become more representative of their parents hair color?

My baby picture shows me laying on a fuzzy white rug with light blond hair.

In a couple of pictures of me in diapers standing near a tree I am a dark brunette.

As you can tell, I am still trying to sort the DNA issue out.

dark brown as a toddler, but it took most of us kids 10-20 years to darken up.

Hair color is a bad indicator:

Me - red head as a baby - blonde now - almost white
Sister - flaming carrot top
Brothers - all shades of brown to blonde

Dad - Dark brown
Mom - Dark brown

Hair color is made up of several alleles so the genetics of recessive/dominant are pretty complex.

My dad and mom were a dark brown and a redhead with blue and hazel eyes. They had three blond, blue-eyed children. Then my dad (the dark brown) married my current stepmom (also a dark brown and half Cherokee, in fact) and THEY had a blue-eyed redhead. Also, I remember reading just recently of a black family (I think in the UK) who had a fair skinned, curly haired blond. And it's their child. Just a random mutation.

Babies are born with soft fuzzy hair that they lose after a month or two. Sometimes it's replaced with a different color, sometimes it's about the same.
My daughter was born blonde. By the time she was 6 months old her hair was medium brown.

My nephew had dark hair when he was born and it lightened later

My sister's hair was very dark brown and mine was blond, when we were little. Hers has lightened and mine has darkened so that not in our thirties we have the same color.
Mine is curly though, and catches more frequent shine off each curl instead of just the top of the head, so mine still appears lighter.

My mother was a tow-head blonde as a toddler and it turned reddish-brown when she got a little older. My oldest siblings were also tow-headed; My brother's hair turned brown around 4(?) I think? That sister remained a blonde until she had her first son. Another brother had dark blonde hair as well and it's a darker brown now. No idea when it started turning dark on him.

Genetics, hormone changes and illness, can all factor into hair colour changing. Hell, the texture can change as well. I still have dark chestnut hair, but it was straight when I was a little girl, then turned curly around puberty. I also have an amazing amount of silver strands in my hair to the point people think they are highlights, lol, and I'm only almost 33.

...the whole pile of them, were all classic Scandinavian blue-eyed blondes until their late teens or early adulthood, when they all turned medium-to-dark brown (except some of the women who went the artificial color route). Both parents have dark hair and brown eyes.

All my siblings and I had the same color all our lives (some blonde, some brown), except a sister who started blonde and turned brown when she was about six or seven. Both of our parents had dark hair and gray eyes.

So there doesn't seem to be a set age.

My cousin has a hispanic father and a caucasian mother. She was born with lots of pitch black hair...which then turned platinum blond by the time she was a year old.

It depends. I was a blonde until I was in my late teens and then it turned more of a light brown or darkest blonde. By the time I was in my early twenties, it was pretty much brown.

My nephew's hair is turning brown, after being blonde. He just turned 10. My niece is 8 and hers isn't showing any signs of darkening yet, even though hers was dark when she was born. It went blonde later.

My hair was platinum blonde until about age 6. My hair is still blonde, which is strange because my parents both have brown hair.

My brother had platinum blonde hair until he was about 3 or 4, then it turned light brown until he hit puberty, then it became very dark brown (nearly black) like our father's.

I also had blue eyes until I was 6. My dad accused my mom of cheating on him and tried claiming that I wasn't his daughter when I was 5, but a blood test proved him wrong. (Then I turned 6, and my eyes became identical to my mother's.)

My brother was tow-headed for his first two years, then he got very dark brown. Both my niece and younger nephew were very blond and pretty much remain so at the ages of 27 and nearly 24.
My older nephew's hair was so blond as a baby that he looked bald. He's a dishwater blond now.

Susan

My folks had black hair (hispanic), my brothers had black hair or very dark brown. All with brown eyes. My dad worked for the Post Office.
I started out blond and green eyes, as I got older I had brown hair at HS graduation, now it's close to black with grey creeping in.
When we'd be down town shopping, people would ask who was my dad, I'd tell them the mailman. Mom would get embarrassed and mad at me.

I always understood that the color of the eyelashes is a good indicator of the 'final' color. Worked pretty well with my own kids.

One of my daughters was born with long black hair. I have a photo of her at three months wearing puppy ears. (side ponytails)

Then she went blonde, now honey brown.

Anagrammy

It's not that simple. Genes can skip a generation, and a kid can have a hair color not similar to either parent (my husband's one of those).

I was born with black hair. It fell out at about two months and came in white blonde. Over time that blonde darkened, and by the time I was a pre-teen my hair was that dark blonde/light brown mix (where it still is today).

According to the limited info I have on my adoptive parents - my mother was a redhead, and my father had dark brown hair.

So - I don't have either of theirs.

I have to add that I was the only child out of 4 to have red hair. My dad was blond and my mother brunette. My older sister and my brother both were brunettes, whereas my younger sister has lighter brown hair.
People would come up to my folks and ask if I was adopted. Right in front of me. I don't remember that, fortunately, though my older sister ised to tell me I was!

Susan

If you want brunettes with skin that tans, let them be little bastards.

although we're still together after nearly 30 years.

The result : the 2 elder children burn even worse than me, their British father. I keep out of the sun if I can

It worked for my youngest though - she doesn't even need direct sun to tan. She just turns brown as the days lengthen!

Tom in Paris

I grew up poor, so I didn't get class pictures every year. But my first grade picture I'm as white blonde as you can get.

In fourth grade I was very dark brown.

I didn't have any in-between pictures, so I don't know when it happened.

My grandchildren are very blonde.

