More About Unibrows

By Drs. David Niesel and Norbert Herzog My mother used to say that I was going to give her grey hair, but what actually caused it was a reduction in the amount of a pigment called melanin. Scientists have now identified 18 genes that are associated with features and characteristics of hair including turning greying, thin eyebrows or a unibrow or why some men need to shave by early afternoon and why others cannot grow a beard at all. Hair is thought to serve many purposes including camouflage, thermal regulation, sensation and in social cues. Approximately 83 billion dollars is spent annually on hair care products globally, not to mention haircuts, wigs and other hair associated expenses, so obviously it is something we humans value. Humans have lost the vast majority of their body hair but we have retained a substantial amount on our heads and it comes in a vast variety of colors, textures and types even before we start fooling with it. Natural hair color is an inherited trait. Variations in hair can be restricted by geography, for example, different hair colors are essentially restricted to Western Asia and Europe. Straight hair is all but absent in sub-Saharan Africa. Genes have been identified for baldness, hair colors and curliness. Two different genes have been found associated with straight hair, one in Europeans and another in East Asians suggesting that this trait arose independently at least two times. The latest study involved a genome wide association s...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news