Hair colour genetics question

[escondida]

2 white people with natural colour medium brown hair have a child who at 2yo has much darker hair than either parent, almost black, and likely to go even darker. Is this genetically possible? Could all the dark hair genes pile up?

Yes def. Hair colour is inherited on a variety of genes and people with medium brown hair are likely to have a mix of genes causing darker hair and some causing blond. If your child has picked up none of the genes causing blond hair then he could easily be darker. Remember the ancestral type is dark brown/black hair (as is common across the globe) and these genes are dominant over genes for lighter hair.

okay, that's interesting. The same couple also have a redhead & a blonde, but I could understand those!

It is quite surprising that they have children with such an interesting array of hair colour, but due to the chance reshuffling of the genes.

I was born blonde but went darker. Partner was a red head, now grey. Our children are
Brown
Light brown
Red head
Platinum blonde

I am the eldest of four girls and we have the full selection- Mousy, redhead, chesnut brunette and bright blonde! Eyes vary too- hazel blue brown and blue

DPs both have brown hair and DM is blue eyed while DF is brown eyed

I am chestnut brown and my brother white blonde.
My dh has black hair and brown eyes (my eyes are also brown) and dd has strawberry blonde hair and bright blue eyes. (She is only two so things might change)

I have dark brown hair, ex has medium brown hair. DS and DD have kind of in between dirty blonde and mousy brown. not really sure what you would call it but it is much lighter than ours. my dbro had the same colour as a child and now has medium brown hair.

Yeap, sounds like me and my brothers, black hair, red hair and a blond

Yes especially if there is any Celtic in the background of either parent. If there is any Welsh or Irish you can have almost black hair (before it turns grey, in your 20s of course...)

I have dark brown hair... DD's dad has black hair.
Dd is blonde. As in super white blonde.
She's 8 too. I thought it would have gone dark by now but it seems to be staying put

Yup!
We have the full range of all hair colours in our family. It looks odd seeing us all together, blonde, red, black, brown. But it's just the mix of genes from all over the place. My dd2s eyes are different colours that change with her mood - which is like the weather at the moment, being 17 life is tough . Everyone else has the same dark blue eyes.
Both my dad's parents had jet black curly hair, one had dark brown eyes and one had dark blue. According to the experts we should all be dark haired and brown eyed as blonde hair and blues eyes are recessive. I think, apart from my DD, everyone has blue eyes and 'rainbow' hair.

I love a surprise recessive gene coming through the mix. My grandad is Indian and my mum had blonde curls til she was about five when it went dark brown black. My mums complexion is like a china doll, whilst my aunt has the darker colouring and jet black hair.

If there is any Welsh or Irish you can have almost black hair (before it turns grey, in your 20s of course...)
[smug emoticon] I'm 43, have both Welsh and Irish influenced nearly black hair, and don't have any grey at all.

My daughter somehow inherited her dad's white-blond-turned-light-brown hair. Although, come to think of it, it's nearly the same colour as my sister's, so it probably comes from both of us. (If I didn't know better, sometimes I'd suspect she's my sister's daughter. They're a lot alike in other ways as well.)

My hair is dirty blonde / red tinge (although is been dyed since I was a teenager so no one can remember it being anything other than either dark brown or red). DH is very dark brown and hazel eyes.

DD was born has incredibly fair blonde hair and blue eyes!

Turns our both sets of our grandparents had blue eyes. I was pretty fair haired as a child - never quite as blonde as DD; genes can do interesting things. We all assumed her eye colour would change but it hasn't and she's 2.5 now!

Both my parents had fair brown hair.

We are (all full siblings):
Dark blonde
Dark blonde
Dark brown (me)
Chestnutty red
Blonde

It happens. (Irish descent on my mother's side)

I have one child with dark brown hair, one who is very much a red head and one with mousy blonde hair. All 3 same father, same mother so yes it's very possible :)

That array of hair colours would be very common in a family with Irish ancestry. It is perfectly possible.

My family:
dc1 very dark hair at birth, got darker
dc2 (me)platinum blond at birth, went darker to mouse brown (although goes lighter in the sun)
Dc3 ginger and stayed the same.

Dparents: One dark (but not as dark as dc1, blond, but not platinum)

Now my dc all started with fair hair but not as fair as I or dh was. Dd1 went initially very red, then went to mouse brown, similar to me, but with a slight red tint in some lights. Dd2 is still fairer than me, and I think will stay that way-she looks like she has blond highlights, and ds is gradually gowing darker, and I imagine will end up in colouring between me and dh.