The hair color thread

[frecklesnbrains]

Well you guys asked for it! Make your guesses here.

[vivela]

Mine is dirty blond (definitely blond in the summer, definitely brown in the winter), and DH is dark brown. So I'm guessing some shade of brown.

[soultrane]

I'm a medium-dark brown and DH is a lighter brown so the chances are pretty strong that he'll have some shade of brown hair.

[babyzebra]

I think this LO will have blonde hair. Both DS and I were born with dark brown hair that lightened to blonde in the first year. I don't know what makes that happen. DH was always blonde as a kid.

[mymilkshake]

I am blonde and H was blonde as a kid, but darkened up to light brown. My guess is blonde.

[shan]

She will most certainly have dark hair. I've got dark brown and DH has black hair (he's Hispanic)

[lakecountrygal]

I'm a dirty blonde, DH is a dark brown but was blonde as a child and DS was born blonde with a hint of red and is now a straight up blonde boy!

[regal]

Brown. No question.

My mother always reminds me that my grandfather had flaming red hair so my child could too. Out of 24 descendants no one has his hair. She doesn't understand genetics and probability.

[frecklesnbrains]

Okay, here's the basic lesson on hair color genetics. They're complicated too, but probably less complicated than eye color. There are two basic things to take into consideration:

1. Dark vs. light - this is a basic function of how much melanin/pigment is in your hair. You can imagine any spectrum from jet black all the way to platinum blonde based on how much melanin we have. This is a complex genetic trait, meaning that there are many genes that control it, but in general people with dark hair will have dark-haired children and those with fair hair will have fair-haired children. This is a total oversimplification but the trait for blonde hair can generally be thought of as recessive, so two dark-haired parents can have a fair-haired kid if they are both carriers of the trait (in most cases this means there are other blondes in their family). As an aside, as we age our hair follicles stop making melanin, which is why our hair goes white.

2. Red vs. everything else - True red hair is a classic recessive Mendelian trait that is caused by a mutation in a single gene. Your body produces two types of melanin: eumelanin, which is black, and pheomelanin which is red. The black melanin is dominant because it's darker. The mutation that causes red hair is in a gene called MC1R. This gene normally stimulates the production of black melanin, but when it's mutated less black pigment is made so the red pigment shines through. People with two MC1R mutations (like me!) have true red hair. People with one MC1R mutation are carriers of the trait but have blonde, brown, or black hair because one functioning copy of the gene is all you need to generate the black pigment. Although red hair is uncommon (about 2% of the population), there are many more people out there who are carriers, particularly people with ancestry from the British Isles (Scotland has the highest rate of red hair in the world - 15% of the population are redheads and 40% of the population are carriers of the redhead gene!). The different shades of red (from auburn through strawberry blonde) are just manifestations of the total amount of red pigment being made. Red pigment is not nearly as effective at blocking UV light as black pigment, which is why redheads burn easily and have a much higher risk of skin cancer. On the other hand, red pigment is more stable than black pigment, which is why bleaching your hair usually results in a brassy blonde.

[frecklesnbrains]

For us, my best guess is a blonde baby darkening to light-to-medium brown. Both DH and I are generally fair. He was very, very blonde as a kid and now has light brown hair. My hair has pretty much always been coppery red. DH is 1/4 Scottish, so there is a small but not insignificant chance that he could be a carrier of the redhead gene. If he were, we would have a 50-50 chance of a ginger baby, which I'd love, but I'm not holding out much hope for that.

[soultrane]

frecklesnbrains, I love when you go all genetics on us!

[vivela]

My husband had total Children of the Corn, stick straight, very light blonde hair as a child. Now it is very curly and dark brown. So even if baby is born blonde, it might not stay that way.
I'll be interested to see how the texture ends up. DH's is coarse and very thick and curly. Mine is very thin, soft, and slightly wavy. So it could go either way I guess.

[nymama917]

I chose blonde based solely on DD being blonde. I had very light blonde hair as a child and it darkened to a dirty blonde and very recently almost more light brown. DH was a very blonde baby but now had medium brown hair. DD has a medium blonde color that gets very light in the summer so I'm guessing blonde. It took her a full year and a few months to get any real hair though so who knows.

[twobananas]

Rainbow with sparkles My husband has pretty dark coloring and very black/brown hair, so we assumed before #1 we'd have all dark kids (I'm fairly tan with dirty blonde hair).. well my son is red (and super pale), my daughter is blonde. It'd be fun to have another red head, or maybe we'll get the dark haired kiddos we were expecting.. who knows!

[sandandsea]

I'm going with dark brown like DS. DH has black hair, I have medium to darkish brown hair with some natural reddish/lighter brown highlights. DS has dark brown hair, but some of the reddish highlighting like I do.

[sandandsea]

Feb 15, 2016 18:38:07 GMT -5 frecklesnbrains said:

Okay, here's the basic lesson on hair color genetics. They're complicated too, but probably less complicated than eye color. There are two basic things to take into consideration:

1. Dark vs. light - this is a basic function of how much melanin/pigment is in your hair. You can imagine any spectrum from jet black all the way to platinum blonde based on how much melanin we have. This is a complex genetic trait, meaning that there are many genes that control it, but in general people with dark hair will have dark-haired children and those with fair hair will have fair-haired children. This is a total oversimplification but the trait for blonde hair can generally be thought of as recessive, so two dark-haired parents can have a fair-haired kid if they are both carriers of the trait (in most cases this means there are other blondes in their family). As an aside, as we age our hair follicles stop making melanin, which is why our hair goes white.

