Table of Contents
Introduction
Curly Hair – Specific physical attributes of a person cannot be artificially changed, at least not permanently, and it can be a good or bad thing. For example, height cannot increase after a certain age, skin color cannot change, and straight hair cannot become curly without extensive treatments. In this article, we will talk wholly about the latter.
Genes Control Whether you Have Straight or Curly Hair
Curly hair is an autosomal leading trait (Source). An autosomal dominant trait occurs when one parent has a mutated (and dominant) gene while the other does not. People sometimes have an autosomal prevalent disease, which means they have a 50% chance of having a child with a dominant mutant gene.)
As already mentioned, it is an autosomal leading trait, meaning one parent has straight hair though the other. So you get a genetic factor of both types. But the dominant curly hair gene trumps the straight hair gene and is express in the offspring, that is, in yourself. In some cases, if there are changes in gene strength and type, your hair falls somewhere in between, a little straight and a little curly.
How do Genes Affect Hair Texture?
A 2009 study found that genes are 85-95% hereditary, which means that (in the study sample), nine-tenths of cases of hair texture variation can link to DNA. subjects
It has also remain found that the nature of the follicles directly affects the curvature of the hair strands. If the bristles are symmetrical, the hair grows straight, while the follicles are irregular; they crop oval-shaped hair that inclines to curl as it produces.
Curly hair then Straight Hair, Take Different Compositions.
The hair strand’s composition also influences the hair’s texture, i.e. whether it is straight . In a 2007 study, various samples of human hair of different shapes and textures were collect to study structural elements related to hair’s curl pattern.
And using electron microscopy to compare the fibres of curly and straight hair, it was observe that the former had an uneven distribution of a specific type of keratin (keratin is a significant protein and component of hair). In contrast, the Straight hair fibres had a symmetrical structure.
There are ways to untie and artificially straighten it. Some only have a temporary effect (like curlers), while some treatments make the changes more permanent, although they have side effects.
