Chances of having a ginger baby?

[MissCommando]

My bf has ginger hair. . .mine is naturally dark brown. Anyway, his dad had jet black hair (apparantly black hair contains a lot of red pigment) which is obv why he was ginger. If I was to have a baby with him, would the baby definitely be ginger? is the gene very dominant or could it be any colour?

[Chessman]

I don't know the ins and outs of this, but before we moped, the family next door, the wife was ginger, the husband had jet black hair, two bows and a girl, all three were ginger, we still keep up with them, and all the offspring are ginger, so using that as an example, i'd say that the ginger gene is predominant, but of course, there must be exeptions to the rule.

[Chessman]

Sorry for the spelling mistake, should read, 'before we moved'.

[mimififi]

Don't actually know the answer to your question, but I have auburn hair (quite brownish, but with loads of red, and mainly lots of actually ginger round the front), my husband has just plain brown hair but was blond as a child. My parents both had blond hair, but now their hair is dark brown. My husband's parents have dark brown hair too. My father does grow a ginger beard (weird!) I have brown eyes, all by siblings have brown eyes, my husband has blue eyes, his dad has blue eyes and his mum has green eyes. Lots of red hair and green eyes there I think you'll agree.

However, I have five children (all with him) and they all have palest blue eyes like him. They all have white (scandinavian type) hair. Except my youngest, number 5, she was born with black hair which went carrot red at about 3 months, now it is still ginger and getting gingera all the time. She has blue/green eyes too.

I guess you have to decide if you want to try 5 times to get it???? LOL!

[MissCommando]

mimififi - lol! No thanks, wasn't planning on having that many kids. Well done. Thanks for your answers, much appreciated

[MsBadely]

The gene for red hair is recessive - it must be present in both parents to produce a red-haired child. But even if it is, you're not guaranteed a ginger whinger!

[Drusilla]

I have titian hair and so do both of my daughters. I won't go into details, but have a look on www.thetech.org The site has an interesting game dealing with genetic probabilities. Admittedly, it uses eye colour as an example, but it's really fun to check out the permutations. (I think its under a genetic doctor or genetic question section)

[Scarlett]

My sister has browny blonde hair and her partner is very ginger- chris evans type. Both her kids have her hair and colouring. Our parents are dark brown and light brown, and his parents are brown and ginger. So there's obviously not enough ginger around to keep it going!

[Hermia]

My dad is part-Indian with black hair & brownish skin and my mum has really dark brown hair. I have very fair skin and chestnut-brown hair. My grandma had bright red hair so I must have got it from her. My dad always said that if I hadn't looked so much like his family he would have assumed my mum had been up to naughties with the milkman!

[kaktus]

mimi - Try to start looking at mens beards :0) Almost all men have a reddish beard. It'll only show when they have an actually beard though, not just the stubble. I'm sure I got an explanation once but...

[Trickie]

My mum is a red head and dad's got dark brown hair but has ginger in his facial hair. I have hair not dissimillar to conker colour that goes a little lighter in the summer and my brother has darkish ginger hair. I guess it's the luck of the draw! I read an article recently that red heads are on the decline so good luck with repopulating the red headed group!!

[mimififi]

Hey Kaktus, interesting, I shall look next time I see a bearded fellow! However, my father has jet black hair and carrot red stubble and full beard when he grows one, I always thought it looked weird because it was such an obvious contrast.

Shall look at other fellas tho! It's so weird.

[kaktus]

It really is�mimi! My boyfriends has dark hair almost black and his beard is black and red, his stubble all black. My dad who has brown hair has a brown beard with a lot of red in it, it's grey know though. My brother who has a sort of a blond/brown hair colour has a very red beard. All my friends with beards have at least a red tint to it. As you say, very weird! Wonder if it true for blond men. Well have to start looking myself :)

And how can I live in Denmark and not know a single very blond person with a beard?

Sorry for going off at a bit different tangent commando

[TopCat1]

I have fair brown hair, my hubby has ginger, and our little girl was born with brown hair, but has gone blonde now.

[ginger 69]

im very ginger and all three of my children have ginger hair ranging from bright red (my little lad!!!) to a nice subtle strawberry blonde. My younger twos' dad is very dark haired. My friend however has shocking flame red hair that is a tumble of curls but out of her three kids only the eldest has her hair. Its a one in four chance according to my doctor. For the record not one other person in my whole family has red hair!!!!!

[wherescare]

It doesn't work quite like that. Ok this is how you get ginger:

You get 23 chromosoms from your mum, and 23 from your dad which makes 46 in total.

Imagine then as two rows of 23 of little balls, next to one another.

The ginger gene (MC1R) sits on ball number 16. Now if the other ball number 16 is a different colour, then it will dominate the ginger gene ball, and the baby will have that colour hair. If both genes are the ginger gene, then the baby will have ginger hair, cuz there is nothing to dominate it.

For a child to have ginger hair, both parents must have at least one ginger gene, to pass down. Now if the parent is ginger, they will definitely pass the ginger gene down. But if the other parent is not ginger, unless they have the ginger gene, the child will most likely not be ginger. But even if the parent does have the ginger gene, it is a 50/50 chance that it will be passed.

How non-ginger parents have ginger kids. Both parents carry only one copy of the ginger gene, with the other ball being non-ginger, so they come out as the colour on the other ball. Neither parents would realise they carried the gene until they have a ginger child.

If two gingers have children, the only possible colour the childs hair can be is ginger, unless the woman had an affair with a non-ginger.

Your bf's dads black hair had nothing to do with him being ginger, his dad must have had the ginger gene on the other chromosome, and passed that one, if he had passed his black haired gene, your bf would have black hair.


To answer your question:

Ginger is recessive. The baby will definitely get a ginger gene from your bf, since he has no other to pass. If you have no ginger genes the baby will not be ginger, but if you do have one (which unfortunately you can't really find out), the baby will have a 50/50 chance of being ginger.