By Noah Wchung

Dihydrotestosterone or DHT is an androgen hormone produced by testosterone. High values ​​of Dht Can cause hair loss problems, including androgenetic alopecia or aga, and male sample, SAVEHEATHETH Reports.

Prescription DHT shampoos comparable to Ketoconazole reduce DHT production by locally geared toward the hormone cycle on latest hair growth fames.

Over-the-counter DHT-Shampoos aim to lower the DHT levels, and sometimes natural products that may reduce DHT, including SAW palmetto and pumpkin seed oil. These shampoos may also use other hair -impaired ingredients comparable to biotin, keratin and caffeine.

Studies show that prescription DHT shampoos are effective within the treatment of hair loss, especially together with other hair loss treatments. There are only limited studies on natural DHT low products.

The unwanted effects of DHT shampoos are generally mild. You can include skin problems comparable to itchy and dry skin.

People who are suffering from hair loss brought on by androgenetic alopecia or telogen -fleuvium can find DHT useful of their treatment program, especially in the sooner stages of hair loss, since DHT shampoos cannot reverse hair loss. Men who take 5-alpha reductase inhibitors or other hormonal hair loss medications can use DHT shampoos as a part of their combination treatment.

What is DHT and the way does it cause hair loss?

Dihydrotestosterone is a hormone. In particular, it’s a sex steroid that’s produced within the gonades. It plays as a “androgen” hormone An necessary a part of the male biological properties Like muscle mass, the event of body hair and the depth of the voice. DHT is generated in men when an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase or 5-AR Testosterone within the prostate and the testicles converts into DHT. DHT adheres to the identical places as testosterone, but is an extended time period. DHT's role in hair growth is complicated. It is believed that DHT is attached to hair follicles by androgen receptors, and it’s needed for many hair growth. Axis hair, pubic hair and other body hair don’t grow without DHT. However, it has a negative impact on headhair growth. For unknown reasons, a high level of DHT hair loss and thinning triggers. It may be a very important consider Androgenetic alopeciaAlso known as male model, although AGA is experienced by each men and ladies. Bald male patternOr AGA is probably the most common reason behind male hair loss. Hair loss may be very common in men and affects almost half of all men over 50 years. Almost 50 million men and about 30 million women within the United States suffer from AGA.

How do prescription DHT shampoos work?

Since high androgen hormones may cause hair loss, prescription DHT shampoos comparable to ketoconazole are “anti-and-rogeetical”. She prevent the formation of the androgenetic hormone -dhtin addition to the formation of testosterone that’s converted into DHT. The shampoo goals at these hormones on site at the positioning of recent growth hair follicles. The aim is to disturb the hormone cycle that causes thinning and baldness.

What other sorts of DHT shampoos are there?

Many over-the-counter hair loss shampoos also aim at DHT and sometimes use natural ingredients which have shown promising when reducing the DHT values. Frequent natural ingredients utilized in over-the-counter DHT shampoos saw palmettoPygeum Bark and Pumpkin oil. Many of those over-the-counter hair loss shampoos may also produce other ingredients which might be assumed to revive and promote hair growth comparable to biotin, caffeine, keratin and rosemary oil.

Do you’re employed DHT shampoos?

Only limited studies on shampoos were carried out, which potentially determined natural ingredients comparable to SAW Palmetto within the treatment of male model (androgenetic alopecia or aga), although Some first findings Specify potential guarantees. Prescription DHT shampoos comparable to Ketoconazole have been proven in studies Treat hair loss and androgenetic alopecia effectivelyEspecially when the condition was treated aggressively and persistently with the shampoo.

Prescription DHT shampoos comparable to ketoconazole were also shown Work simpler in the event that they are taken with an oral drug This lowers the DHT levels comparable to finasteride, a 5A reductase inhibitor that blocks the enzyme, converts the testosterone into DHT. There are some restrictions on the treatment of hair loss with DHT shampoos. As with other DHT-low medication, the results of those shampoos only last so long as they use them. If prescription shampoos are stopped, the symptoms return. While DHT shampoos are in a position to arouse energetic hair follicles which might be somewhat resting, follicles which might be already inactive are usually not affected.

