How Common Are Blue Grey Eyes?
Human eyes come in many colors — brown, blue, green, hazel, amber, and even violet or gray eyes. Gray eye color is one of the loveliest and most uncommon, a trait shared by only 3% of the world’s population, The color and intensity of gray eyes varies from person to person and can include dark gray, gray-green and gray-blue.
Eye color actually refers to the color of the iris, a ring of tissue that surrounds the pupil, The pupil is an opening at the center of the iris that appears black, while the white part of your eye is called the sclera, The color of the iris depends on the presence of a brown pigment called melanin, the same pigment that determines skin color and hair color.
The Surprising Truth About Gray Eyes Revealed
Eyes with a lot of melanin are darker, and eyes with less melanin are blue, green, hazel, amber or gray. NOTE: You may see references to “grey” rather than “gray” eyes, but it’s the same eye color. “Gray” is simply the preferred spelling in American English, while “grey” is the British English spelling used primarily in the U.K.
| Do you have gray eyes? |
|---|
| Just as gray hair has become an increasingly popular trend (both treated and natural), gray eyes are rare and coveted. This unique eye color is only present in 3% of the population. So bat those gorgeous grays with pride, and make certain you take care of them with routine eye exams. People with light-colored eyes, like gray, are more sensitive to the sun and are more likely to develop a rare eye cancer called ocular melanoma. If it’s been a while, schedule an exam with an eye doctor today. |
Do blue grey eyes change color?
Posted by Eye Doctors of Washington in General Eye Care When someone wants to enhance their vision, they may try contact lenses or seek out LASIK eye surgery, But what if they want to change the color of their eyes? People have long been fascinated with eye color; after all, eyes come in a wide range of shades. The colored part of the eye is called the iris. The iris has pigmentation that determines the eye color. Irises are classified as being one of six colors: amber, blue, brown, gray, green, hazel, or red. Often confused with hazel eyes, amber eyes tend to be a solid golden or copper color without flecks of blue or green typical of hazel eyes. Blue eyes have a low level of pigment present in the iris. Recently, scientists announced that everyone with blue eyes is related! Because of various racial groups intermarrying, blue eyes, which are generally recessive, are becoming rarer and rarer. (Note: I recently asked my blue-eyed in-laws how they produced my amber-eyed spouse, incorrectly telling them it was genetically impossible. Brown is the most common eye color. Individuals with brown eyes have more melanin present, and over half of the people in the world have brown eyes. Gray eyes may be called “blue” at first glance, but they tend to have flecks of gold and brown. And they may appear to “change color” from gray to blue to green depending on clothing, lighting, and mood (which may change the size of the pupil, compressing the colors of the iris). Green is the least common eye color, but it is found most frequently in northern and central Europe. I have always incorrectly called this color eye hazel! Hazel eyes mostly consist of shades of brown and green. Much like gray eyes, hazel eyes may appear to “change color” from green to light brown to gold. Individuals whose eyes appear to be one color closest to the pupil, another color a little farther our, and another color around the edge of the iris are likely to have hazel eyes. Red eyes do exist. “Red?” you say. “Yes, red,” I say, although we often call them pink. Picture white bunnies with pink eyes. What you’re actually seeing in these rabbits and in albinos is the blood vessels behind the iris. Because there is so little melanin in the eyes, there is nothing to conceal the blood vessels hard at work. If you’re dissatisfied with your eye color for whatever reason, there are always colored contacts. Just be sure to get a prescription for them from your eye doctor at Eye Doctors of Washington, Don’t buy them online or borrow them from a friend—you’d just be begging for an eye infection. Contact Us
Are blue grey eyes normal?
Human eyes come in many colors — brown, blue, green, hazel, amber, and even violet or gray eyes. Gray eye color is one of the loveliest and most uncommon, a trait shared by only 3% of the world’s population, The color and intensity of gray eyes varies from person to person and can include dark gray, gray-green and gray-blue.
Eye color actually refers to the color of the iris, a ring of tissue that surrounds the pupil, The pupil is an opening at the center of the iris that appears black, while the white part of your eye is called the sclera, The color of the iris depends on the presence of a brown pigment called melanin, the same pigment that determines skin color and hair color.
