Hair is a defining feature of our physical appearance, and we put a lot of effort — or no effort at all — into making it a reflection of our personality. Beards are trimmed, gray hairs are dyed and stray hairs are plucked to avoid bridging the gap between eyebrows. But what causes our hair to grow in so many colors, textures and places?
Researchers from University College London conducted a genetic analysis of over 6,000 Latin American men and women in an attempt to match differences in their hair types with markers in their genome. Their analysis included a wide mixture of ancestries, spanning European, Native American and African lineages, to produce a broad sampling of hair characteristics. Based on their findings, researchers believe they’ve pinpointed 18 genetic variations associated with shape, color, balding, beard thickness, eyebrow thickness and synophrys — the “unibrow.”
