{ December 6th, 2011 }

Did You Know: Hair Strands: A Tale of Two Pigments

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Just as the difference in skin color between lightly and darkly pigmented individuals is due not to the number (quantity) of melanocytes in our skin, but to the melanocytes’ level of activity (quantity and relative amounts of eumelanin and pheomelanin), so are the differences in the color of our hair.

 

A melanocyte, melanin/pigment-producing cells located in the bottom layer of the skin’s epidermis, produces two types of melanin: eumelanin and phaeomelanin. Eumelanin has a color varying between brownish-red and black. Phaeomelanin’s color varies from yellow to red.

 

Black hair is the darkest and most common hair color. It has large amounts of eumelanin and is less dense than other hair colors. It can range from soft black to blue-black or jet-black.

 

Did you know that while blue hair doesn’t naturally occur in humans, our hair can turn true blue? (Wikipedia, 2011)

 

Red hair ranges from light strawberry blonde shades to titian, vivid oranges, copper, and less commonly “true” red. It is caused by a variation in the Mc1r gene and is recessive.[3] Red hair has the highest amounts of pheomelanin, around 67%, and usually low levels of eumelanin. At 1-2% of the population, it is the least common hair color in the world. It is most prominently found in Scotland and Ireland. Scotland has the highest proportion of redheads; 13 percent of the population has red hair and approximately 40 percent carries the recessive redhead gene.

 

Brown hair is characterized by higher levels of eumelanin and lower levels of pheomelanin. Of the two types of eumelanin (black and brown), brown-haired people have brown eumelanin; they also usually have medium-thick strands of hair. Brown-haired people are often known as brunettes/brunets.

 

Blond hair ranges from nearly white (platinum blond, tow-haired) to a dark golden blond. Strawberry blond, a mixture of blond and red hair is a much rarer type containing the most amounts of pheomelanin.

 

Blond hair can have almost any proportion of pheomelanin and eumelanin, but both only in small amounts. More pheomelanin creates a more golden blond color, and more eumelanin creates an ash blond. Many children born with blond hair develop darker hair as they age, with the majority of natural blonds developing their hair color into a very dark, almost brown, color by the time they reach middle age. Blond hair is most commonly found in Northern and Eastern Europeans and their descendants, but can be found spread around most of Europe. Blond hair is exceptionally rare among those without European heritage, however the Melanesians of New Guinea are one of the few non-European races and the only black race known to have a high blonde hair rate.

 

Did you know: Grey/white hair isn’t actually grey, but rather clear-colored hair that appears as grey or white because of the way light reflects from the hairs.

 

Auburn hair ranges along a spectrum of light to dark red-brown shades, with a higher proportion of red-causing pheomelanin than what is found in average brown hair. It is most commonly found in individuals of Northern and Western European descent.


Chestnut hair is a hair color which is a reddish shade of brown hair. In contrast to auburn hair, the reddish shade of chestnut is darker. Chestnut hair is common among the native peoples of Northern, Central, Western, and Eastern Europe.

 

 


For more on fascinating hair color: Auburn Hair, Brown Hair, Black Hair, Blond Hair, Human Hair Color (Wikipedia)

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