Why do u suppose God gave us shrinkage???

[EbonyHairedPrincess]

LOL you're silly!

it's not just about dominant and recessive genes... it's about gene mutations too.

we humans are not really at the mercy of our environment like our ancestors. white people aren't going to die in Africa because they live in houses with air conditioning. sure they're going to get a tan because they're out in the sun more, but that's it. their genes will always be hard-wired to help them survive in a cold climate. black people aren't going to die living in Michigan because it's cold and snowy and their hair isn't like white people's or like animal fur. we turn on the heat and wear warmer clothes and coats.

those are behavioral adaptations i wasn't going to get into. this eliminates the need for a structural adaptation, therefore someone with less-capable genes can still survive and pass on their less-capable genes. so those less-capable genes continue to stick around instead of dying out as they would without this behavioral adaptation. it's actually a good thing because like i said before, genetic variation ensures the survival of the species. so if you can continue to promote wide genetic variation instead of being limited, the human race is less likely to die out.

this stuff gets confusing, i know...

*also EbonyHairedPrincess i would not get mad at you... you don't necessarily have to agree with me - even though i think i'm right, LOL i get into debates with people all the time about whether or not the Neanderthals interbred with Homo sapiens (humans) or not. i believe they did but some people are die-hard believers that they didn't. who's to say really?

It's official I love ladylibra's attitute! We'll agree to disagree on who's right.

 

[isobell]

I feel that the reason so many of African decent view this as a curse is because they are stuck in European views of what is beautiful. I don’t feel my hair is anymore difficult to deal with than any other race, what becomes difficult is trying to CHANGE your natural texture into something that it is not. It’s just like someone with straight hair trying to tease it and give it texture daily any change from what is natural will be difficult.

I personally love how versatile my hair is and I would not trade it in to be type 1A or even 2B. I like being African just like I love my dark skin. But this isn’t something I get from society in fact what I get and feel from society is the exact opposite … I guess what I am trying to say is sometimes you have to learn to love yourself for you and not be so affected by what society is telling you to do. [/quote]


And there it is ... we question our hair constantly because of the constant comparison to something else that appears to us to be the norm. The funny thing is that there is a very low percentage of people with naturally straight hair, most people have to do something to their hair make it straight. My feeling about my hair is, it is what it is, I don't question why God gave me brown eyes, or long fingers or two legs...God makes no mistakes.

 

[Cloudy]

*also EbonyHairedPrincess i would not get mad at you... you don't necessarily have to agree with me - even though i think i'm right, LOL i get into debates with people all the time about whether or not the Neanderthals interbred with Homo sapiens (humans) or not. i believe they did but some people are die-hard believers that they didn't. who's to say really?

So off topic, but I happened to have read some time ago that research had been done that proves the bolded part of your post.

All I could think was how interesting that was and wonder if that Neanderthal blood was still running in the veins of some folks.erplexed

 

[ladylibra]

So off topic, but I happened to have read some time ago that research had been done that proves the bolded part of your post.

All I could think was how interesting that was and wonder if that Neanderthal blood was still running in the veins of some folks.erplexed

ok i'm hijacking again...

yeah, remains were found of a young male Neanderthal-Homo sapiens cross (in Portugal?). the argument remains whether or not this young male was like a mule - when a horse and donkey have a baby, the result is a mule but they are sterile animals. if that was the case, he would not have been able to reproduce and no Neanderthal genes would've been absorbed into the Homo sapiens gene pool. but if he could reproduce... you'd get a whole different outlook on the human race...

the biggest part of the argument is over mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down thru the mother. you get it from her egg because sperm are absorbed by the egg during conception. since Neanderthals and Homo sapiens don't share common mtDNA, some argue that they were separate species who didn't really interbreed. i disagree... i believe they did. i think Homo sapiens females gave birth to the hybrids, but Neanderthal women probably died in childbirth because humans have big heads and Neanderthals had narrow hips. so the mtDNA would only be human, but the Neanderthal genes could have been passed down by sperm from the father. there have been studies where they've tried to track the paternal DNA of Homo sapiens as far back as possible to previous ancestors and there are some strains that don't match up with Homo erectus, etc. i believe those are Neanderthal genes. some people even believe autism is a Neanderthal gene, but i don't know enough about autism to say whether or not i agree...

 

[divya]

I am okay with the fact they our hair is different from all other races.

I am okay with the fact that our hair does not grow straight and i think our natural curls are very beautiful...

But out of all other hair types why do we have to have shrinkage? Or atleast why does it shrink so much. i understand curly hair is always going to look shorter that what it really is, but why does it shrink up so much.

I know we had the whole was are hair suppose to be this difficult spin off thing, but i'm not saying that our hair is difficult and actually i think once you know how to care for our hair it is actually very easy...MY QUESTION IS WHY DOES OUR HAIR HAVE TO SHRINK SO MUCH???? Ladies what do u think...

