Mermaid and satyr hair In prehistoric times, mermaids ranged over most of the Eastern Hemisphere, from equatorial

to 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 time swimming, they also spend long periods of time with their heads exposed to the Sun, so their scalp hair has to serve the purposes of insulation in air, in water and streamlining. Satyrs, by contrast, need only to protect themselves from solar radiation in the form of heat, light and ultraviolet radiation, and therefore have different hair. Satyr hair is generally kinky in shape but on growing out becomes "Afro"-like. Mermaid hair is unique among primate hair in that it includes both short and long hairs in certain parts of the body, notably on the scalp. The lanugo present on some human skin has evolved 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 hairs follow a streamlined pattern and are present over most of the body, being oriented in whorls which follow the flow of water across the skin while swimming. They are blond and very short and all mermaids possess these hairs of the same colour throughout their range. As a result, the fair-skinned mermaids of the east look conventionally Caucasian but those of the west, 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 the head - 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 torso corresponding to the need for streamlining. The inward-facing grooves of mermaid scalp hair provides similar insulation to the short hairs by trapping air bubbles between the scalp skin and the water as well as further down on the body, since mermaid hair is very long, an adaptation also enabling babies to take hold of it in the water. This channel is susceptible to filling with salt crystals when out of the water, so mermaids need to groom themselves thoroughly by combing their hair - a mermaid's comb is as important to her health and survival as her trident, as she cannot easily survive without either. Mermaids also take advantage of rivers by swimming upstream into their freshwater regions to remove salt from their hair. The dual purpose served by the long scalp hair means that in equatorial regions, some mermaids have kinky hair like that of satyrs, which insulates and protects their heads from the Sun. Like satyrs, they often allow their hair to grow out into a "bush". However, this necessitates 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 mother is partly out of the water. Therefore, western mermaids tend to live in coastal and freshwater areas and around coral reefs and eat a diet of plants and slow-moving molluscs as they are unable to catch fast-swimming animals. These mermaids were originally concentrated in the Mozambique Channel, though there is a gradual change in frequency and extent of kinky hair across 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

helped them spread eastwards but they are still more likely to be found in the Western Lemurian sea than elsewhere. There is no ethnic conflict between the two, and also no dispute generally because they have different lifestyles. Straight-haired mermaids are the original form of the species, which arose on the eastern Lemurian 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. They also deal in carbonate pearls, whereas eastern mermaids are more likely to deal in monopole pearls and don't eat bivalves. However, since Megaeuglena and other marine plantimals are more common in the West Lemurian sea, they form a more important part of the western mermaid diet, being caught in nets, whereas eastern mermaids are more likely to eat fish which are caught by spearing. The eastern mermaid diet is higher in sea honey and sea olives.