Do DHT shampoos have unwanted effects?

Most DHT shampoos comparable to Ketoconazole have minimal unwanted effects. You can contain the next:

• Bubbles
• Change of text on the hair
• Itchy skin
• Skin irritation
• Skin dryness

If you may have more serious unwanted effects after using DHT shampoo comparable to hives or respiratory respiratory, you might have an allergic response and may search for immediate medical care.

Who is a perfect candidate for DHT shampoos?

Men and ladies who’re in search of treatment for a scalp flag infection or dandruff may be helpful. DHT shampoos may be utilized by men and ladies to treat hair loss by androgenetic alopecia or telogen -fleuvium. Since DHT shampoos serve to forestall hair loss and possibly rejuvenate follicle and never reverse the hair loss that has already occurred, those in the sooner stages of hair loss are ideal candidates. Men who take oral hormone recipes for hair loss, comparable to finasteride, Can also use a DHT shampoo Like ketoconazole as a mix therapy.

Originally published: March 3, 2025 at 11:06 a.m. PST

Race and sophistication simmer within the pressure cooker of an immigrant's life in America within the fiery hot-button comedy “Jaja's African Hair Braiding.”

Welcome to a busy Harlem hair salon in Jocelyn Bioh's bittersweet 90-minute romp directed by Whitney White in its riveting West Coast premiere on the Berkeley Repertory Theater through December 15.

Gossip and intuition flow like wine when the cheeky Bea (Awa Sal Secka) and the relaxed Aminata (Tiffany Renee Johnson) chat, however the long-simmering subtext is at all times there. Amidst the complaints about various shady men in her life and the jostling over who stole from whose customers, there’s at all times the fear of the world outside the salon.

In among the play's funniest moments, the melodramatic Bea incessantly throws sharp attacks on the vivacious newcomer Ndidi (the deft Aisha Sougou) over desirable clients. Bioh, best known for “School Girls, or; “The African Mean Girls Play” gently mixes hilarity with a touch of doubt and foreboding. The never-ending stream of dubious customers, skillfully played by Melanie Brezill and Leovina Charles, adds to the fun on this Tony-nominated play.

For all their wisdom and wisdom, these women are all too aware that they’re outsiders in a rustic that doesn't at all times welcome immigrants. That tingling feeling of fear, the constant reading of tea leaves as a matter of survival, is just a part of the ecosystem, identical to the sweltering summer heat.

All of those women immigrated from a special a part of West Africa, but all had the identical dream of a greater life. Gentle Miriam's (a radiant Bisserat Tseggai) heartbreaking story of separation from a lousy husband and the necessity to go away her little girl behind to pursue a brand new life cuts to the core.

These resilient women don't mind working until their hands blister and bleed if it means sooner or later getting their papers and becoming an actual American who doesn't must hide from ICE raids.

Despite the never-ending onslaught of hellish customers and the constant financial crisis, the salon is sort of a refuge, a secure place. Until it isn't anymore.

Marie (a sensitive turn from Jordan Rice), JaJa's smart daughter, is the closest to grabbing the brass ring. She even became her highschool's valedictorian by posing as her cousin Kelly and registering for classes using borrowed documents. Entrepreneurial Jaja (a regal Victoire Charles) could also be a tricky guy, but she knows her progress in New York will probably be limited. It's as much as Marie to make amends for all of them.

While White's production needs to choose up the pace and tempo a bit, there's no denying the depth and urgency of the play's themes, not to say the wry delights of the text, Bioh's wealthy gift for the peculiarities of language and dialect, the exuberant musicality of speech . Dede Ayite's costumes add to the cheeky atmosphere.

To be honest, whether we would like braids in our hair or not, all of us secretly long to develop into regulars at Jaja's, a full of life hangout filled with charm, spunk and courage.

“JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING”

By Jocelyn Bioh, presented by Berkeley Repertory Theater

Through: Dec 15

Where: Berkeley Rep's Peet's Theater, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley

Duration: 90 minutes, no break

Tickets: $25-$134; 510-647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org

Originally published: November 15, 2024 at 8:48am PST

policy

Two members of the US House of Representatives initially urged the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to analyze the health risks of hair straighteners, that are used primarily by black women, in 2023. Now they’re asking the agency why it has twice postponed its planned date for proposing a ban on products containing formaldehyde, which studies have shown to guide to increased cancer rates.

Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Shontel Brown of Ohio urged the FDA in a letter to finalize the proposed rule banning certain hair straighteners for salon and residential use. Rep. Nydia Velazquez of New York joined Pressley and Brown in signing the letter, which is dated Tuesday.

The FDA announced a possible rule for 2023 and had initially set an April goal date for publishing the proposal. The date was then pushed back to July after which to September.

The letter from Pressley, Brown and Velazquez – all of whom are running for re-election this 12 months – asks FDA Commissioner Robert Califf to offer specific reasons for the delay.

Pressley told the Associated Press that one reason black women seek hair straightening treatments is because they face discrimination due to their hair.

“If you Google unprofessional hairstyles for work right now, you're inundated with images of black women,” said Pressley, who also believes further delay may lead to more health issues for communities of color. “Everything from protective hairstyles, Senegalese twists or braids like I wore for many years, to Afros or locs… I just want everyone to be able to show up fully, authentically, with no regrets, without fear, without discrimination.”

It's not unusual for the FDA to have issues on its regulatory agenda for years. For example, a draft of a proposed ban on menthol cigarettes was released in 2022, however the deadline for finalizing the rule was pushed back twice before being postponed indefinitely in April.

When asked in regards to the letter, an FDA spokesperson told AP that officials would respond on to lawmakers. Last month, the agency said the proposed ban was still one among its top priorities and was within the legislative process, but couldn’t comment to AP on the timing or content of the proposal.

Black women and ladies of other ethnicities have been using chemical hair straightening treatments for a long time, and lots of the straighteners, creams and keratin treatments contain formaldehyde – a chemical utilized in pesticides and to preserve dead bodies.

A 2022 study from the National Institutes of Health found that folks who used hair straighteners had an increased risk of developing uterine cancer. A 2023 study from Boston University found that postmenopausal women who used hair straighteners most steadily had a greater than 50% increased risk of uterine cancer than women who used them rarely.

Thousands of lawsuits allege that cosmetic firms that make a number of the hair straighteners misrepresented the products' “health effects” and exposed plaintiffs to chemicals that increased the danger of uterine and ovarian cancer. Some also claim they became infertile after using the products.

In an October social media video, the FDA reminded that there is no such thing as a ban yet and that the agency plans to work with the cosmetics industry to encourage them to develop alternative hair straightening products.

Are young people losing their hair sooner than previous generations?

New research results show Anxiety and poor food plan can result in early hair loss in millennials and folks of their twenties.

At the identical time, men and ladies over 50 suffer from hair loss and thinning hair, whether as a result of genetic predisposition, hormonal changes or the aging process.

Together, these aspects have created a rapidly increasing demand for therapies and medications to forestall and treat hair loss. To date, the FDA has only approved topical minoxidil and finasteride preparations as pharmacological treatments. The FDA hasn't approved one other drug for probably the most common type of hair loss in nearly 30 years. But that would soon change.

At least half a dozen drugs and cell-based therapies are making progress in clinical trials, and dermatologists in Florida see hope on the horizon.

“It’s an exciting time,” said Dr. Joshua Berlina Boynton Beach dermatologist who treats patients with hair loss. “We are seeing a resurgence in the number of companies looking for solutions to this problem. Although it is not life-threatening, it affects a significant portion of the population and is troubling to them.”

Berlin said increased promoting for hair loss products has led to more awareness – and interest in solutions. “I'm definitely seeing more people coming into my practice specifically for hair loss.”

