Kinky hair, also known as afro-textured hair, is a human hair texture prevalent in the indigenous populations of many regions with hot climates, mainly sub-Saharan Africa, and some areas of Melanesia, and Australia. Each strand of this hair type grows in a repeating pattern of small contiguous kinks. These numerous kinks make kinky hair appear denser than straight, wavy, and curly hair types.
Woman from the island of Nosy Be, in Madagascar, c. 1868
Papuan women with kinky hair
Successful entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker invented a method that relaxed textured hair. Photo taken c. 1914.
Civil rights activist Angela Davis wearing an Afro in 1973
Human taxonomy is the classification of the human species within zoological taxonomy. The systematic genus, Homo, is designed to include both anatomically modern humans and extinct varieties of archaic humans. Current humans have been designated as subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens, differentiated, according to some, from the direct ancestor, Homo sapiens idaltu.
1737 painting of Carl Linnaeus wearing a traditional Sami costume. Linnaeus is sometimes named as the lectotype of both H. sapiens and H. s. sapiens.