To think this is a very high number of redheads for one family?

[HackerFucker22]

I'll start by saying it's my family and this is no slant on redheads BUT I did think the ginger gene was recessive?

My Mum has 11 grandchildren and x8 of them are redheads.

None of my mum's kids are actually redheads though.

My sister (darkhaired) and her redheaded partner have 5 kids - all ginger!
My brother (darkhaired) and his strawberry blonde partner have 4 kids - 3 of whom are redheads.
Myself and my partner are darkhaired, we have one darkhaired child and one bald one...

Just wondering if anyone else has a high number of redheads in their family?

It's unusual to have 100% of your kids being ginger if parents are darkhaired and redheaded right?

(my sister and SIL both refer to their children as ginger so it's not being used an offensive term here)

[goodasitgets]

Don't know if pictures are working now but this is what I have gone from - about 20 years between pics

[TheStripyGruffalo]

alteredimages it's the same here, my husband has olive skin and black hair with brown eyes and all of his family are like that so how we've had red haired children is beyond me. I have the typical skin that goes with red hair but I tan at the drop of a hat, one child has ginger hair and olive skin and the other has ginger hair and milk white skin.

[BetLynchsBeehive]

myotherusername. That reminds me that my mum always insists hair curl can change at puberty too!

[Kaekae]

My mother has almost black hair and green eyes and my dad is mousy hair with blue eyes. My sister has darkish warm red hair, I have very dark auburn hair dark eyelashes and eyebrows and my bother has very dark brown hair. My sisters daughter is ashy blonde and my children are very dark brown with olive skin. My brother is due a baby soon and he is with a natural red head so we will see!

I do hate it when people say people who have ginger hair try to hide it when they dye it....so many people with brown hair etc dye their hair but they never get accused of trying to hide their natural colour!

[myotherusernameisbetter]

All our red heads are blue eyed - in fact all our family have blue eyes with the exception of my DS2 who has eyes of indeterminate colour (blue/grey/green/brown) DH has hazel and DS1 has bright blue with one brown fleck. In my family having blue is boring (though there are loads of different shades) and my mum was desperate to have a grandchild with brown eyes for a wee change :)

[myotherusernameisbetter]

Lweji - I have first hand experience of that. DS1 has always been dark haired. DS2 lost his baby fluff (dark) and became blond which he was all through childhood - proper blond not just fair.

Anyway we were at the optician - it was a new one and DS1 (14 at the time) had already been in a few times doing Contact lens trials. DS2 (13 at the time) was in for an appointment and the optician was enthusing about how much alike they were. I said I didn't see them alike at all. and she said it's because they have the same mop of thick dark hair and I turned to her to say "but DS2 is blond....." and then I looked at him and realise she was right - he was now dark haired and I hadn't even noticed. Went back and looked at his school photo from the previous year and yes, he was blond - maybe not quite so proper blond, but the young man standing before me was a definite brunette. :o

[Chippednailvarnish]

There aren't any blonds in my family, so I think the odds are against it!

[myotherusernameisbetter]

We have the opposite - my mum had dark hair but did have a red haired brother. Of me and my siblings we have 3 red, 3 dark and one blond.

My mum has 12 grandchildren - none of whom are red haired.

She has 6 great grandchildren with only one red head and she has two blond parents. Her mother (grandson's wife) has a brother also with a redhaired child so it could equally have come from her side rather than ours.

[Lweji]

Not necessarily Chipped. I don't think anyone can predict it. Not yet, anyway.

[froggyjump]

My dad is red- headed, and my maternal grandad was too, although my mum isn't. I have brown grey hair and my sister has red, we have both produced children with red haired men, so out of the 4 grandchildren, 2 are red, one brown and 1 blond.

Although my dad is the reddest of his siblings, his sister has strawberry blond hair, and of our generation in that family, 5 out of 11 cousins are red.

[Chippednailvarnish]

So my quarter Chinese blond DS will get darker!

