Hair Color

BlackDk. BrnMed. BrnLt. BrnRed-BrnTotal
No. %No. %No. %No. %No. %
Total sample757 9331 51 00 018 2807
Interior145 958 50 00 00 0153
East114 956 50 00 00 0120
Coast193 9211 50 00 05 2204
N.W.70 895 60 00 04 575
Fiji II118 919 70 00 03 2130
Solomons55 6526 310 03 40 084
Tonga0 940 40 00 00 00

Black hair is the usual color, although 5 per cent are described as dark brown and a few red-brown. This latter variation is a rufous color (reddish-brown) and it may be a little more frequent than the data indicate because the Fijians frequently dye their hair with a substance extracted from mangrove bark. This intensifies the usual blackness of the hair and adds a satisfying gloss. More sophisticated natives have access to modern hair dye and lacking this, some have been known to resort to black shoe polish.

Hair bleaching is no longer practiced in Fiji.

The hair of the Solomons Islands is not so uniformly black, nearly a third have dark-brown hair and a few are light brown.

Eye Color

BlackDk. BrnMed. BrnLt. BrnTotal
No. %No.%No. %No. %
Fiji I2 0550 68257 314 1813
Interior0 0131 8622 140 0153
East0 071 5948 401 1120
Coast0 0127 6181 391 0209
N.W1 153 6725 320 079
Fiji II0 0130 980 02 2132
Solomons0 085 1000 00 085
Tonga0 30 940 00 30

A little more than two-thirds of Fijians' eyes are described as dark brown. The remaining third have medium-brown eyes. There were four individuals who were light brown. Howells, with his Fijian series, is more generous with the darker designation; he designated 98 per cent as dark brown and 2 per cent light brown. His Solomons sample is described as dark brown without exception. The Tongan data also is recorded as more uniformly dark brown than my Fijians.

The Fijians of the interior of Viti Levu have more deeply pigmented eyes than the others; 86 per cent are classed as dark brown and only 14 per cent medium brown.

HAIR