question about red heads?

Question

Do both pairents have to pass on a red haired gene for a baby to be red haired?

just cause your pairents dont have red hair doenst mean they are not carrying the gene.

Answer 1

Both parents only need the gene, not the hair color. Red hair is a recessive allele, so other hair colors, such as brown, will dominate. There is no combination of alleles that will give the appearance of red. Blonde and brown, for example, will appear brown but with light streaks that appear chestnut. If one parent has the gene and the other doesn't, then their offspring will receive the gene, but it won't be expressed.

Answer 2

I'd just like to confirm what the earlier posters have said. Since the gene for red hair is recessive, neither mother nor father has to have red hair, even though each has to carry the recessive gene.

For example, my nephew has red hair, but both his parents are blonds. What's more, his paternal grandmother and grandfather have blond and brown hair, respectively. However, my maternal grandmother (and my nephew's great grandmother) had red hair along with two of her five children. Presumably, a similar set of recessive genes has been carried on through my sister-in-law's side of the family since her dad (and my nephew's maternal grandfather) had strawberry blond hair.

Answer 3

Both I and my sister have red hair, but both of my parents were dark haired. It must have been a recessive gene inherited from somewhere in the line. I have heard a true story about a woman who had a baby with African features. Her husband accused her of infidelty, but she traced her lineage and found an ancestor who was dark African quite a few generations back. It was a fluke.

Answer 4

Your parents have recessive genes which they can pass on to their children.

I was born red headed and have a skin cancer type complexion. I don't tan. I burn.

Neither of my parents were red headed. But my maternal grandmother was red headed and fair even though none of her children had red hair. My mother had dark hair and dark eyes. All of her eight siblings had dark hair, only one did not have brown eyes.

My father had light brown hair but he was also the skin cancer type and his father was sandy haired and blue eyed. His mother was dark hair and dark eyed.

So the combining of the recessive genes that both of my parents carried had to produce at least one thin skinned, red headed baby with hazel eyes.

Answer 5

Red hair is a recessive genetic trait so yes but that doesn't mean that the parents have to be redheaded. I'm a redhead and both my parents and all four of my grandparents had dark brown hair; however I had two great grandmothers..one from the maternal side and one from the paternal side who were both redheads.

Answer 6

Depends on what you mean by red. There's orange red, fire red, auburn, etc. If it's one of lighter/brighter ones then it's a recessive gene, so both parents will need to have it somewhere in their lineage.

Answer 7

NO, I have red hair and my dad had black hair nd mom mon had brown. Red hair runs in the family. Several relatives have ged hair.

Answer 8

NOPE my cousin has red hair and her mom has brown (well white, now) and her daddy has brown.

I have always heard our grandmother had red hair and thats where it comes from but I dont know.

Ask in science/biology its fairly simple high school biology and they can explain it!

Answer 9

No, I am a red head, with lots of freckles, and only my father's side had red hair.

Answer 10

Genetics and genealogy are not the same thing. Mayhaps the category you need is Biology. Genealogy is about the research of dead ancestors.