ARE YOU NATURALLY BLONDE, DARK OR REDHEAD?

1

One of the biggest factors in how frequently you have to wash your hair is how much oil your scalp produces. What you might not know is that your ethnicity and natural hair colour could be a good indicator of that.

That’s because they can affect the density of your hair — the number of hair follicles on your head — and, consequently, the number of oil-producing glands.

‘ every hair on your head comes from a follicle,’ explains trichologist Annabel Kingsley, of the Philip Kingsley Clinic. ‘each follicle is attached to a sebaceous gland, which produces oil.’

In normal conditions, over a 24- hour period you produce between 650 and 700mg of oil. Without it, the skin on the scalp would be very dry and tight.

‘The oil produced by your scalp is the same as the oil produced by the skin on your face,’ says Annabel. ‘ It’s a mixture of proteins and fatty acids, and when it sits on the scalp, bacteria start to break it down, which is what can make the scalp and hair smell after a few days.’

So how does your hair colour affect this? Generally, Caucasian people have the highest hair density, ranging from around 86,000 follicles for redheads, who tend to have coarser hair (so fewer follicles), up to around 146,000 for blondes, whose hair tends to be finer.

Those with Asian heritage have, on average, the lowest hair density, ranging from 90,000 to 120,000 follicles, while people from Afro- Caribbean backgrounds will sit between the two.

The more follicles, the more oilproducing glands, the more quickly your hair is likely to get greasy, and the more frequently it needs to be washed.

Asian................................... 1 point Afro-Caribbean................. 1 point Caucasian — Red............... 1 point Caucasian — Brown........ 2 points Caucasian — Blonde....... 3 points