red hair

[juicy]

Does anyone know if the red hair gene is dominant or recessive? If it is recessive would it be dominant over the blond gene or viceversa?

[secretspirit]

From my A-level biology course I'm pretty sure red hair is recessive and that all other hair colours are dominant over it. So it takes each parent to pass on the red haired gene to make a red haired child (but unless a parent is a red head they probably won't know for definite if they carry that gene or not). Does that make sense?

[Lindy Loo]

Perfectly secretspirit!!! Both my parents had dark hair, but I'm a redhead!! Red hair can miss a generation or 2 - My maternal grandmother was a red head, but her 2 daughters were dark. Like wise my paternal grandfather and great grandfather were redheads, but my father's dark. On the other hand my sons are both redheads!! But their paternal grandmother was once a redhead!! Guess we just changed the rules and 'got dominant'!!!

[New Forester]

Missing a generation is just what happens with recessive genes. It's the dominant form which can't skip generations. For example, blue eyes are also recessive. We each have two copies of the eye-colour gene, which can be blue or brown. Blue-blue gives blue eyes. Brown-brown gives brown eyes, but so does blue-brown. This means that a brown-eyed person could be either brown-brown or blue-brown. A brown/brown person can only have brown-eyed children (because they will have at least one brown), and two blue-eyed parents can only have blue-eyed children. I have brown eyes, but as my brother, sister and mother have blue, I know that I am genetically blue/brown, and so is my brown-eyed father, and my two brown-eyed daughters (their mother is also blue-eyed). What you can't get is the dominant form skipping a generation. Everyone with the brown-eyed form of the eye-colour gene has brown eyes, even if it's only one of the two copies -- this means that unlike red hair or blue eyes it can't "hide" in a generation. So, Lindy Loo, your partner (if not also red-haired) must have one of the chromosome pair with the recessive red-haired gene, with a more dominant colour on the other. Each of your sons happened to get the red one of those, which together with one of your two reds gave them red-red, coming out red. What could not happen is for you to have a child with non-red hair if your partner had also been red-haired. There is a health warning with all this. There are often different genetic ways of arriving at the same apparent thing. For example, I once knew a woman who had unusual orange-hazel eyes, which I'd have called brownish (in fact they exactly matched her reddish hair). Both her parents were blue-eyed -- but "blue" varies, and she happened to have an extreme "brownish" form of blue which did not actually look blue at all. So don't accuse your partner before having a DNA check!

[Lindy Loo]

Oh New Forester!!! Why do you always have the answers?? Your a marvel and a genius. Bet your daughters knew where to come for homework help!! Actually my sons father had a gingerish beard if he didn't shave for a few days, but his hair was grey/brown!!

[New Forester]

Thank you, Lindy Loo. My daughters are brilliant (though I say it myself), but in quite different ways. I can't help too much with, for example, grade 8 flute, A-level maths or GCSE German. Makes me sick to see how talented they are!

[Scarlett]

I was just thinking that about New Forrester... always soooo clever! So explain this... My sister has blonde/brown hair. Her partner has red hair. Both her kids have blonde/brown hair. Nobody in our family has red hair. Her partner's MUM had red hair, and DAD had brown hair. So... what is the likelihood of red hair coming out later down the line, say, with the 2 kids' future children?!!

[MissCarrot]

As I know red hair is completely covered by the gene of brown hair. If somebody has two parents with brown hair may have red hair because both parents carry redhead gene. If a parent is blond and the other brown head it is also possible to have a child with red hair. If both parents are blond but one grand parent was brown head or redhead it is also possible to have a redhead child. I am a redhead, my father was brown head and my mother blond, but I know that my grand father is a redhead. I have also a question. Is it possible for me not to carry the red hair gene although I am a redhead myself?

[lil_miss]

hi im a very worried mother to be lol, both my parents had brown hair and i was born like a strawberry blonde, my husband is asian i.e. black hair brown eyes what are the chances of havin a red haired child??? pls help me try to figure this out!!

[sanfran]

It's unlikely - only if ur husband carried the recessive red gene as well. u should be careful with what u say - saying ur "worried" about ur kid having red hair aint particularly nice to redheads

[lil_miss]

yea i understand what ur sayin and i dont mean it in a disrespectful way but i too grew up as a red head. It was very hard for me as i was extremely tortured for it, i say im worried because of that reason, i wouldnt want my child to grow up hatin the colour of its hair like i have, for the past 11yrs my hair has been coloured and probably will be until i cant physically do it anymore and hopefully by that time i will be grey LOL.

[sanfran]

sorry - it was really early in the morning and i was in a bit of a weird mood when i wrote that! Nothing agaist u, lol x