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My father's side of the family is heavily Scots Irish. He was a tow head when he was young - white blond - but his hair turned black as he got older. His mother's hair was auburn; his father's was black. My hair used to be black, and my brother was a red head when he was young, changing to dirty blond as he got older. My husband's hair is brown. One son has dark brown hair; the other's is very dark brown, almost black, and he has a red beard.
I like one of the comments at the end--"In other words....we don't know either."
But it was the same with my dad. My grandmother said the kids all had white hair when they were little. When they got a little bit older they all had dark brown hair. It's all in the genes, somewhere, somehow.
I wonder if people like this had ancestors who were blonde. Not necessarily, but maybe.
Both of my sisters are blonde. One parent with white hair that turned dark brown and one parent with brown hair but red hair in her parentage. Go figure.
Myself and 3 family members have had their dna tested and we all carry the Arg160Trp (rs1805008) variant. Yes I have immediate family members with red hair and I am Irish. The Irish are quite high carriers of types of red hair variants as well as the Scots, Welsh and English populations.
Genetics are really interesting, but you do not inherit anything from a cousin - unless the cousin was also a parent or grandparent!
You may, however, have acquired the gene from a grandparent shared by your mother and her cousin.
lol. Well I just asked my mother again and though we have a language barrier nowadays, she assured me that she is blood related to the red haired cousin. She has grey hair now but she told me that she used to have a patch of orange-ish hair color growing in the middle to the front and more freckles on the face when younger. Her own mother had the same too, btw. I'm pretty certain that I have some 'ginger' passed on to me now, it seems that the gene became less and less prominent with each new generation. If I have kids they probably won't show any of it if they happen to aquire the gene or I could be wrong. Not that I would mind either way.
Last edited by keymaker221; 10-21-2015 at 10:43 AM..
My father's side of the family is heavily Scots Irish. He was a tow head when he was young - white blond - but his hair turned black as he got older. His mother's hair was auburn; his father's was black. My hair used to be black, and my brother was a red head when he was young, changing to dirty blond as he got older. My husband's hair is brown. One son has dark brown hair; the other's is very dark brown, almost black, and he has a red beard.
That's very interesting! I wondered how I could start out life as a towhead and end up with dark hair by the time I was about 10. It got darker and darker each year till I was about 20 in fact. I went from very light blonde to strawberry blonde to a rich bronzy brown and I ended up with very dark auburn hair.
I tried the blonde look a few years ago and BLECH. I looked terrible! My husband said he felt like he was sleeping with Billy Idol!
My DNA tests show that I am nearly 100 percent English and Scots Irish.
lol. Well I just asked my mother again and though we have a language barrier nowadays, she assured me that she is blood related to the red haired cousin. She has grey hair now but she told me that she used to have a patch of orange-ish hair color growing in the middle to the front and more freckles on the face when younger. Her own mother had the same too, btw. I'm pretty certain that I have some 'ginger' passed on to me now, it seems that the gene became less and less prominent with each new generation. If I have kids they probably won't show any of it if they happen to aquire the gene or I could be wrong. Not that I would mind either way.
You have to inherit the genes for red hair from a parent. You either have a red hair variant or not. There are a few different variants. If you have one variant you are a carrier but you have to receive two copies to actually have red hair. Some populations have more people carrying a copy of the gene so that is why in some populations there is more red hair. Apparently 46% of the Irish carry a copy and 40% of Scots carry the gene.
It is not a case of it becoming less prominent in each generation. People can carry the gene for generations but it has to be inherited from both parents for red hair to occur.
There are red-headed skeletons in Asia.. this doesn't mean that Orientals had red hair, but
it means that the Redheads lived in Asia.. they also lived in the Holy Land, and migrated over
the Caucasus Mountains.
Anyway, I had some orange (red) hair on my brown beard only.. along with some blonde
whiskers - funny thing is, the orange hairs went gray, while everything else on the beard has not.
Are they the first to "go" ? Some of my Italian family had the red hair.
I found this article and found it interesting as to where this person thinks Red Hair came from......... King David Was a Red Head
We can’t say for sure that the Irish are the real Jews, but, we can say that the real Jews ‘invented’ red hair. The latter is a lot more likely. Until anthropologists, mythologists, and scholars can find evidence that red hair was distinguished first in some ancient culture other than Hebrew, the Jews have it. Red hair belongs to the grandson of Abraham, Esau.
As a red-head, I prefer to be called just that and not a "ginger." Thanks to those who stuck with "redheads." I don't see through any history "redheads" were referred to in this way and I find it offensive......Just the way I see it and yes, we can be complicated.
I found this article and found it interesting as to where this person thinks Red Hair came from......... King David Was a Red Head
We can’t say for sure that the Irish are the real Jews, but, we can say that the real Jews ‘invented’ red hair. The latter is a lot more likely. Until anthropologists, mythologists, and scholars can find evidence that red hair was distinguished first in some ancient culture other than Hebrew, the Jews have it. Red hair belongs to the grandson of Abraham, Esau.
As a red-head, I prefer to be called just that and not a "ginger." Thanks to those who stuck with "redheads." I don't see through any history "redheads" were referred to in this way and I find it offensive......Just the way I see it and yes, we can be complicated.
See the previous link. DNA tells us that the gene responsible for red hair originated in central Asia.
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