Why Having Blue Eyes With Red Hair Is So Rare

The science behind hair and eye color is as entangled as curly hair after a windstorm. While articles such as one inthe University of Melbourne'sPursuit state that the lowest odds for any hair-eye color combinations is red hair and blue eyes at 0.17%, a scientific article verifying this number is difficult to find.

The science behind hair and eye color is as entangled as curly hair after a windstorm. While articles such as one in the University of Melbourne's Pursuit state that the lowest odds for any hair-eye color combinations is red hair and blue eyes at 0.17%, a scientific article verifying this number is difficult to find.

In a caucasian Netherlands population, where more redheads can be found for their study, researchers in Twin Research and Human Genetics found that 1.6% had the rare red hair and blue-gray eyes combo. However, the green-hazel eyes and red hair combination was lower at 0.4%, and red hair and brown eyes was the lowest prevalence at 0.3% of the study group. This shakes up the assumption that if both traits are recessive and at low prevalence, they're going to be the rarest in combination. However, further research is necessary because this study was limited by the lack of redheads — even in their 3,500-plus subject pool.

Given that red hair is the default hair color (via Human Mutation), it will be interesting to see what future research reveals about the rarity of red hair and blue eyes — and what other combinations are even rarer.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qL7Up56eZpOkunB9j3FpbGtiZMSpxYyhmK%2Bhnpx6o7jUnmSesZWoeri106Fkq52UYrWitdFmoKxlo6R6s63RnmY%3D

 Share!