Blonds have more … complex genetics

You might think the only thing to say about blonds is that they’re dumb and have more fun but they’re more complex than that.

Blonds are more rare than other hair colours. Picture: iStock.

Blonds are more complex than anyone realised. Scientists have unravelled the mystery of hair colour, finding that blond hair needs 200 genes to create it, compared with 60 for brown locks and a handful for most redheads.

The finding emerged from studying the DNA of 39,397 blond men and women — probably the biggest blond sample science has considered. Their genes were compared with those of 15,731 redheads — also a record — and 283,930 people with brown or black hair.

“Blond hair is associated with over 200 genetic variants,” said the researchers, led by the Medical Research Council’s human genetics unit at Edinburgh University.

This may explain why true blonds are rare. Such hair is found on only 9.9 per cent of men and 12.7 per cent of women, because it relies on many gene variants to combine in the right way.

The study, relevant only to white people of European descent, also showed that red hair was linked to one main gene, MC1R, modified by several others.

It had been thought that the genetics of blond hair was relatively simple, depending on fewer than a dozen genes.

Scientists have suggested that blondness originated in tribes living in the steppes of northern Europe, whose hunting lifestyle meant many men died young, leaving survivors with a surplus of women — a situation where blondes were favoured.

The Times