As a result of the relatively low levels of sunlight for most of the year, humans in Scandinavia began to develop symptoms of vitamin D deficiency: namely lighter skin and hair colour. No fellas around? With the sun rarely making an appearance through the Danish winter, it's easy to see how this theory makes sense.
Some sources, such as Eupedia, claim that in central parts of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Finland, 80% of the population is blonde, with natural fair-haired people in other Baltic Countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and other parts of Scandinavia) making up 50-79% of the population.
So over time, humans who were lighter-pigmented survived longer than those who were darker in the north. This also means their genes prevailed over dark ones, this is why many ethnic Scandinavians are blonde-haired or light-pigmented.
Brown hair—the shade known as “sandy” or “rat-coloured”—is the most common hair colour in Scandinavia, although it varies from a very pale yellow known as “strawberry” to a quite dark brown.
Areas like Scandinavia and Siberia have very low concentrations of ultraviolet radiation, and indigenous populations are all light-skinned. However, dietary factors may allow vitamin D sufficiency even in dark skinned populations.
According to researchers at Penn State University, translucent Irish can thank a genetic code inherited from a single person around 10,000 years ago. A native of either India or the Middle East, carrying the skin pigmentation gene logged as SLC24A5, passed it to the people of Ireland through his ancestors.
Common ancestry
Researches at Penn State University identified SLC24A5 as the gene responsible for skin pigmentation, and a specific mutation within it responsible for fair skin. The mutation, A111T, is found most commonly in Ireland and all who possess it share a common genetic code descended from the same ONE person.
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.
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 Swedish myth of tall, blue-eyed blondes is just that - a myth.
The ethnic Miao people of Guizhou province from China, a subgroup of Hmong people, have been described as having blue eyes and blonde hair.
Blue eyes are most common in the UK, Ireland, Finland and Sweden. According to World Atlas, 8% - 10% of people in the world have blue eyes. Between 55% to 79% of people have brown eyes with dark brown eyes being most prominent in Africa, East Asia, and South East Asia.
"Either the genetics is subtly different in Swedes, such that they have blond hair and fair skin but the propensity to develop more melanin when they see the sun, " Professor Scott says. "[Or] maybe there is a form of conditioning in which the genes get set by environmental triggers in a particular sort of way."
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.
Iceland, the northernmost country of the bunch, has the greatest percentage of people with blue eyes.
Scandinavian countries ie: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Finland have the highest individuals with blonde hair and blue eyes.
Caption Options. Let's remember blonde hair is not owned by any one demographic or race. In fact, natural blonde hair can be found within Black communities. For instance, in Melanesia, a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, blonde hair and dark skin is indigenous.
On the surface, the main differences between a coloured blonde and a natural blonde lie in the the colour of the hair's roots, the shade of blonde, as well as the shine and texture of the hair.
Red- or blonde-haired Vikings? Genetic research has shown that the Vikings in West Scandinavia, and therefore in Denmark, were mostly red-haired. However, in North Scandinavia, in the area around Stockholm, blonde hair was dominant.
#BLONDE! The contest for the most attractive hair colour is obviously won by the blonde color with 35% of the overall vote, followed by the brunette. The bronze goes to Pippi Longstocking (people 30 and above will understand ? ). And the fourth place is for black hair colour.
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.
According to an article by evolutionary biology professor Mark Elgar, PhD, of the University of Melbourne, blue-eyed redheads are the absolute rarest, with 0.17% of the population having that combination of hair and eye color. So if that describes you, you're most likely one in a million (or more!).
Researchers have found that men are subconsciously attracted to fairer skin due to its association with purity, innocence, modesty and goodness, while women feel that darker complexions are associated with sex, virility and danger.
Celtic skin is pale, freckly, sensitive and easily damaged by sun and the ravages of winter weather. People with Celtic skin have blue/grey/green eyes, pale skin, blondish/reddish hair, and skin that burns and peels easily.
Gene pool research shows that some Irish males have a high concentration of the R1B haplogroup in their Y chromosome. This characteristic is similar to the Basque males of Spain and is believed to be responsible for the dark features.