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Mermaid and satyr hair

In prehistoric times, mermaids ranged over most of the Eastern Hemisphere, from equatorialto polar regions. They have now spread even further, particularly into islands in the Great Ocean. As a result, their ethnicity varies considerably and they have adaptations to both

climatic differences and their aquatic and marine way of life. Although they spend much timeswimming, they also spend long periods of time with their heads exposed to the Sun, so theirscalp hair has to serve the purposes of insulation in air, in water and streamlining. Satyrs, bycontrast, need only to protect themselves from solar radiation in the form of heat, light andultraviolet radiation, and therefore have different hair. Satyr hair is generally kinky in shapebut on growing out becomes "Afro"-like.

Mermaid hair is unique among primate hair in that it includes both short and long hairs incertain parts of the body, notably on the scalp. The lanugo present on some human skin hasevolved into short, stubble-like hairs shaped like arrowheads which fulfill the dual function of trapping air between the skin and water and reducing boundary layer turbulence. These hairsfollow a streamlined pattern and are present over most of the body, being oriented in whorlswhich follow the flow of water across the skin while swimming. They are blond and veryshort and all mermaids possess these hairs of the same colour throughout their range. As aresult, the fair-skinned mermaids of the east look conventionally Caucasian but those of thewest, whose skin is darker, have a "peppered" complexion due to the contrasting colour of their hairs.

The second type of mermaid hair occurs only on the scalp and is long, like human head hair.These hairs emerge from crescent-shaped follicles whose inner curve faces the crown of thehead - there are no mermaids with double long hair crowns and one crown of the short hairs

always coincides with their long hair crowns with several other short hair crowns on the torsocorresponding to the need for streamlining. The inward-facing grooves of mermaid scalp hairprovides similar insulation to the short hairs by trapping air bubbles between the scalp skinand the water as well as further down on the body, since mermaid hair is very long, anadaptation also enabling babies to take hold of it in the water. This channel is susceptible tofilling with salt crystals when out of the water, so mermaids need to groom themselvesthoroughly by combing their hair - a mermaid's comb is as important to her health andsurvival as her trident, as she cannot easily survive without either. Mermaids also takeadvantage of rivers by swimming upstream into their freshwater regions to remove salt fromtheir hair.

The dual purpose served by the long scalp hair means that in equatorial regions, somemermaids have kinky hair like that of satyrs, which insulates and protects their heads fromthe Sun. Like satyrs, they often allow their hair to grow out into a "bush". However, thisnecessitates a different mode of living than the eastern mermaids, who have long straight hair,because they cannot swim as fast and their babies cannot hold onto the hair while the motheris partly out of the water. Therefore, western mermaids tend to live in coastal and freshwaterareas and around coral reefs and eat a diet of plants and slow-moving molluscs as they areunable to catch fast-swimming animals. These mermaids were originally concentrated in theMozambique Channel, though there is a gradual change in frequency and extent of kinky hairacross most of the Western Lemurian sea, where suitable environments are more widespread

and the climate is sunnier. Other differences between eastern and western mermaids are that eastern mermaids are taller and have more subcutaneous fat, which also applies to satyrs.Western mermaids became more mobile after the domestication of the seahorse, which

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helped them spread eastwards but they are still more likely to be found in the WesternLemurian sea than elsewhere. There is no ethnic conflict between the two, and also nodispute generally because they have different lifestyles.

Straight-haired mermaids are the original form of the species, which arose on the easternLemurian coast and spread westwards. Western mermaids are more closely associated with

seahorses than eastern ones and are in a sense "experts" on their care and breeding. Theyalso deal in carbonate pearls, whereas eastern mermaids are more likely to deal in monopolepearls and don't eat bivalves. However, since Megaeuglena and other marine plantimals aremore common in the West Lemurian sea, they form a more important part of the westernmermaid diet, being caught in nets, whereas eastern mermaids are more likely to eat fishwhich are caught by spearing. The eastern mermaid diet is higher in sea honey and sea olives.