Curly hair gene discovered: Would you change your hair type?

How often have you wished you were born with a different hair type? The truth is, many women with curly hair would kill to wake up with easy, wash-and-go straight hair. Likewise, those with pin-straight locks gaze at curly-haired ladies with extreme envy, wishing their limp hair would take to a curling iron. Well, this all may soon change, as scientists have located the curly hair gene and believe they will be able to alter it, perhaps with a pill.

The Telegraph is reporting key findings by Professor Nick Martin and his colleague, Dr. Sarah Medland of the QIMR Genetic Epidemiology Laboratory, whose research may lead to genetic hair treatments. Initially they set out to find the genes responsible for curly hair in Europeans. Apparently 45% have straight hair, 40% have wavy hair, and 15% have curly hair. But if that curly haired gene is present, Europeans have a 90% chance of inheriting it. Though the actual gene has been known about for some time, new findings have led these researchers to believe they can alter the hair. "Potentially we can now develop new treatments to make hair curlier or straighter, rather than treating the hair directly," says Prof. Martin. "That is one angle we will be working on and which I will be discussing with a major cosmetic company in Paris in January." As for offspring, Prof. Martin says, "we could certainly predict whether it was more probable that a baby would have curly or straight hair."

If you could, would you change the texture of your hair by taking a pill? Would you also like to determine the hair type of your child? Do you think topical hair treatments and heated styling tools should be enough, or are you jumping with joy over the prospect of genetically altering your hair type? [Telegraph]