The Human Hair

The Human Hair Facts

Natural Hair color

A person's genes already determines the hair-, skin- and eye color since before his or her birth. The determinants for hair color are known as melanocytes. These cells form the natural hair colors, or pigments and distinguish between black, brown, and red. Depending on the percentage of each pigment, the person has blonde, brown, red or black hair. As the melanocytes decay during a lifetime, the hair becomes a dull gray and later on it turns into a whitish color.

Hair types

Mankind is put into 6 skin- and hair-type categories:

Celtic type
Has red-blonde or sandy hair
Has very pale,
sensitive skin
Often has freckles
Self-protection time*: 5-10 min

Northern type
Has blonde to dark blonde hair
Has pale skin
Self-protection time: 10-20 min

European type
Has middle blonde to brown hair
Has slightly tanned skin
Self-protection time: 20-30 min

Mediterranean type
Has dark to black hair
Has light brown skin
Self-protection time: 30-40 min

South Asian type
Has black hair
Has dark brown skin
Self-protection time: more than 40 min

Negro type
Has black curly hair
Has almost black skin
Self-protection tine: unlimited
*Self-protection time, this value indicates how long the human skin can protect itself against the harmful ultra violet rays.

Special character traits are assigned to each hair color, but they are by far not always true. As early as the 18th century, Mozart wrote the opera "Don Giovanni"; there he let Leporello explain his masters preferences with the words: "He will praise a dark one’s constancy, a white-haired one’s sweetness."
Blonde: stupid, naïve, childish, aroused protector instinct, jokes about blondes.

Red-haired: rare, attractive, seductive, cheeky, clever, queer, charming, dishonest, mean, underhand, dangerous

Black-haired: lively, fiery, wild, romantic

Such statements can be heard again and again in connection with natural hair colors. It is indeed a fact that most descriptions can be said, or could have been said in history about small "stereotypical" groups. Only around two to three percent of all people are red-haired; in England and Scotland red-haired people are up to 10 %.