How Rare Is Red Hair Blue Eyes?
Are redheads with blue eyes really going extinct? For every 100 people in the world, only one or two will have red hair. And when you meet a red head with blue eyes, you are looking at the rarest colour combination of all for human beings. The odds of having both red hair and blue eyes sits at around 0.17 per cent. Picture: Shutterstock Around 17 per cent of people have blue eyes, and when combined with, the odds of having both traits are around 0.17 per cent. That’s, out of the 7.6 billion on Earth.
- So with numbers this low, could redheads with blue eyes actually go extinct?
- The reason these looks are so unusual is because they are the result of two different sets of DNA instructions, or mutations, happening in the same person, explains Professor Mark Elgar, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Melbourne.
- “The mutations occurred tens of thousands of years ago, and have now become established as different versions or variants of the genes that help determine our skin and eye colour.
“Red hair and blue eyes are both recessive traits which means a person needs to inherit both of the genes for red hair and blue eyes, from both parents. In contrast, brown hair and brown eyes are dominant traits, which is why they are much more prevalent.” In some regions of the world, red heads are more common, making up 10-30 per cent of the population in for example.
- Blue-eyed people are also more common in the Baltic regions of Northern Europe.
- There are a number of ways rare traits can be lost from a population,” says Professor Elgar.
- A common misconception is that when a trait is rare, it could be lost through a dilution effect – the few individuals that carry the gene don’t reproduce, and so it is lost to future generations.
“But although it is recessive, red hair is unlikely to suffer from this effect. Even when we can’t always see red hair, many people still carry the genes. Red hair can range from strawberry blonde to the deepest auburn. Picture: Shutterstock “Another case is where a gene reduces an individual’s chance of reproducing, perhaps by increasing the risk of early mortality, and again, these genes would become rarer over successive generations,” he explains.
What color eyes are rare for redheads?
– The hair, skin, and eye colors you’re born with are all controlled by your genes. Your parents passed these genes down to you, just as their parents passed down their genetic makeup to them. When it comes to hair and eye color, some genes are more dominant than others.
Yet dominant doesn’t necessarily mean more common. What determines your hair, eye, and skin color is a pigment called melanin. Genes provide the instructions for producing melanin. Your genes determine how much of this pigment you have, and therefore, what color hair and eyes you have. The MCR1 gene dictates whether you have red hair, and it’s recessive.
That means you’d need to inherit copies from both parents to have this color combination. Genes also have variants, known as alleles. At least three different genes control eye color, and there can be more than two alleles for each gene. For example, the MCR1 gene comes in two variants: non-red and red.
- The non-red version is dominant.
- Gey, which is one of the genes that determines eye color, comes in two forms: Green and blue.
- Blue is the dominant allele.
- But that doesn’t tell the whole story.
- Also critical to how common a color combination is within a given population is which alleles are circulating.
For example, alleles of the gene OCA2 determine whether someone has brown or not-brown eyes. In populations where more people have the not-brown OCA2 allele — like in Scandinavia — the allele for light eyes is more common, even though it’s recessive. Light-eyed people pass their genes to their children, who pass them to their children, and that eye color perpetuates.
What eye color do most redheads have?
8. Blue eyed redheads are super rare – Blue eyes and red hair forms the rarest combo on earth. Most (natural) redheads will have brown eyes, followed by hazel or green shades.
Is red hair becoming rarer?
Despite plenty of debunked ‘studies’ that pop up around the internet every few years, redheads are not going extinct.
What is rare about redheads?
5 facts about redheads on World Redhead Day
- by: WFLA 8 On Your Side Staff
- Posted: May 26, 2019 / 07:28 AM EDT
- Updated: May 26, 2019 / 12:19 PM EDT
Got red hair? Today is your day to celebrate!
- Today is World Redhead Day,
- It’s not clear where this holiday got its start, but it’s become an integral part of the unofficial holiday’s calendar.
- To help you celebrate, here are four fun facts about redheads:
- Less than 2 percent of the world’s population has red hair, making it the rarest hair color in the world. It’s the result of the mutated MC1R gene. If both parents carry that gene, their child has a 25% chance of getting lovely, red locks, even if the parents don’t have red hair themselves.
- Red hair will never turn, Instead, the pigment simply fades over time. Redheads usually end up with blonde or silvery white hair when they get older.
- Redheads have less hair on their heads. On average, someone with red hair has 90,000 strands of hair. Blonds have 110,000 strands of hair on average and brunettes have the most with 140,000 strands of hair.
- Being a man with red hair though could mean a lower risk for prostate cancer. A study found men with naturally red hair were 54% less likely to develop prostate cancer, compared to other men with blond, brown or black hair.
- Red hair isn’t the only thing that’s rare. A high portion of people who are left-handed are also redheads.
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: 5 facts about redheads on World Redhead Day
Are redheads becoming rarer?
Despite plenty of debunked ‘studies’ that pop up around the internet every few years, redheads are not going extinct.
Is it rare for gingers to have brown eyes?
Are gingers with brown eyes rare? – Only around 2% of the world’s population has this hair colour, making it super unique. And, while red hair and brown eyes may be the most common combination with this hair colour, they’re still totally rare. So, if you’re dating someone with red hair, count yourself lucky as not many people can say the same thing! |