What will be the hair color of the child? Photo: Getty
What is the child's hair color?
For the inheritance of certain traits and characteristicsspecial molecules - DNA - respond from ancestors. They consist of individual particles - genes, each of which corresponds to a certain external characteristic. These particles are of two types: dominant and recessive. The former always win over the latter and are passed on to the next generation. If two strong or weak genes enter into a "fight", it becomes more difficult to predict its outcome. The genetics of more distant ancestors is involved in the "fight". The external characteristics that manifest themselves as dominant include:
- brown eyes;
- tendency to hair loss;
- curly hair;
- dark hair color;
- pigmentation on the skin;
- right-handedness;
- short stature, etc.
External characteristics caused by recessive genes are:
- straight hair;
- Blue eyes;
- light hair;
- pale skin, etc.
To determine what hair color you will havechild, it is necessary to analyze the possible outcomes of the "struggle" of different genes. Practice shows that in the overwhelming majority of cases the strong defeat the weak. For example, if the father has black hair and the mother is blonde, their son or daughter will be either a brunette or the owner of dark-blond curls. The shade in any case will be much darker than that characteristic of the recessive trait. Hair structure is also not always borrowed 100%: instead of curls, the child may have slightly curly hair. To calculate what color the child's hair will be, it is not enough to analyze the external data of only the mother and father. Three generations are included in the calculation on both lines. For example, a brunette and a blonde can have a fair-haired and fair-skinned baby. This is not a miracle: the father's genotype contained a recessive gene, which he got from a blonde grandmother or a fair-haired grandfather. It did not manifest itself in their child, but it acted after a generation. Experience shows that in Slavic families children are most often born with light-brown hair. However, the color often changes when the child reaches 12 years of age.