2. Red vs. everything else - True red hair is a classic recessive Mendelian trait that is caused by a mutation in a single gene. Your body produces two types of melanin: eumelanin, which is black, and pheomelanin which is red. The black melanin is dominant because it's darker. The mutation that causes red hair is in a gene called MC1R. This gene normally stimulates the production of black melanin, but when it's mutated less black pigment is made so the red pigment shines through. People with two MC1R mutations (like me!) have true red hair. People with one MC1R mutation are carriers of the trait but have blonde, brown, or black hair because one functioning copy of the gene is all you need to generate the black pigment. Although red hair is uncommon (about 2% of the population), there are many more people out there who are carriers, particularly people with ancestry from the British Isles (Scotland has the highest rate of red hair in the world - 15% of the population are redheads and 40% of the population are carriers of the redhead gene!). The different shades of red (from auburn through strawberry blonde) are just manifestations of the total amount of red pigment being made. Red pigment is not nearly as effective at blocking UV light as black pigment, which is why redheads burn easily and have a much higher risk of skin cancer. On the other hand, red pigment is more stable than black pigment, which is why bleaching your hair usually results in a brassy blonde.

Random question on this....what causes red highlights?  And what causes hair to fade in the sunlight?  Would these be caused by the recessive gene?  My hair is very healthy, but fades like crazy in the sun.  The roots are a very dark brown, but the ends are a light brown, like a natural ombre.  It's always done this since I was a kid.

[frecklesnbrains]

Feb 15, 2016 19:24:21 GMT -5 sandandsea said:

Feb 15, 2016 18:38:07 GMT -5 frecklesnbrains said:

Random question on this....what causes red highlights?  And what causes hair to fade in the sunlight?  Would these be caused by the recessive gene?  My hair is very healthy, but fades like crazy in the sun.  The roots are a very dark brown, but the ends are a light brown, like a natural ombre.  It's always done this since I was a kid.

I think red highlights are just a manifestation of the red pigment shining through a little more when there is less black pigment. A complete redhead produces very little/no black pigment and that's a classic genetic trait caused by a single gene, but there is probably a spectrum of people who produce some black pigment but not a ton - resulting in reddish brown hair. The genetics behind that spectrum are probably pretty complex.

The fading in sunlight is just like bleaching your hair - it destabilizes the melanin making your hair lighter. That's so cool to have a natural ombre - people pay good money for that! I'm not aware of a genetic component to that though!

[athn64]

So question, is this what they are born with, what they have as a young child, or the final result when they are an adult?

Because both DD1 and I were born with dark hair that turned blonde. DH was a blonde child (not sure what color he was born with). And both DH and I have brown hair now.

[csat]

I said blonde, just based on DS.

DS had a little bit of darker hair as an infant then it all fell out (with an interim awkward 'old man receding hair line' stage) and it has been blonde ever since. In a couple of years I'm sure it will darken to some shade of brown. DH and my hair went through very similar baby/childhood transformations.

[woodengirl07]

Since bald wasn't a choice (both DH and I were bald as cue balls as babies) I picked blond. DH was a blond baby who now has brown hair and I have always been blond, though darker now than when I was a baby. I do have Irish in my family tree though so I might carry the red gene.

[bighair12]

I voted blonde. Both myself and MH are dark haired and mine has auburn in it. We were both toe heads. And DD is a toe head as well.

[Kevinmac]

I'm thinking he will have brown hair. We both have medium to light brown. I used to be blonder as a kid.

[ArgyleEnigma]

Voted brown, because DH and I have light brown hair, but we could get anything. We both have blonde siblings and I also have a dark-haired sibling. I know from 23andme that I have the recessive gene for red hair. Roulette!

[ArgyleEnigma]

This is ultimate color. Every child in our families spends the early years blonde.

[frecklesnbrains]

I'm thinking of final/adult color here as well. The amount of pigment any given person produces can change over time. It's very common for babies to be born with dark hair that then turns pale blonde. It's also common for kids to be blonde and then turn darker brown later in life. Red is always red, but similarly can change between dark auburn and strawberry blonde.

[manybellsdown]

Yay! More polls!

I picked blonde because DD is blonde (and curly! no idea where that came from). It was pretty dark when she was born, though there wasn't much of it. Final adult hair color--no idea.

Like many of you here, I transitioned and only recently question if I can call myself blonde... which is weird. I went from white blonde to blonde to dirty blonde to a light-ish brown. DH has dark brown hair (and a big Italian family with just one blonde second cousin), and I wrongly assumed brown would win with our kids.

It'd be fun if this kid has brown hair (and the hazely-green eyes... and the dimples) like DH. A mini-DH would be too adorable.

[carolinaheart]

I've been missing for 100 years so I'm just gonna jump back in!

I will honestly be surprised if this baby isn't a redhead. I am and DH has a red beard so that's what we're counting on.

[frecklesnbrains]

Feb 15, 2016 22:57:33 GMT -5 carolinaheart said:

I've been missing for 100 years so I'm just gonna jump back in!

I will honestly be surprised if this baby isn't a redhead. I am and DH has a red beard so that's what we're counting on.

Yes! The world needs more redheads!

[origamimommy]

So I find this and the eye color thing fascinating. My whole family has blue eyes, but I have green, green eyes. My husband is bi-racial and obviously dark-skinned with dark hair and eyes, but our son is much lighter, and was born with blonde hair and blue eyes. As he's gotten older, his hair has darkened but he still has blue eyes.

I am so curious to see if this new baby will be light or dark skinned, and his hair color and eye color. My husband and his sister look literally nothing alike, so I hope my boys look like brothers, but who knows!

[pbandj714]

I voted blonde, but who knows. I was born with very light blonde peach fuzz and was blonde until around middle school when my hair changed to a dirty blonde. DH had light brown hair all through childhood and it darkened a little bit as he got older. Although now he's got quite a few grays!