My boyfriend still occasionally insists I have black hair. The other day, however, he acknowledged that when draped over my black leather jacket, it did indeed appear to be brown–as I’ve said over, and over, and over again. My hair is not black, dammit–it’s just very dark brown.
As I was discussing this with him, I questioned whether there were indeed any caucasians with truly jet-black (natural) hair. Asians, Indians, Africans–certain branches (for lack of a better word) of these races have truly black hair that appears almost blue when reflecting the sun. My hair, on the other hand, has an auburn color in sunlight.
Thoughts? Italians, perhaps?
BTW, I am talking about the hair on a person’s head here.
Most of my hair is really dark brown, but I’ve found several strands of other colors in there. There’s a couple of patches behind my ears that I’d probably call black, and I’ve got a noticable amount of grey hair all over.
I’ve also found red hairs in my stubble when I let it grow a day or two.
Not exactly what you were asking, but yes, I’d say it’s certainly possible that there are caucasians with truly black hair.
My mother and her brother both had jet black hair. It is possible that they have some American Indian ancestry. You are going to run into that problem in trying to define American Caucasians, though. A friend of ours who was definitely of pure English extraction had black hair, too, but I am pretty sure that was a dye job since she was about 80 at the time.
“You can be smart or pleasant. For years I was smart.
I recommend pleasant.”
Elwood P. Dowd
My great grandfather was born in Italy–thus Italian, and had jet black hair, white white skin, pink cheeks, and pale blue eyes. Very striking. Reminded me of the Snow White look, you know, Disney’s Snow White.
None of his children or grandchildren got the jet black hair or the white/pink skin, but those odd pale blue eyes got slight modifications and passed down to one of his three sons and only to one of that son’s two sons.
I.e. whatever it was, it wasn’t easy to pass along!
Are you driving with your eyes open or are you using The Force? - A. Foley
I am both black Irish and Cherokee…but didn’t quite manage black.
I figured there had to be a fee raven-haired individuals out there, I’m just curious at their (natural) rarity. I wonder if it’s a recessive trait? (Or one easily “bred out”)
Considering that Caucasians include those currently inhabiting the Caucasus (area between Black Sea & Aral Sea), specifically Armenia & Azerbajain, most inhabitants are quite dark (like Arabs/Jews/North Africans, who are also Caucasians). I would hazard a guess that quite a few have truly black hair.
Caucasian does not equal European or Aryan.
Sue from El Paso
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
Ruffian said:Asians, Indians, Africans–certain branches (for lack of a better word) of these races have truly black hair that appears almost blue when reflecting the sun.
As far as i know black hair doesn’t exist. Geez I hope I get this right. Light reflects hair color. And for hair to reflect a color it of course has to have color. Black is the absence of reflected color(light). For instance a blue shirt only looks blue because that is the color being reflected by light. White is the reflection of the entire color spectrum. So if a person has black hair you wouldn’t see it, because it doesnt reflect. Plus if a person has brown hair it looks lighter in a bright light. A person with (supposed) black hair their hair should turn grayish but it doesnt it turns brownish
I’ve had quite a few beers!!!
Siva, because black does not reflect light does not mean it is invisible. Because there is no light being reflected, you see the absence of reflected light: black. Right?
“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.”
-H.P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu”
Siva, because black does not reflect light does not mean it is invisible. Because there is no light being reflected, you see the absence of reflected light: black. Right?
that kind of backs up my thoughts. If a person truly had black hair you wouldn’;t be able to distinguish it. In darkness you see nothing. There is nothing to see.
Siva, you say that’s not what you mean, but that’s what you’re saying:
If you are in darkness, no, you can’t see anything. But if you are standing in light, then you can see darkness. Therefore you can see the color black. Shadows are black because of the absence of light, but you can still see them!
I guess another valid point is that hairs have substances on them (oil, etc) which reflect light. I guess that’s why black hair looks shinier than lighter hair. The blackness itself absorbs light, making it easier to distiguish the reflections off of oils and residues on the hairs.