Brett King, an associate professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine, specializing in hair loss. He is happy concerning the advances and a focus being given to probably the most common type of hair loss, androgenetic alopecia, also often known as female and male pattern baldness. He recently discovered something that works for his patients.

King gets great results by prescribing oral minoxidil, a preferred hair loss medication that is often applied to the scalp. Minoxidil is the energetic ingredient in Rogaine, a lotion or foam that’s applied to the scalp and is now available as a generic drug. It has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for oral use for hair loss. Recently, nevertheless, an increasing number of dermatologists who treat hair loss are prescribing the low-dose pills to their patients and, like King, are reporting success.

“Oral minoxidil is so much better for many reasons,” he said. “Topically, it only works where you apply it, whereas oral administration treats all parts of your scalp.”

Two latest drugs approved within the last yr and a half are also showing ends in individuals with alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease that attacks hair follicles and causes hair loss. Alopecia areata is the second most typical style of hair loss. The drugs allow users to regrow their hair.

“Hair loss is something that when someone comes into a dermatology office, the doctor doesn't just throw up their hands and say, 'I don't know, get Rogaine,'” King said. “Now we have new treatments for the two most common forms of hair loss.”

He believes that these advances are only the start.

Some drugs in clinical trials show promising effects for the early stages of hair loss and baldness, while others have the potential to stimulate existing hair follicles and generate latest hair growth. In addition, in some cases, progress is made unintentionally, as drugs intended for other conditions are repurposed as hair growth stimulators. Another area of ​​research and development is cell-based therapies that stimulate hair growth by injecting stem cells into the scalp.

“I think that in the next decade we will see the development of new drugs that actually promote hair growth … drugs that not only produce reasonably good results, but produce excellent results in treating severe hair loss at younger and younger ages,” King said.

Biotechnology researchers imagine that individuals affected by hair loss will turn to convenient, available treatments – pills, lotions, injections – that they’ll use at home.

Of course, hair transplants remain popular.

Berlin says the most effective technique to make the fitting selection is to go to a dermatologist. They can examine your scalp and order a blood test to find out possible underlying causes.

If there may be a nutrient deficiency, taking certain supplements can assist. Berlin is a fan of biotin, in addition to a complement called Nutrafol – a mix of vitamins, minerals and herbal ingredients. One study found that Nutrafol reduced hair loss in women before, during and after menopause. “They work to some extent, no question,” he said.

“Hair loss is a condition where we haven't seen anything new for many years, and suddenly there are breakthroughs,” he said. “The goal is more novel treatments, and I know many people would like to see that.”

Originally published: July 26, 2024 at 1:21 p.m.

You may notice that a few of your pals and colleagues are a little bit hairier than usual this month. The annual charity event Movember encourages men to grow mustaches to lift money and awareness for men's health issues, particularly prostate cancer and depression.

As far as philanthropic gimmicks go, Movember is among the finest within the business. It's cool for once, give it a little bit time. During the opposite eleven months of the yr, mustachioed residents are teased for his or her face coverings.

But elsewhere on this planet, facial hair has deep political and cultural meanings and has been the topic of international incidents.

Tradition and modernity

There's nothing like a mustache to indicate that you simply're serious about Middle Eastern culture.

There the mustache represents the boundary between tradition and modernity. Promising reforms through the Arab Spring while clean-shaven was a symbolic gesture by Syrian President Assad. He desired to persuade the West and the youth of his country that he was serious.

In Iraq, men literally swear by their mustaches to seal a deal. Knowing that helps makes one understand an uncomfortable moment leading as much as the 2003 Iraq War.

At a world meeting lower than a month before the US-led invasion Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, certainly one of Saddam's top surrogates, was offended at Kuwait's decision to permit U.S. troops to assemble on its territory. He shouted to a member of a Kuwaiti delegation: “Curse your mustache, you traitor!”

