As a mum with naturally curly hair I am intrigued.
I know you might not think it from profile picture but my hair is actually very curly and so is my daughter’s hair.
During my teen years and early twenties I saw my curls as the bane of my existence because they were so hard to manage and it took my years to get better at taking care of them and getting a good curly girl hair care regime going.
Recently I read that scientists only discovered the gene behind curly hair in 2009, so no wonder I had a hard time figuring out my curls when science didn’t even know everything about them.
Along the way to finding the roots (no pun intended) of curly hair scientists also made another discovery.
Having naturally curly hair could mean that you’ll have a stronger placenta during pregnancy.
The biological difference between people with curly or straight hair, is a difference on a particular gene called TCHH.
We all have this gene sequence, but people with curly hair have a mutation (change) on it in position 790. Now this gene has an effect on how the protein trichohyalin is formed inside our hair roots, inside the hair follicles.
If you have the mutation in position 790, then the trichohyalin creates molecular links, like bridges between the filaments of the hair and by this creates the curly effect.
This gene not only effects whether or not our hair becomes curly but it also effects our taste buds and placenta during pregnancy.
According to Quora;
“It was suggested in latest studies, that this mutation has an influence on the calcium ion binding in cells membrane (Interacting selectively and non-covalently with calcium ions (Ca2+)).
This would explain, why the placenta membrane of people with curly hair is less sensitive to tear under heavy mechanical burdens during pregnancy.”
On top of this random finding (I fell down a rabbit hole of curly hair related articles) I discovered that only 15 per cent of Europeans actually have curly hair.
I was really surprised by this as almost every Irish person I know has curly hair meaning Ireland has the second highest population of the most rare hair colour, red, and also a high population of the rarest hair type too, curly.
So if you’ve got naturally curly hair not only does it mean your placenta should be strong but you’re also pretty rare too.
