Is black hair found in Western Norway?

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Jack Redfield

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Usually black hair is an uncommon trait in Scandinavia...
I wonder if having black hair is somewhat more common in the western coast of Norway since its population is said to present Celtic admixture.
 
You speak surely of the 'jet black'of Europoids (there are even "blacker" hair in other human groups). This kind of colour is very more common among the regions where the 'mediter' types are common, independently of the percentage of blonds or very light brown hair. They are not so seldom on Atlantic shores in region where nevertheless the light hues exist in non negigilbe numbers (Ireland, Cornwall, Wales, Western Highlands). This hue is rather rare in regions where nevertheless you find a lot of generally 'dark' hair, like Balkans or Central Europe who presents honorable %'s of 'very dark brown' hair (Bulgaria have a respectable % of black jet hair people, contrary to western Balkans).
For Sweden, a well documented inquiry (regional and by social classes) of the 1900+'s found as a whole between 3 and 4% of very dark hair but only 0,2% of jet black hair, if I remember well.
For Norway we'd need a survey of the same quality, what is not to be expected with modern anthropology.
 
the black irish term


The term is commonly used to describe people of Irish origin who have dark features, black hair, a dark complexion and dark eyes.

A quick review of Irish history reveals that the island was subject to a number of influxes of foreign cultures. The Celts arrived on the island about the year 500 B.C.
 
torzio said:
the black irish term
The term is commonly used to describe people of Irish origin who have dark features, black hair, a dark complexion and dark eyes.
A quick review of Irish history reveals that the island was subject to a number of influxes of foreign cultures. The Celts arrived on the island about the year 500 B.C.
Click to expand...

The arrival date of Celts in Ireland is discutable. The partly creolelike aspect of the verb in Gaelic could mark the arrival of a small vague of Celts. THe Insular Celtic grouping could be based on convergence rather to common recent origin, and the Qw-/P- grouping could be more accurate.
The diverse vawes of "invasions" described in the Irish mythology have surely something true in them, but the chronologies and importance of these waves are to be verified (if possible!).
the 'Black Gael' or 'Black Irish' terms cover so numerous and unrelated versions that they just derserve to be forgotten. Maybe some remnants of Neolithic people could have had some weight, who know?
And et's keep in mind that often in mythologies, 'dark'/'black' and 'fair'/'blond' concepts are tied to symbolism.
 
Yes, exactly. The black hair some Europeans have, especially in Central and Southern Europe.
I know there are black-haired people in the British Isles.
What I was wondering about was how prevalent black hair in Scandinavia is.
 
Yet, all depends on what somebody call 'black' hair? (+ the question of head hair as opposed to all body hair and beard and...Look at today "Celts" with often head hair darker than the other parts of body)!
Central Europe and western Balkans have relatively rare 'jet black' head hair compared to other dark head hair put into the bag of "dark" in the most of German ancient works, but which are rather blackish brown or very very dark brown, and are common in western Balkans (45 to 55%, until 66% in some small part of Serbia). When I say "are", do translate "were" in the 1950's and a bit later...
As I wrote before, jet black head hair is very very rare in Scandinavia as a whole when speaking of true Scandiavians, not immigrees, it would be around 0,2% (Sweden) or very close to. The broader category of 'dark' head hair were between 3,5% and 5% according to regions, left aside Norway Nordland, Troms & Finnmark and other regions where Saami's weight is important. The maxima of 5% were observed in Western Norway : Hordaland & Rogaland, regions of Bergen & Stavanger, and in Malmö region, in southern Sweden. Ancient maps showed a similar case on a narrow strip of land on the shores of Upland in the northeast of stockholm where a slave trade was active in Vikings times, if I don't mistake. In Denmark, the North of the Sjaeland, island of Copenhagen was a bit darker than the country mean, and the Samsö island East of Jylland (Jutland) was considered as the darkest, but I have not estimation. The Färö Islands are the darkest, I think, maybe around 7-8% dark head hair.
3,5% and 5,0% seems little thing, but in fact it corresponds to an increase from ~30% to ~45% of diverse brown hues (slightly dark to light brown) and the corresponding decrease in light head hair!
For Iceland, the 4,5% of dark head hair could be correct too. But I have no idea of the true % of 'jet' black hairs there.
Today surveys about head hair colour are very vague, the scientists rely more on bones metrics.
 
I want say: "3,5% TO 5,0%. Sorry.
funny: the lone Norwegian footballer I know who had 'jet' black hair was named SOLER and had a Spanish father! But it was in the 1970/80's.
 
Generally speaking, proper black hair is not so common among Europeans, in particular in Central or Northern Europe. What people often perceive as black hair is actually very dark brown hair. Northern Europeans' brown hair is usually either light, mousy brown, chestnut, or chocolate brownish looking; hence, very dark brown hair is also not that common. For example, wigs made from human hair—blonde hair from Germany and jet black hair from India—were particularly prized and desired in Ancient Rome. That indicates that real black hair wasn't that common among Italic Romans, too.

Here are examples of black and dark brown hair.

Black hair:
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eaacda9be5c9cb9d6645e0a34bf7683d.jpg


Dark brown:

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shay-mitchell-shay-mitchell-aol-build-portraits-in-new-york-city-october-2015_9.jpg
 
Real Expert, no opposition here. Just I don't rely too much on pics but at first sight, even your "dark brown" is already very blackish to me (it' true it depends on luminosity, problem of pics). Dark hairs in the European sense encompasses lighter hues. Question of naming or categories. But in states, if we have to simplify and oppose regions, we are obliged to make broader categories, which sometimes seems nevertheless correspond to some collective reality, and genetic too (left aside the dominance question, for dark hues). The same for 'blond' category. If we take as basis only 'whitish blond' and 'deep black' for non-"mixed" categories, we would have ~90% mixed categories everywhere in Europe.
 
for Romans,I 'd not be surprised: they had very often a strong 'alpine' component, and among 'alpine' types, the lighter hues of "dark" are by far the most common, more common than "jet black" or than the middle point between both.
By the way, among northern pops of Near-East, Armenia and Turkey, light 'dark' hairs are at least as common as "jet black" ones, and a lot are in the middle.
 
MOESAN said:
Real Expert, no opposition here. Just I don't rely too much on pics but at first sight, even your "dark brown" is already very blackish to me (it' true it depends on luminosity, problem of pics). Dark hairs in the European sense encompasses lighter hues.......
Click to expand...

I showed examples of very dark brown hair to illustrate that you can still tell the difference between dark brown and jet black hair when you look very closely. The point is that real black hair isn't that common in Europe.

So I agree with your take on the occurrence of black hair in Europe. Despite this, I frequently read comments claiming that southern Europeans generally have black hair and olive skin.
 
real expert said:
I showed examples of very dark brown hair to illustrate that you can still tell the difference between dark brown and jet black hair when you look very closely. The point is that real black hair isn't that common in Europe.

So I agree with your take on the occurrence of black hair in Europe. Despite this, I frequently read comments claiming that southern Europeans generally have black hair and olive skin.
Click to expand...

OK. But I think "almost black" hair in Europe is more frequent in some southern regions, let aside the % of light hair and the % of other considered 'dark' hair; It seems to me it corresponds very often to more dolichocephalic southern regions. For olive skin, it depends of namings. We lack precise words in our common lexicons, whatever the language. We can say that a lot of them (not the same % according to southern regions) have a darker hue of skin, even if not real 'olive' nor swarthy, in their protected zones of body. Tanning is very confusing.
Have a good evening.
 
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