This was interpreted as greater than a straightforward threat. Western journalists supposed The subtext was that the Kuwaiti representative was “not man enough to deserve the mustache he wore” and, by extension, his country's policy of appeasing the American military was cowardly and dishonorable.

The military 'mo

This lesson in regards to the importance of facial hair in Middle East diplomacy was not lost on the American military. From 2001 to 2010, U.S. Special Forces soldiers in Afghanistan were at all times eager about winning hearts and minds Ken doll They wore the looks of a soldier and maintained bushy beards as an indication of respect for the local culture.

Last yr, senior leadership decided that despite supporting the mission, the looks was “unprofessional” and so were the soldiers ordered to shave. A Green Beret team leader said a US journalist that “growing a beard helps us enormously.” Now,” he lamented, “we look no different than the British or Russians before us.”

The regular US military also tested the beard in Iraq. In 2004, soldiers in Fallujah grew beards. But as violence increased in the world, some concluded that facial hair diplomacy was not a part of a soldier's job description. According to Sergeant Cameron Lefter“When you go to fight, it’s time to shoot – not to make friends with people.”

Australians in Afghanistan

The fate of the beardless soldier has also prolonged to Australian forces in Afghanistan. Despite the severe water shortage, soldiers are ordered to shave each day. In fact, the commanding officer of Mentoring Task Force 3 in Uruzgan Province was so concerned about compliance with shaving standards that he insisted that his subordinates sign an order that read, “Be a professional soldier, not a pirate.” The signatories made quickly placed on T-shirts that mocked the order. But it’s unlikely that our boys in Uruzgan might be at Movember this yr.

When it involves winning respect, not battles, the mustache has proven to be the unlikeliest secret weapon within the US arsenal.

Animal attraction

More than 200 years ago, certainly one of the few successful diplomats in America's first conflict with a Muslim nation wrote in regards to the importance of his mustache in negotiations.

1795 poet and diplomat Joel Barlow was sent to Algiers to secure the liberty of the greater than 150 American sailors trapped there.

When he returned to the United States after a successful mission in August 1797, he wrote the next letter to his wife:

“I wear big moustaches, long, nice and black (although a little bit gray). Would you want me to chop them here, or would you prefer to see them and cut them yourself? Tell me and I’ll obey you without the slightest resistance. I bet you'll tell me to chop them off here and I bet you'll be right.

“Do I even have to let you know why I left her? There is a saying that’s all too true, despite the fact that it is rather humiliating for humanity: Whoever makes himself a lamb, the wolf eats. No a part of this saying is as useful as in barbarism. I used to be serious about getting there, and since I’m a lamb at heart, it was obligatory to cover this character under the guise of one other animal. And my mustaches give me the look of a tiger pretty much, [a] Animal that the wolf doesn’t eat. You have been very useful in my affairs. I pay them no price except as a sole souvenir of the services they’ve rendered to me. I’ll lay them in your altar and proclaim their fate…”

protest power

Just as facial hair has been used as a tool to ingratiate oneself into one other culture, it has also been used for international, cross-cultural political protest.

To defuse a political conflict, the British governor of Uganda exiled the family in 1953 King of the Buganda region. The king's male subjects vowed to grow beards and hair until his return.

Some of them were employed within the Ugandan civil service, prompting the governor to complain that the rough appearance was not befitting Her Majesty's civil servants. Still, the beards remained.

Within two years, this unconventional protest succeeded in ending the king's exile, and the “gang of bearded men” decided to fulfill at Entebbe airport and shave their beards together when the king's plane landed. Contrary to the cultural custom that the king was not allowed to the touch one other man's haircuts, the piles of shaved beards were picked up from the airport floor and used as stuffing for a pillow, which the king graciously accepted.

Add identity

Before Christopher Columbus “discovered America” in 1492, Westerners were bearded and “exotic foreigners” were clean-shaven. The biographer of Columbus, Bartolomé de las Casas, managed to summarize his diary and reveal the bearded Columbus's first meeting with the natives of the Bahamas:

“The Indians who were afraid [the Spaniard’s] beards, by their whiteness and by their clothing. They went to the bearded men, especially the Admiral… and they reached out to their beards and marveled at them as them [the Indians] I never have them and I watch very carefully the whiteness of their hands and faces.”

