Hair Whorl Direction - Lefty Or Righty?

[texasyankee]

Seems there might be some connection with your handedness and your hair whorl being clockwise/counterclockwise. More lefties - like myself - seem to have their hair whorls going in a counterclockwise direction....
(I edited the article posted below)


What Makes a Lefty: Myths and Mysteries Persist
By Corey Binns
21 March 2006

Can openers, scissors and spiral-bound notebooks discriminate against lefties. Despite such challenges, 10 to 12 percent of the human population has historically preferred the left hand.

Why doesn't the number ever waiver? Nobody knows for sure, but new research supports a body of evidence that suggests genetics have a hand in it all...............

In a twist on the genetic model, the gene for hand preference might also be the gene for hair whorl direction, the way a person's hair turns on the top of their head. Half of people with counterclockwise whorls prefer their left hand, according to research by Amar Klar at the National Cancer Institute....

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiol...left_hand.html

One-half of people with counterclockwise whorls are left-handed, while only a small percentage of people with a clockwise whorl are left-handed.
(Pictured in the link below)

Hair Whorls

[#1PaFan]

I wonder if this is true in the Southern Hemisphere?

[DontHateOnNumber2]

I'm a righty and my hair whorl is clockwise....oooo.

[LilChief]

Ummmm Paul? If one HALF the people with counter clockwise whorls use their left hand, doesn't that mean the OTHER HALF of people with counter clockwise whorls use their RIGHT hand?

[corynnmarie]

That actually makes perfect sense.

People that are left-handed actually aren't left-handed...they're no-handed. It's basically a genetic lack of decision on the brain's part. Approximately 20% of the human population is born no-handed. The other 80% are genetically right-handed. Of that no-handed 20%, about half develop a right-handedness, probably from social influence, and the other half develop a left-handedness, giving us our 10% left-handed population. It's pretty much sheer chance. Obviously there's a very small percentage of people that remain "no-handed" and are ambidextrous.

How this relates to hair whorls: I imagine the people with counter-clockwise whorls are that 20% that are genetically "no-handed". Then you half that based on their learned preference, and you get 10% of people with counterclockwise whorls, left-handed, and 10% of people with counterclockwise whorls and right-handed.

Us horse people tend to notice something similar in their horses. In the middle of their forehead, most horses have a single whorl that corresponds to the top of the head whorl in humans. Horses also show handedness, just like humans, and it's most prevalent at the canter and gallop. Horses tend to be left-handed, just as they tend to have counterclockwise whorls. Clockwise whorls and right-handed horses are the minority same as left-handed people.

As for me, I don't have a clue what kind of whorl I have because my hair is and always has been really long. But I'm right-handed, so chances are it's clockwise.

[gdn]

That actually makes perfect sense.

People that are left-handed actually aren't left-handed...they're no-handed. It's basically a genetic lack of decision on the brain's part.

My brain is quite decisive, thank you very much.

[corynnmarie]

My brain is quite decisive, thank you very much.

Just because your brain is doesn't mean your DNA is.

[gdn]

Just because your brain is doesn't mean your DNA is.

My DNA will do what I tell it to do.