[Lweji]

After double checking, the likeliest reason hair changes colour would be genes turning on and off as we get older. For example, as it happens in puberty.
Sometimes alleles from one parent are silenced. So a dominant gene could be silenced and not show up.
It's a huge field in genetics right now.

[GuiltyPleasure]

I'm strawberry blonde, with the typical skin colour to match & on my maternal side, my uncle & grandmother were also, but my mum had dark brown hair & olive skin. Of my 3 DC's 2 have light brown hair & skin naturally tanned skin (they look like they've permanently been on holiday!) the other one is somewhere in between. I've always been grateful that the DC don't take after me, because I don't have to worry about them burning in the sun (yes they wear sunscreen). Our holiday pictures always make me laugh. 4 beautifully bronzed people & me the freckled lobster coloured interloper!

[Lweji]

My mother also had red hair when young and has the typical red hair skin. But I have always known her with dark hair.

[Chippednailvarnish]

Now I'm v confused.
When I was born I had red hair. DF is Chinese and DM is Irish.
My hair got darker as I got older, but if you look through my hair closely I still have individual hairs that are red well, grey now and thick black "Chinese" hair!

[TwatByName]

No ginger parents on dhs side or mine, we're not ginger, but my db is and one of my DC .
Dc was born with black eyes that turned dark brown and have now changed to exactly same coppery colour as his hair.

[northernsoul78]

I had 1 red haired parent and so does dh. 2 of our 3 are redhaired.

[8misskitty8]

Both myself and my husbands family are all dark haired. Every grandparent/parent/uncle/aunt/cousin etc. on both sides are all dark haired and also blue eyed except one of my cousins who is blond like her married into family father. So considering me and DH both have a parent who is one of 9 siblings you can imagine the massive number involved.

Now to our children. We have a redhead as in proper fiery red colour and a strawberry blond. Both with blue eyes. Tracing family tree back, my greatgranny on my dads side was irish and came to the u.k. in 1890 and she was a redhead , everyone after her was dark and DH also had a greatgranny on his dads side who was a redhead, again everyone after her had dark hair.

So the red gene hung around my family for over 100 years before it decided to return !

[alteredimages]

I am a strawberry blonde and rh negative.

I also have a reddish haired DD despite her father being a brown haired Egyptian. No idea where the blonde/redhead gene on his side came from. DD's eyes are a greenish hazel.

[MummyPig24]

Speaking of "wrong" coloured eyes, my dad has white blonde hair and brown eyes. I haven't seen that combination before.

[MummyPig24]

My great grandmother was a redhead, my grandmother is a redhead, 3 of her 4 children are ginger. My dad being one of them but my brother and are fair, as are my 3 children. But my uncle (the only non ginger one) has a ginger child.

My cousin on my mothers side is ginger too but he seems a random one.

[FortyFacedFuckers]

Both my sister & brother have red hair despite my mum & dad having dark hair, my sister has one child and he has red hair.

[BikeRunSki]

Steff we said Dad's eyes were "cow eyes". I don't think we have Hershey bars in the UK, but dark chocolate (not milk) would be a good comparison.

DM also had the "wrong" colour eyes for her hair (blue/brown), but eyes/hair all sorted out to more usual partnerships amongst my siblings (brown/brown; light brown/hazel; blue/blonde; brown/brown).

[steff13]

my dad was a redhead with dark, dark brown eyes

That's what #2 son looks like. I always say his eyes are the color of a Hershey bar. I don't know if you have Hershey bars in the UK.

My dad and my husband's grandmother both had blue eyes.

[steff13]

My grandmother had red hair, as did my father. My husband's grandmother had red hair. I have my mother's dark brown hair (almost black, a bit warmer than that), olive complexion, and hazel eyes. My husband had dirty blond hair, light complexion, and green eyes. We have three kids - #1 son has my identical coloring, dark hair, and hazel eyes. #2 son has red (orange) hair, lighter skin, and eyes the color of a chocolate bar. The girl one has non-descript, blondish brownish hair, medium skin, and green eyes.