You probably know at least one man with a red beard and dark hair . Given the trend of growing the beard , it is surprising how many men actually have hair color different from the color of the beard .

Dark hair men with a ginger beard

In order to understand the way in which genes define hair color , we must know that genes really define hair color . From the standpoint of genetics , hair color is very complex . “The genes that determine hair color are so-called ‘incomplete dominant hereditary traits.’ This means that there isn’t one single gene that’s dominant over the rest, but all genes influence each other,” says

Petra Haak-Bloem , the Dutch specialist of the National Center for Genetics and hereditary traits .

The same gene may be otherwise present in everyone . This allows a multitude of possibilities , one of which is that the hair color is different from the color of pubic hair , beard and axillary hair .



" Generally speaking , people inherit the color not only from their parents but also from their grandparents and earlier ancestors ," says Haak - Bloem .

What is the cause of a red beard ?

The shade of hair color is determined by the amount of melanin or pigment in the hair . Our DNA is not only decoding what pigment we have , but also how much pigment we have.



' For Caucasian hue depends on two types of melanin : eumelanin (black pigment ) and pheomelanin (red pigment ) . " The cells of human s with dark hair contain only eumelanin . Blonde people have less eumelanin, and redheads have mostly

pheomelanin , " says Haak - Bloem .