Taipei, she is just as likely to have short hair as long hair (bob cuts are popular with these ladies it seems).
It is the more rural women in Asia that often wear long hair.
Either way, these ladies are beautiful(I'm biased, I married one.)

I only said they usualy seem to have dirty blond hair...not that they all have that color hair. Its just what Ive observed. I see pure blonds and darker haired rapunzels much less often. Ive only seen one red head with very long hair...I want her hair!!!

Also, just to clarify, Im speaking of waist lenght or longer only. I see women and men of all hair color shade in lenghts that are definately long but not quite near waistlenght.

Okay, so the world is intermixing more and more. the darks with the lights. So once all the cultures are completely mixed together what middle shade will we arrive at? Mind you, I do know ther is alot interplaying when it comes to genetics and its not all that simple. But over all I could easily see us reaching a less diversified population. When you have distinct populations that dont mix you will see more variations between them. but once everything is mixing the differences become fewer. So i wonder what the normal appreance would be. Dark hair and browner skin?

Yes, people divide themselves. But what if we didnt and everyone equaly mixed. That is the senerio I was thinking of. And with each generation there is more and more mixing. In NY you can turn around a corner and go from one ethic group to another even though they live right by each other. But if these groups started mixing they would look more and more like each other.

Anyways it would take alot of time and mixing to get the whole world population to look even close to simular.

Actually Erinlynn, the world of mixed ethnicity/race that you describe has already occurred.
Most geneticists, historians, linguists, scientists who have studied the movements of cultures, tribes, races throughout the past tens of thousands of years, believe that the three major racial stocks of people in the world, (Caucasion,Black-African, Asiatic/Native American Indian), are in fact mixed stocks. Most Caucasions have either Black/Negroid blood or Asiatic blood in their heritage, and likewise most Blacks and Asiatics have some Caucasion in their background. Scientists and scholars can tell this by genetic studies and by tracing cultures and languages from their roots in the ancient world. Science is proving this more every day.
In some ways, as an example, Blonde haired/blue eyed Swedes have more genetic similarities to a Black Nigerian than to some isolated Euro/Caucasion groups like the Basques of Spain.
Because of such things as genetic mutations and shift in climatic conditions, as well as periods of ethnic isolation, new distinctive strains of humans continue to develop with markedly different looks to them, and different surface-level racial charactaristics.
It's highly unlikely, despite so-called globalization, that a racial "norm" will ever develop amongst the human species, particullarily considering that there are appox. 2 billion or so people in each of the three generalized major racial stocks, with a tremendous amount of diversity within and between those racial stocks.
Even where I live in Chicago, or in New York City, cities that are far more diverse and racially mixed than most places on earth, there is no racially mixed "norm" developing, as most people don't inter-marry with each other fast enough or often enough to develop a homogenized "Polynesian/mixed-race conglomerate look" as some have suggested could occur. Despite our mixed genetics it is probable that the three basic stocks, and numerous sub-divisions within them, will continue indefinitly.
If you are appreciative of diversity of people with different looks and cultures, which I am, that is good news.

im half hispanic and half white. sortof. 25% Spanish, 25% Mexican, 25% Italian,and then a mix.

im as white as you can get. my friends tell me when i go in the sun, i glow blueish.

my hair is straight, medium thickness, and not FINE but not thick for each strand.

that was random.

but my hispanic side doesnt really influence my hair.

if i actually turned out to look hispanic, id probably keep it long the whole time. im just thinking it would look better.

as for the cultural thing. i dont think it matters that much. at least i dont notice it. i know just as many white girls whohave long hair as i do hispanics/latinas/asians/any other group you can think of.

Brent, how much reading do you do on this topic anyways?