Could I carry the red hair gene?

Bob Bobson

My dad's side is French/Irish, and around half of his brothers and sisters have had red hair at one point. His also used to be a gingerish brown, but then turned darker. He used to have a red beard, but shaved it. A couple of my cousins have red hair too!

My mom has brown hair, and I also have brown hair. However when it's in the sunlight, you can make out some brown-ish red hairs, and yesterday when I was shaving my legs, (yes, I'm a girl despite my stupid name on here) I was surprised to find that some of hair was more red than brown.

So, could I carry the gene for red hair?

Answer
There are two types of pigments that go into hair - eumelanin gives a brown/black color and pheomelanin gives a red color. They are the products of two different genes so you likely have both. How much pheomelanin or eumelanin is produced and transferred to hair shafts is the result of other genes and the expression of these can vary from one part of the body to another and will vary at different ages as well.

So the bottom line is you can make different color hairs on different parts of your body and can carry genes for several colors. You can read more about the various melanins here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanin

Red Heads?

Q. Why is it so uncommon for people to be redheaded?

Answer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_hair#Biochemistry_and_genetics

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Title Post: Could I carry the red hair gene?
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