Thus, the beard became a vital a part of European identity while representing wild cultures in earlier and later centuries. But for a time, native civilizations from South America to Canada referred to Europeans as “the ugly bearded ones.”

Facial hair politics took a violent turn within the late sixteenth century when two Portuguese traders were captured after a fight with Tupinambá Indians in Brazil. The custom of the Tupinambá was to pluck out their hair because it grew on any a part of their body. Realizing the importance the Portuguese attached to their beards, they decided to tear out their captives' beards as a final humiliation before murdering them.

So this Movember, remember the plush international history of facial hair. its embodiment of masculinity and culture, its role in diplomacy and the shame that it must end on November thirtieth.

In 2004, the North Korean government launched considered one of the strangest attacks TV campaigns in recent history: “Let us cut our hair in accordance with the socialist lifestyle.”

Accompanied by radio and print advertisements, the five-part television series urged North Korean men to wear short hair. State-approved haircuts, the campaign said, range in length from one to 5 centimeters, with seven centimeters allowed for men over 50 who wish to hide a bald scalp.

Why exactly did the federal government care a lot about how North Korean men wore their hair? Long hair, the campaign argued“consumes a lot of food” and thus endangers the “development of human intelligence” by depriving the brain of the crucial energy.

Aside from pseudoscientific notions, state media also suggested that hair represented something deeper. The Minju Choson newspaper claims that hair is a “very important issue that shows the cultural standards and mental and moral state of people.”

This bizarre campaign might sound to a Western reader like one other idiosyncratic North Korean story. But the concept hair can reflect an individual's character didn’t come from Kim Jong-il.

Until the early Twentieth century, people within the United States believed that hair could reveal the reality in regards to the person from whose head it sprouted. Hair wasn't just a method of creative self-expression or political affiliation, because it was within the mid-Twentieth century—when it could signal to others that you just were a hippie, an entrepreneur, or a black nationalist. Nor was it simply an object of ridicule, like Donald Trump's hair – a source of the infinite speculation And mockery.

Rather, hair was considered a reliable – even scientific – solution to quickly classify a stranger. Many Nineteenth century Americans believed that hair had properties resembling: courage, ambition or criminal tendencies.

It also had extraordinary significance in conversations about race.

“Passions and inclinations prevailing” within the hair

Americans once believed with surprising certainty that hairstyle, color, or texture could reveal a variety of private characteristics.

In 1863, for instance, the literary magazine “The Knickerbocker” devoted 13 pages defending men who parted their hair down the center – a mode that was considered an indication of weakness.

Now a medical journal from Kansas City argued1899: “Criminals usually have thin beards.”

In the 1870s, several newspapers printed an in depth taxonomy of the various temperaments that hair could communicate.

“Hard, straight hair” For exampleHe signaled “a stubborn and tough character.” Straight hair indicated “a melancholy but extremely constant character,” while individuals with auburn hair had “the highest capacity for enjoyment or suffering.” Anyone who had coarse black hair had a “tendency toward sensuality.”

This taxonomy ended with a provocative suggestion that highlighted people's reverence for hair:

“The very manner in which the hair flows is a strong indication of the prevailing passions and inclinations, and perhaps a wise person could make an astute estimate of the disposition of a man or woman by looking only at the back of their head.”

But greater than 100 years before reports linking hair to personality traits became common knowledge, white Americans were already using hair as a shorthand for classifying and interpreting race.

What a shame for a person with long hair!

Associations between race and hairstyle are somewhat familiar to us today. For example within the US military revised its standards of care in 2014 Many observers say women ought to be banned from wearing dreadlocks, twists and plenty of kinds of braids have seen these changes as being targeted at black soldiers, despite the rules' race-neutral language. (Later that yr the military has modified these guidelines in response to such criticism.)

