• Question: Ive been born with a mutation of being ginger, how comes :******(

    Asked by adamwaveymoursy to Alex, Amy, Andy, Georgia, Ollie on 17 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Ollie Russell

      Ollie Russell answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Ginger hair is a result of a recessive mutation in the gene that makes hair pigment. This means that you make more of a particular pigment that causes red hair, light skin and lighter eyes.

      Interestingly some studies have shown that people with red hair can take more pain such as electrocution than people with brown hair. I wouldnt recommend trying it though.

    • Photo: Alex Munro

      Alex Munro answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      What’s wrong with ginger hair!!? I like it 🙂

    • Photo: Andy MacLeod

      Andy MacLeod answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      You were lucky! 🙂
      Hi Adam. We all get two copies of each gene, one from our mum and one from dad. For hair colour there are lots of different version. Ollie mentioned that the ginger gene was recssive. That means you need two copies of the ginger gene to have gigner hair, so you get one from each of your parents.

      If both parents are ginger, it’s likely that all of their children will be too (think of the Weasleys in Harry Potter), Sometimes people will carry one ginger gene, and one gene for dark hair. They won’t have ginger hair, but they still have one copy of the ginger gene, and there’s a 50:50 chance of passing it on to their children.

      Do any other people in your family have gigner hair?

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