Eyes with a lot of melanin are darker, and eyes with less melanin are blue, green, hazel, amber or gray. NOTE: You may see references to “grey” rather than “gray” eyes, but it’s the same eye color. “Gray” is simply the preferred spelling in American English, while “grey” is the British English spelling used primarily in the U.K.
| Do you have gray eyes? |
|---|
| Just as gray hair has become an increasingly popular trend (both treated and natural), gray eyes are rare and coveted. This unique eye color is only present in 3% of the population. So bat those gorgeous grays with pride, and make certain you take care of them with routine eye exams. People with light-colored eyes, like gray, are more sensitive to the sun and are more likely to develop a rare eye cancer called ocular melanoma. If it’s been a while, schedule an exam with an eye doctor today. |
Do people with grey eyes exist?
Gray – Close to 3% of the world’s population have gray eyes. People with gray eyes have little or no melanin in their irises, but they have more collagen in a part of the eye called the stroma. The light scatters off the collagen in a way that makes the eyes appear gray.
What nationality does GREY eyes come from?
Main Factors That Influence Your Eye Color – Source: Instagram/elizabethcturner Some of you may have noticed that sometimes your eyes look different. We have rounded up a few main factors that can add up to the eye color change: Allergy – allergies do not change the iris color itself but make the whites of your eyes look red, and that dulls the natural color of your eyes.
Lighting – artificial lighting always affects the color of your eyes, at least the way others perceive it. Bright light makes regular grey eyes look like light gray eyes and the dark works in the exact opposite way. Eye shadow – most women, know which hues work with their eye colors best so that they are able to enhance and make the eye color more definitive with just a few strokes of an eye shadow brush.
Alcohol or drugs – such mentioned substances can actually change the eye color temporarily. The fact is that when the pupil dilates, which it does under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the color of the eyes tends to change. Source: Instagram/elizabethcturner These days only those with European ancestry are believed to have gray eyes.
- However, that hasn’t always been like that.
- History proves that people with grey eyes lived all over the world.
- According to the geologic time scale, first cases of people born with grey eyes were noted as long ago as up to 3 million years ago.
- After people started to migrate and mix with other people, more eye colors began to appear, and grey eye color started to become rarer and rarer.
Source: Instagram/brittsully Up till 2008, it was believed that people with gray eyes can be born to couples where one of the parents has the same eye color. However, later on, in 2008, a new discovery was made, which proved that it might not matter the eye color of parents.
- There are as many as 16 genes that determine a baby’s eye color and the information that the genes carry roots further than just the parents.
- Source: Instagram/claudianeacsu If you are an owner of those magnetic and magical, not to mention mystical grey eyes, you may wonder what other secrets they come with, and we are willing to share a few of them with you! If you have gray eyes – one of your superpowers is strategical thinking.
It is not just a fun fact. It is a scientifically proven information. Due to the lesser amount of melanin in your eyes, you tend to think slower but more strategically. Use this skill wisely! In 1918 there was a theory that was proved later on – people with grey eyes are better shots.
The fact was confirmed after closer observation of soldiers training at military training camp – Camp Bowie. Not all people believe in dreams, let alone that the majority of us can’t remember what they dreamed about when we get up. However, if you are a believer, then it needs to be added that if you see someone with grey eyes in your dream and you know the person, the chances are that the person adores being flattered.
The research proves that people with grey eyes are a lot more competitive than all the others. So, if you are trying to win at anything, then your team should involve as many people with grey eyes as possible. It is a fact that all the babies are born with grey or blue eyes.
- However, as a baby grows, the eye color tends to change.
- So, it means that all people are born with the rarest eye color, but not all of them are allowed to keep it.
- Gray eyes – the most mysterious eyes of all.
- Do you want to learn more about this astonishing eye shade? You have come to the right place! Gray eyes are typically found among people who are of European ancestry, especially northern or eastern European.
Even among those of European descent, gray eyes are pretty uncommon numbering less than one percent out of all human population. For that you might need to figure out what shades of colors you can see besides grey, look at your eyes at daylight.
If you can see blue, apply eyeshadows with an orange undertone: brown, copper, peach combined with a blue or coral shimmer on the inner corner. If you see green: use red undertones like red-brown, pink, maroon, purple or plum. You can use silver, charcoal, black with a nude lip to enhance your grey eyes.
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Where do blues eyes come from?