However, before the Twentieth century, hair was not only related to one particular racial group; This meant clear, biological evidence of an individual's race.

English colonists in North America associated hair color and racial identity from the start of colonization. In political proclamations and non secular tracts, colonial leaders denounced the long hair of Native Americans as evidence of their inherent barbarism.

Seventeenth-century ideas about difference—what we would today call racial difference—trusted way more Christian beliefs than on physical characteristics, with colonial criticism of Native American hair practices relying heavily on biblical guidelines. References to 1 Corinthians 11, what asked“Doesn’t nature itself teach you that it is a shame for a man to have long hair?”

In 1649, Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor John Endecott joined a gaggle of colonial judges to sentence Colonists grew their hair and declared that doing so was “contrary to the rule of the Word of God,” an allusion to 1 Corinthians 11.

Additionally, their proclamation argued that selecting such a cut was “rude and unmanly” and that male colonists who wore their hair long were in actual fact “deformed.”[d] What mattered was that Endecott and the judges categorically described “wearing long hair” as “in the manner of ruffians and barbarous Indians.”

To the colonizers, long hair wasn't only a random style adopted by some male colonists within the New World; it was evidence of their unchristian moral corruption. In critiques resembling Endecott's Proclamation, white colonists organized their world in accordance with a series of binaries that associated whiteness, Christianity, civilization, and masculinity with short hair; and non-whiteness, paganism, barbarism and femininity with long hair.

Take an example from the queue

Two centuries later, similar associations between barbarism and men's hair length still existed, shaping the best way white Americans responded to the Chinese immigrants who got here to California after the invention of gold in 1848.

Almost uniformly, Chinese immigrants of Han descent wore long braided ponytails called cues, which they wore through the Qing Dynasty as a logo of their loyalty to the emperor. (Because most Chinese immigrants in California during this time intended to eventually return to China, they didn’t cut their queues.) Because queues were very different from the short hairstyles that American men commonly wore, they fascinated white Americans, who consistently wore them mentioned images and print.

In the eyes of whites, nonetheless, the queue was not simply a novel hairstyle or a logo of political loyalty. Instead, it quickly became clear that Chinese men weren’t only racially alien, but additionally barbaric, old-fashioned and backwards.

The importance of the queue became particularly clear when American newspapers discussed the top of the Qing Dynasty, when Chinese men in China and the United States broke their queues.

On June 18, 1911, the San Francisco Call described how lines were being “cut off by the thousands.” That “the majority of Chinese men will wear their hair like the men of Europe and America do” was evidence that China was “finally…awakening from its centuries-old slumber.”

If “castles” could enslave

But the challenges of attaching racial intending to hair have never been greater than when hair entered the courtroom.

In the a long time before the Civil War, mixed-race slaves sometimes sued for his or her freedom, claiming that they weren’t actually black and subsequently couldn’t be enslaved. In court, judges and lawyers often used hair as reliable biological evidence of racial identity.

In Hudgins vs. Wrights, which reached the Virginia Supreme Court in 1806, the enslaved Wright family argued that they were descended from Native Americans on their mother's side, not Africans. (Virginia had banned the enslavement of Native Americans in 1777.)

The judge ultimately ruled in favor of the Wrights and his decision illustrates the authority that Hair possessed:

“Nature has endowed the African and his descendants with two distinctive characteristics […] which often remain visible long after the characteristic color difference has either disappeared or become doubtful; a flat nose and woolly hair. The latter of these features is the last to disappear…”

In other words, in a Nineteenth-century courtroom, hair revealed black identity much more reliably than skin color.

Racial judgments have been rooted in haircuts, hair textures, and hair strands for hundreds of years. And while it might probably be tempting to conclude that hair has at all times reflected the identity of its wearer, the haircut – like all elements of the past – has meant various things to people in several times and places. Hair is each historically and culturally specific.

And before the Twentieth century, hair spoke louder than we could have ever imagined.