Blonde Girl With Long Hair Posing On The Tree

Straight hair
According to the recent single origin hypothesis, anatomically modern humans arose in East Africa approximately 200,000 years ago (Tishkoff, 1996). Then, ~150,000 years later, modern humans began to expand their range to regions outside of (and within) this continent (Tishkoff, 1996). The skin of those in the group that left the African continent had developed the ability to manufacture vitamin D (which was essential for bone development) upon exposure to UV light. However, the UV light of northern regions was too weak to penetrate the highly pigmented skin of the initial migrants in order to provide enough vitamin D for healthy bone development. Malformed bones in the pelvic area were especially deadly for women because they interfered with the successful delivery of babies; leading to the death of both the mother and the infant during labor. Hence, those with lighter skin survived and had children at higher rates because their skin allowed more UV light for the production of vitamin D.
In this sense, the evidence with regard to the evolution of straight hair texture seems to support Jablonski's suggestions that the need for vitamin D triggered the transition back from dark to light skin. Specifically, the distribution of this trait suggests that this need may have grown so intense at certain points that Northerners with mutations for straighter hair survived and had children at higher rates. This argument is made based on the principle that straight fibers better facilitate the passage of UV light into the body relative to curly hair. It is substantiated by Iyengar's (1998) findings that UV light can pass through straight human hair roots in a manner similar to the way that light passes through fiber optic tubes (Iyengar, 1998).