The mutation that makes people blonde, however, isn't in the gene itself. It's in a different region of the DNA that controls how the gene actually works. The single-letter change, from an “A” to a “G” in the four-letter DNA code, makes the difference between being a blonde or a brunette.
Melanesians blond hair is caused by an amino acid change in TYRP1.
No, they don't. Blonde hair seems to have appeared more than once in humans. Which means that different blondes trace back their blonde hair to different ancestors.
An analysis of north European genes carried out at three Japanese universities has isolated the date of the genetic mutation that resulted in blond hair to about 11,000 years ago.
Red Hair Color
The red color is caused by a series of mutations in the MC1R gene, which transmits to the hair more pheomelanin; this also results in pale skin. The arrangement of amino acids in the protein for red-haired people differs from that in people having other color hair.
Genetic History of Blondes
The general explanation as to how blondes came into being, is related the need for Vitamin D and lower levels of sunlight in some regions. To compensate for the deficiency in sunlight, people with lighter hair and skin were born.
Red is the rarest hair color, according to Dr. Kaplan, and that's because so few MC1R variants are associated with the shade. “Only three variants are associated with red hair,” she says. “If a person has two of these three variants, they almost certainly have red hair.
Because blond hair tends to turn brown with age, natural blond hair is significantly less common in adulthood; according to the sociologist Christie Davies, only around five percent of adults in Europe and North America are naturally blond.
Only 2 percent of the world's population has naturally blond hair.
True blonde is also a rare hair color, and the Daily Mail reports that only 12.7 percent of women have pure blonde hair, and only 9.9 percent of men do. Surprisingly, many of the genetic differences identified by the researchers correlated with factors other than pigmentation like hair texture and growth.
It turns out that brown hair is dominant. That means that even if only one of your two alleles is for brown hair, your hair will be brown. The blond allele is recessive, and gets covered up. If two brunette parents have a blond child, they had to have instructions for making blond hair hidden in their DNA.
Unless you're of European ancestry, you don't have much of a chance of inheriting this rare hue. If both parents are brunette, they can only have a blonde child if they both carry the recessive blonde trait. A regulatory molecule sends a signal that triggers a hair follicle to create hair in a certain color.
Phenotype – This refers to the visible traits that manifest as a result of your child's DNA sequences. So your child's blond hair may be one of his physical traits inherited from Father, but he may also have the genes for brown hair, thanks to Mom.
Scientists are still debating on the cause of the blonde hair in Aborgines. Some of them say, the blonde hair is caused by mixing with Europeans during colonization. Others say it is due to a genetic mutation.
Dr Frost concluded that the lighter shades of blond hair evolved as a response to food shortages in areas where women could not collect food for themselves and were utterly reliant on the male hunters, as they were in some parts of northern Europe.
"All individuals with red hair – whether auburn, bright red, orange or strawberry-blonde – have variants in a gene called MC1R, which controls whether you make black/brown pigment, or red pigment," he said. "You need variants in both copies of MC1R, from both your mother and your father.
Finland. The people of Finland have one of the highest concentrations of blond hair in the world. In large portions of Finland, 80% of the population has blond hair (and a full 89% of the population has blue eyes).
The rarest natural hair colour is red, which makes up only one to two percent of the global population. You commonly see these hair colours in western and northern areas of Europe, especially Scotland and Ireland. However, natural redheads may not exist for much longer.
Blonds get white hair just like brunets, but some blondes only appear to get a lighter blond while others experience their blonde hairs getting darker and duller as the white hairs begin to appear. Still, blondes can, over time, have a full head of white hair.
There are several theories as to why so many Australians have blonde hair. One theory is that the country's sunny climate may play a role in bleaching the hair of those who live there. Another theory is that the majority of Australians are of British or Irish descent, and both of these groups tend to have lighter hair.
Blonde hair and green eyes
Blonde hair, green eyes are other unique and rare combinations. Usually, blue eyes scatter some light, appearing green.
Green is considered by some to be the actual rarest eye color in the world, though others would say it's been dethroned by red, violet, and grey eyes. Green eyes don't possess a lot of melanin, which creates a Rayleigh scattering effect: Light gets reflected and scattered by the eyes instead of absorbed by pigment.