Two of my children, a red-haired and dark haired are close in age. People wouldn't believe they were sisters. Yes, I had all the jokes about the milkman, coalman etc.

Briggy

Dna is a surprise, you never know what you'll get.

In my family, each one comes in different colors.

My mom has all the redhead features, green eyes, darkest auburn hair, freckled as a leopard, still not a full redhead.

her brother is a blue eyed blonde, and their sister, has olive toned skin, hazel eyes, dark brown hair. Me and my brothers are completely different as well.

Me , being the fairest of them all, my sister, skin type 3 I guess.....tans easily, very brazilian-like skin tone, and my brother, ash brown hair, pink skin tone. We all have brown eyes tho.

our Father had full brown features.

When I was born, they thought I was albino or something, cuz you could see the inside lol, sometimes you still can..try me, i glow in the dark...my hair was deep auburn, like wine. It got brown and so stayed till my teenage years, and all of a sudden it started to go red,and i freaked out. People asking me if i was dying my hair....I have tried to go against it, and it seems to be a stubborn color. Im not into the sun, but if I expose myself, my hair goes orange right away. I have light lashes but dark beard. And I may have a million different tones when it comes to body hair. From red to blonde. Its quite odd!!!

It took me so long to embrace who I am, till I find out that I am no alien. now I have red haired friends, and they come in many skin tones and hair shades. Very distinct ethnicities as well. Not every ginger comes with pale skin. Dont buy that.

Traveling around the world, made me realize that gingerism is spreading faster than anyone could expect. Everywhere i go I see many, including one black little girl, with light red hair, blonde lashes... very exotic and unique.

This happens only because we carry the unknown inside our genes. Some things we just cant control.....

At the end of the day,you should embrace your true self, you may not like all of your features, you may not even be your type, and you may not please the mass, but there will always be beauty, no matter where you look.

My grandmother was half Dutch, quarter or more Native. Her hair when she was little was blond, but got darker. It was controversial in that (mixed) town in SD.

My son had blond hair when he was little, but it became dark brown when he was about ten. I have greenish eyes. His father has grey eyes. Son's eyes are light brown. Green eyes I understand mean a gene for light brown.

My daughter has always had dark brown hair with a red glow.

My brother and I were blond when we were little, then both of us turned brown.

My father had black hair, my mother's hair was brown.

It is all in how the genes mix.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2012 09:15AM by me.

My dad had brown hair brown eyes, so did mom, brother had brown hair hazel eyes, i have red hair green eyes.

Brothers son born with flaming red hair also ...

my child went from white hair, to red (age around 6-8 years), then to dark brown with red hints, brown eyes with green flecks ....

good luck in finding what you want,

Not one of their 6 children has black hair. We were all blonde as kids except one brother--who had brown hair. We all now have brown hair.

As for my son--he started dying his in middle school--every color in the rainbow and black. He is 26 now. I get to see his brown hair now and then.

My "ex" is blonde--and my daughter is blonde. I really thought she'd go brown like I did, but she is 26 and still blonde.

There are over the counter DNA tests you can do. They come with swabs, plastic gloves, a self addressed package envelope, and separate storage bags for the samples. You follow the directions, getting swab sample from within the mouth of the child and yourself, mail it off, and in a few days you know if the kid is yours. It is relatively cheap, and while the lack of a proper chain of custody does not make such samples stand up in court, it let's you know if you are the parent, or if you need to spend the hundreds of dollars on a certified test. The only difference between the two is that the certified test is performed by a professional third party, who then insures that neither sample is tampered with, before being tested.

I did this with my son. I knew he was my son, but there were also concerns that my then soon to be ex was going to claim I was not. The cheap test carries a little more weight when you are trying to claim paternity, but the main reason I did it was because my attorney wanted me to, so he wouldn't get blindsided by finding out I wasn't the father. Happened a time or two to him in custody cases.

When I first met my friend and her kids I was very shocked. Her 4 children looked so different from one another that I had a hard time not asking if they each had a different father. I would never ask such a thing so I skirted around the issue and said that I was surprised at how different each one looked...no two looked similar. She laughed and told me that many people had asked her if they each had different fathers! OMG, who does that?

The oldest boy had dark brown hair and was short and thin. The second oldest boy was redheaded, chunky and tall. The third son had blonde hair, was short for his age and thin. The baby had light brownish red hair and was medium in height and a little chunky. Not one of them had similar facial features. It is amazing to see what genetics can accomplish.

That sounds to me like a couple of people with a very healthy gene selection!
More diversity, or something.
Unlike people whose kids all look like little photocopies, usually they are all blonde with weak chins, and I think, "not a lot of branching out in that family tree!"

LOL! May be a little stereotyping on my part!

I know a lady I saw as a newborn with black hair which grew out with white-blond roots. From six to eighteen months she looked like someone had died her baby hair. Finally, her mom cut off the black and the girl has had blond hair since.

I was totally bald at birth and until I finally started growing a little light straight hair when I was almost two, so my family knew to call me blond. My mom was so ashamed of the bald look she never let me out in public without a bonnet.

then hair darkened to "medium-brown" on the JUST FOR MEN scale (and yes, have had to dye my hair from about the age of 42, but I leave a little gray in--just enough to be a "Hot Daddy" for all the 23 year olds I have to beat off with a stick). Eyes darkened to hazel--that I'll blame on sin.

If kids are righteous, they will get fairer. If they sin their hair will go black.

My hair color changed at puberty. My wife's at pregnancy. My nephew's at 1-year. It's different for everyone I think.