Hair colour dominant

[Tilpop]

My husband is blonde (darker now but very light as a boy) with green eyes and I'm ginger (more browny red than auburn) with blue eyes.

There is the red head gene on my side of the family but I don't think there is on his. Could our son have ginger hair? I'm not sure which is the dominant colour?

Red is the dominant gene but only where it's in both sides of the family. That could skip a generation. I have red hair. My children don't

Red hair isn’t a dominant gene. It needs to be passed down from both sides.

Both my parents are blonde but my sister and I are both redheads. They both must have had the gene. My DD is also a redhead because I only have redhead genes and my DH has one from his mum. He’s got very dark hair from his dad though and none of his siblings are redhead.

Short answer is yes, red hair can appear even if neither parent has it.

I have two separate relatives with very red headed children where neither parent has red hair nor have any of the grandparents.

Red hair is recessive so you both need the gene for it to show however it doesn't mean all your children if you had more than one would have it if the gene isn't present for them.

Equally just because your husband doesn't think he has the gene in his family doesn't mean he doesn't, it can show up after generations.

My mum and uncle have red hair, none of me, my siblings or cousins do. Both my nieces grandmothers have red hair and her hair is blonde.

Red hair is the most recessive of hair colours so for you to have red hair you inherited the red hair genes from both of your parents. There isn't just one gene for hair colour so the genetics aren't quite as clear cut as for some things like rolling your tongue or the type of ear lobes you have. This means two ginger parents can have a non ginger child. The order of dominance for hair colour is brown blonde ginger so if you inherit the blonde genes from one parent but ginger genes from the other you would have blonde hair. You would still carry the ginger gene, and are equally likely to pass on this gene to your offspring as the blonde genes which is how it can "skip" generations. The hair colour you are born with isn't necessarily the hair colour you will keep. Me and my siblings were born ginger, ginger, brunette and ended up blonde, ginger and blonde.

Red hair is recessive, that means you need to have two copies of the red hair gene for it to show.

Because you have red hair, you must have two copies of the gene. You got one from your mum and one from your dad. You will definitely pass one onto your son.

Because your husband has blonde hair, he definitely does not have two copies of the red hair gene, however it is possible that he has one. If this is the case, then for each child he has, there is a 50% chance that he will pass it on. Because you're definitely passing on a red hair gene, there is then a 50% chance of red hair for each of your children.

However, if he does not have one red hair gene, then he can never pass one on, and your son will only have the one gene from you, therefore no red hair.

As far as I know there is no way of knowing whether your husband is carrying the red hair gene or not unless one of his parents is a redhead, and you've already said that's not the case. Just because he's not aware of any redheads on his side of the family doesn't mean he doesn't carry the gene; because it's recessive it can hide in families for generations. However, he also might not carry the gene and be unable to have red haired children.

Fascinating I never knew this, my daughter is red haired but we are both blonde as is our eldest child.

www.predict-hair.com/

Not sure if this is at all accurate but give it a go? 😅

You can have the red hair gene in a family for generations without anyone having red hair, because it’s recessive.

Because you have red hair, you will definitely pass on the red hair gene to your baby. If your husband has red hair as a recessive gene (which is possible, even if none of his family have red hair) and that recessive gene is the one he passes to your baby, your baby will have red hair. But if he passes the brown hair gene to your baby, your baby will have red hair.

I’ve attached a picture of a punnet square to illustrate. Rr = carries the red haired gene but isn’t red haired, and rr = carries the red haired gene and is red haired. You can see that there’s basically a 50/50 chance that your baby will have red hair if your husband has the red haired gene. If he doesn’t carry that gene, there is no prospect of your baby having red hair.

But if he passes the brown hair gene to your baby, your baby will have red hair.

D’oh! This should say ‘your baby will not have red hair’

No red haired people on my husbands side or my side (parents, grandparents, great grandparents) and dd has bright red hair.

My niece is a redhead despite neither of her parents having red hair and my cousins eldest also has red hair (again, neither parent is a red head)
It seems like this might be a generation of red heads in our family despite there being no redheads for at least 3 generations.
Genetics are weird!

WOW thank you everyone. Amazing the science behind something as simple as hair colour

@Tilpop I find it fascinating too! Eye colour as well..... that's a similar minefield!

I've been hoping for a red haired cold despite no even auburn either side but alas no hidden genes but you might get lucky op!

I have a feeling my boy is going to be strawberry blonde with blue eyes

Please update us when he’s born! Although it might be a few months before his true hair and eye colour are clear ❤️

I have perfectly straight red hair and my partner has curly blonde hair. I think it would be nice if she had curly red hair.

@Superscientist

I have perfectly straight red hair and my partner has curly blonde hair. I think it would be nice if she had curly red hair.

#hairenvy