God is a God of diversity. Look at the different kinds of animals, plants etc and even the different planets that we can see...and everything He made is GOOD. It is human beings who have corrupts our own minds so that we fail to truly appreciate the varied beauty in humanity. For so long, we have found reasons and ways to dislike each other and ourselves. It's sad. But why does our hair shrink so much, because God finds it beautiful. And it is!

 

[Kayluv]

The problem is our definition of what looks good should probably be redefined. You spend hours getting your hair to look "good"=spending hours getting your hair to do something it really isnt naturally meant to do=Fitting into someone else standard of what beauty is.When folks are ready to reshift their framework, spending 232423423 hours on hair wont be a necessity.
But thats probably a whole other ball of wax....

I hear where you are coming from, but the definition of what looks good comes from what I personally feel looks good on me as I have never really followed the hair trends. I just would like my hair to look good in whatever style I choose and not have to spend hours trying to achieve it.

 

[itismehmmkay]

Yep. It's all about environment.

Your surroundings make a huge part of your physical (and mental) makeup.

In fact, we're taught in Genetics that:

Phenotype (physical makeup) = Genotype (genetic makeup) + Environment

The only question are the percentages of each (50/50; 75/25; etc.)

 

[tsiporah]

REALLY... this is the first I am hearing that about Asian eyes. Hmmm....

Very curious statment about the extra eye folds. Then how do we explain, certain African groups with the exact same eye (and they have never met the Asian group or been to Antartica?) case in point---the Hottentot, they are known to speak with the clicks and reside towards southern Africa.

We must remember, ALL man came from Africans. And certain families with certain traits move to various regions. And when moving to certain regions, there are certain traits that sometimes will begin to become more pronounced than other traits.

If you read some books by Ivan Van Sertima
ie. African presence in Asia, They Came before Columbus, and Africans in Europe, one will find Negroid types in very remote times with dark skin, kinky hair, and wide features. When you look at the Buddha statues for example, the round raised dots indicate Afro textured hair. The same is true with Biblical peoples depicted in Assyria, Syria,Israel, Elamites and so on.

Afro shrunken hair is not a curse- even though some may feel that way. When looking at our remote history, these people were extremely proud of their shrunken hair type that they depicted it very well.

Because we live in a society inhabited by people who are straight haired- we sometimes question it because we have been told that our hair should be straight and look a certain way. If it became popular to be Afro-shrunken all over the world, would we still question our hair type? Would we still OOoooo! over straight hair? There is nothing wrong with wearing different hairstyles that are straight, But we have to figure out deep in our subconscious why we sometimes feel- insecure about our hair and there are sociological reasons even though we may not feel that they are.

Take a look at those books that I have mentioned and the earliest depictions in India,Babylon(Sumer),Assyria, Israel/Judah, Elam,Ishmaelites,Agkor Wat (south east Asia), Philippines (some still live today),even early China were peoples with beautiful Afro type hair.

Pheewww! We fell so far. Part of our questioning is that we do not know about ourselves. We are too busy studying others...

If we knew.....
If we only knew.....





Tsipy

 

[tsiporah]

I feel that the reason so many of African decent view this as a curse is because they are stuck in European views of what is beautiful. I don’t feel my hair is anymore difficult to deal with than any other race, what becomes difficult is trying to CHANGE your natural texture into something that it is not. It’s just like someone with straight hair trying to tease it and give it texture daily any change from what is natural will be difficult.

I personally love how versatile my hair is and I would not trade it in to be type 1A or even 2B. I like being African just like I love my dark skin. But this isn’t something I get from society in fact what I get and feel from society is the exact opposite … I guess what I am trying to say is sometimes you have to learn to love yourself for you and not be so affected by what society is telling you to do.

And there it is ... we question our hair constantly because of the constant comparison to something else that appears to us to be the norm. The funny thing is that there is a very low percentage of people with naturally straight hair, most people have to do something to their hair make it straight. My feeling about my hair is, it is what it is, I don't question why God gave me brown eyes, or long fingers or two legs...God makes no mistakes.[/quote]

Let me add to this:

We must love ourselves. I am not saying that people who wear their hair straight as a daily style don't. But we do have to re-examine our thoughts about ourselves. As I stated earlier we are too busy studying others instead of learning about ourselves. This goes to a point that we ****think**** that our hair is difficult.... It is difficult when you use straight hair methods to control textured hair. As another person pointed out---there certainly people of other backgrounds who spend THOUSANDS of dollars with time consuming energy to get some texture and/or locks in the hair. Our hair is not difficult when we have knowledge about our hair and treat it like Afro hair and with the right products. Take it from me. Then some will say--natural doesn't look good on me. !?!?!? !?!?!? I never truly understood that statement when you are born with it, one may be so conditioned on seeing straighter hair on themselves. It must depend on the style that you wear it in when natural. Being natural does not always mean short TWA.

One will be surprised at the number of Afro haired Europeans,Asians, East Indians etc. But they ain't gonna tell you!!!

Tsipy