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1. Only 8 Percent of the World’s Population Has Blue Eyes If you have got blue eyes, you might just belong to one of the world’s most exclusive groups without realising it! Since blue eyes are genetically recessive, only 8 percent of the world’s population has blue eyes.
- While blue eyes are significantly less common than brown eyes worldwide, they are frequently found from nationalities located near the Baltic Sea in northern Europe.2.
- There is No Blue Pigment in Blue Irises The colour of our eyes depends on how much melanin is present in the iris.
- Blue eyes get their colour the same way water and the sky get their blue colour — they scatter light so that more blue light reflects back out.
The iris is made up of two layers. For almost everyone — even people with blue eyes — the back layer (called the pigment epithelium) has brown pigment in it. The front layer of the iris (called the stroma) is made up of overlapping fibers and cells. For people with brown eyes, some of the cells also have brown pigment in them.
- If there is no pigment at all in this front layer, the fibers scatter and absorb some of the longer wavelengths of light that come in.
- More blue light gets back out and the eyes appear to be blue.3.
- Blue Eyes are More Sensitive to Light Melanin in the iris of the eye appears to help protect the back of the eye from damage caused by UV radiation and high-energy visible “blue” light from sunlight and artificial sources of these rays.
Since blue eyes contain less melanin than green, hazel or brown eyes, photophobia is more prevalent in blue eyes compared to darker coloured eyes. For these reasons, having less melanin in your irises means that you need to protect your eyes more from the sun’s UV rays.
Therefore, it is recommended to those with blue eyes to stay out of the sun for long periods of time and try to wear protective eyewear when you are outdoors.4. All Blue-Eyed People May Have A Common Ancestor Originally we all had brown eyes, however, according to researchers at the University of Copenhagen, it appears that a genetic mutation in a single individual in Europe 6,000 to 10,000 years ago led to the development of blue eyes.
Therefore, we can conclude that this genetic mutation is the cause of eye colour of all blue-eyed humans alive on the planet today. What is the genetic mutation? A genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a “switch”, which “turned off” the ability to produce brown eyes.
- The OCA2 gene codes for the ‘P protein’, which is involved in the production of melanin (the pigment that determines the colour of our eyes, skin and hair).
- The “switch”, does not, however, turn off the gene entirely, but rather limits its action to reducing the production of melanin in the iris – effectively “diluting” brown eyes to blue.
According to Hans Eiberg, associate professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine from the University of Copenhagen, “From this, we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor. They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA.” 5.
Blue Eyes at Birth Doesn’t Mean Blue Eyes For Life While blue eyes may be rare, they’re among the most common eye colours at birth. Since the human eye does not have its full adult amount of pigment at birth, most Caucasian babies are born with blue eyes. However, since human melanin tends to develop over time — this causes the child’s eye colour to change as more melanin is produced in the iris during early childhood.6.
People With Blue Eyes May Have a Higher Risk of Alcoholism A new study suggests that individuals with blue eyes are at a higher risk for alcohol dependency compared to those with darker eyes. Therefore, this finding adds further evidence to the idea that alcoholism has a genetic component.
- A study published in American Journal of Medical Genetics, Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics found that European Americans with blue eyes had up to 83 percent higher odds of becoming dependent on alcohol, compared with matched controls who had darker eye colours.
- This research suggests that alcoholism has a genetic component linked to genetic sequences that determine eye colour, which may help explain the association.
However, at this stage, the reason for the correlation is still unknown and further research is required to fully understand this correlation in the findings.7. You Can’t Predict the Colour of Your Child’s Eyes Since it was once believed that eye colour — including blue eyes — was a simple genetic trait, many people used to believe that blue-eyed people could only have blue-eyed children.
Before geneticists fully understood how human eye colour inheritance works, a child’s eye colour to used be used as a paternity test — based on the assumption that you could predict a child’s eye colour if you knew the colour of the parents’ eyes and perhaps the colour of the grandparents’ eyes. But geneticists now know that this concept is far more complicated, as eye colour is influenced by an interaction of as many as 16 different genes — not just one or two genes as once thought.
Additionally, the anatomic structure of the iris can also influence eye colour to some degree. In summary, it’s impossible to know for sure if your children will have blue eyes. Even if you and your partner both have blue eyes, that’s no guarantee your child’s eyes will also be blue.