QuoteReplyTopic: Is there a correlation between ethnicity and long hair? Posted: October 05 2003 at 12:47pm
I've never been bald, but did have a crewcut for the first 9 years of my life. I also wore my hair quite short in early adulthood. But I had it long for awhile (about shoulder length) in my teens, and preferred it long -- and still do. I do not plan to go short ever again.
Jenna
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I have been tempted to shave off all my hair sometimes, but of course I wouldn't because I could never pull off that look. I'm envious of any woman who can, even though I do enjoy having longer hair.
BaldJasmine
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No Erinlynn. I'm not bald. I'm African-American and wear my hair in a short afro. I got the nickname Bald Jasmine when I was in college because I shaved my head bald then. It wasn't a radical feminist statement or political statement, it was just a style I decided to wear. As a child growing up in Chicago I had seen some African-American women in my neighborhood who shaved their head, that was a bit of a style with some women in the late 1970s and 1980s in some places. I still see it once in a while here in Chicago. It seems to me that very short hair or shaved heads on women is more common in the Black community than in other racial groups. Maybe that has something to do with traditional African culture and styles or maybe it is just because it is more difficult for Black women to grow long hair than other women. I don't know and don't really care. I like wearing my hair short, and my husband likes it on me, but I really like all types and lengths of hair on people, which is one reason I like websites like this.
Jasmine, are you really bald? Just curious. Ive always wondered what id look like bald but I wouldnt have the guts to shave my hair. I do think its very attractive on many women. A woman from work had lost her hair due to cancer and to me she looked very chic (sp?) when bald and when it was very short. I think its unusual to find women with very very short or no hair as well as to find the very very long hair.
At least most of the women i see with short hair do not get it buzz cut or close to that.
BaldJasmine
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Brent, how much reading do you do on this topic anyways?
LOL
No offense to Brent (and certainly none to Jasmine), but methinks it possible that Brent's appreciation for her theories might be flavored by his appreciation for very short hair on women.
Maybe it's about time to wrap up this discussion? We've veered quite off topic...
No, the world I have described has not occured. I was speaking of a hypothetical world in which all the populations have intermixed with each other equaly. Not a world in which there is mixing and has been mixing but due to geography and other factors has not occured equaly.
Of course you will find genetics associated with other ethnicities in any given individual, but that doesnt mean that person is a product of a world that has been completely intermixed.
Yes, thanks to geographic variabilities and mutations (which take very long lenght of time to be a viable genetic code in a population) you will see variations occuring. However these variations occure on such a long time scale they would not be as large a factor in my perfect world of equal blending. Besides that, I was speaking hypotheticaly and taking out genetic "surprizes" (such as mutation) from the equation.
It would take a long time for everyone to intermix period. Is this something that will occure? Very very unlikely but if there were no barriers the three groups could mix with in each other equaly and with each other equaly you would see the populations genetics becomeing more simular.
Im not saying there wouldnt still be differences in outward apearances, but there could be such a complete mixing that these differences are less defined.
Like you said, even in a smaller area such as a diverse city the people are not interbreeding fast enough to create a homogenous group. However if given an ideal world were they were intermixing equaly you might end up seeing that blend.
Benji the Sausage
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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.
BSL/Blonde/Chemically Treated (abused) 1b/cMii I swear by Redken Extreme and Shea Butter.
Jasmine: What you have written is just about the most clear and objective analysis on this subject that I have ever read! Obviously you have done some research and a little thinking on this topic. Very well written also.
Thanks for sharing your ideas Jasmine!
BaldJasmine
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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.
...and I probably shouldnt have used the words "less diversified". Less distinct is a better description.
Certain populations of salamanders may be subspecies and differ only in location and a few phyisical attributes but if you mix them together the gentics play differently and you can homogenize thier look.
Of course, again, im simplifing things and not taking into account all the variablities and "surprizes" geneitcs can play on you. recessives, dominates, co-dominates, multiple allels, genes that can be turned on/off, genes that we know little about...etc. It really is too complicated to come up with a widescale prediction.
But it would still be interesiting to see a perfect blending of all ethnicities into one...not that i would want everyone to look very simular.
Anyways, this subject was put in my mind by someone who wrote that blond hair is slowly becomeing rarer and rarer becuase darker genes are mixing so much with blond genes that it becomes less likely for children to get the right combinations of genes to make thier hair blond. It doesnt mean the blond genes are not there it just means they are masked or blended with the darker genes and when passed on the new child isnt as likely to just get blond genes.
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.
It's a pretty big world out there with 6 billion people in it. We will always have a diversity of people, even if we are more mixed. Look at South America. Many are mixed but they still divide themselves into "Whites", "Blacks", "Indians", and they still have varying appreances, complexions, and hair colors and types.
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?
Jenna
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Brent, I live in the Sacramento area so I suppose there is a difference. I go to San Francisco a couple times a year, but I never paid attention to the hairstyles. Urban areas (especially expensive) are typically more stylish, so more women might opt to go with the newest short styles. Sacramento isn't a very hip city, although most of the people who live here don't realize it. I'm not referring to the hairstyles, but the area in general. I'm glad to be moving next year.
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.)
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Hello all. I'm new to this so if I offend anyone please ignore me. I am the ripe old age of 48, caucasian and I have long auburn hair. Erinlynn I am also in FL and I see people of all types with long hair (not all dirty blond). The asian and latino women of my area tend to have a little of each (long and short). I think it may just be a choice thing more than and ethnic thing.
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.
BaldJasmine
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I see, far more often, long hair on recent immigrants from Latin America or Asia than on other women, including Asian and Latina women raised in the U.S.. As far as men go, I see long hair on Caucasian men more often than any other group of men. As far as short hair goes on women, I see short hair on Caucasian women and especially African-American women more than other groups. I have known many African-American women who wear their hair in a super-short afro as I do. I don't believe the length of a woman's hair has anything to do with her femininity. The same is with men, the length of their hair has nothing to do with their masculinity. It depends how the individual looks with a particullar hairstyle and length.
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