How does hair curliness work?

Asked by Fyrius (14560

) March 3rd, 2010

I believe I’ve been taught at some point that straight hair is straight because the hairs are round, and curly hair is curly because the hairs are flat and curl up like a ribbon.
Is this true? (If not, how does it work?)

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5 Answers

I believe that is true.

lucillelucillelucille (34325

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P.S. Would you happen to have a reference to verify it’s true?

Fyrius (14560

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Maybe this will help:
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/chem99/chem99328.htm

gemiwing (14718

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Basically if you have curly hair the follicles that your hair much push through are a different shape than if you had straight hair. Because the follicles of curly hair aren’t shaped for the hair to fit through they must squeeze through which causes curling. This is also why curly hair takes forever to grow- because it takes more time to fit a square through a round hole.

sevenfourteen (2422

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