Something interesting I’ve pondered. My cousin was born to two black African parents but at birth he essentially looked like an Arab/Indian child with soft hair. Now in 98% of cases like other ethnically black African kids, his racial features will set in and look like a fully blooded African, with coily, dry textured hair.
However could the skin darkening and hair follicle restructuring be ‘stalled’ without affecting his growth negatively at the discretion of his parents? This is excluding any potentially toxic chemicals to health like skin lightening compounds, hair relaxers etc…
They say that blacks that live in Europe and use sunscreen are lighter than if they lived in Sub Saharan Africa. He lives in East Africa so had he been moved to somewhere like Siberia or Northern Europe but received a nutritious diet so that his bones would not be deformed from Vitamin D deficiency would he maintain that light skin colour or at the least not become very dark?
Would this though have any effects on his hair texture as he grows into an adult or would that be pretty difficult to prevent?
Wikipedia says (I know I know I know) that there’s been Arabs in that part of Africa since the first century … do we know both parents didn’t have a drop of Arab blood in them?
Unlikely. I believe that Arab’s only settled on the coast of East Africa (Somalia, Kenya), so in Kenya the only areas where you would find people with Arab blood in large numbers are along Mombasa. The parent’s are however from near Lake Victoria and Central Kenya.
Keeping out of the sun might make him lighter than if he saw the sun regularly, but his hair is going to do what it’s going to do, unless artificial means are applied. Hair curl is an internal thing based on the shape of the follicles, not an environmental response.
Nope, shape of the follicle determines degree of curl, rounder follicle = straighter hair. Hair composition may play into other elements of hair texture, but basic shape is from how round the hair shaft is, and that’s a function of the follicle shape.
There has been a very large Indian population in that area. Sikhs were brought in in the 19th century, and prior to 1972 there were approximately 80,000 ethnic Indians living in Uganda.
Interesting. I assume by round you mean … um … like a cross-section of the hair and follicle, if you were looking at it from above the skin surface? What are the alternatives to “round” that cause hair to curl more? An oval shape, perhaps?
Not sure, because I’m not from anywhere near there, but my impression is that much of Africa is far more racist (for want of a better term) against dark skinned people than the US is. Lighter skinned people are considered more beautiful, healthier, smarter, they get better jobs, earn more money, etc.
I mean, I’m not racist at all, but if I had a choice, I’d only have tall, beautiful white children, myself. The economic privileges alone are impossible to deny.
