The popular question among parents is which parent does the hair gene come from. The answer is hard to give because our genetics are very complex thus we cannot know for sure which trait we are going to get. Even though some traits are said to be inherited from a mother or father, the exception can always be made.
Parents are expecting a baby and the charm of talking about the baby’s appearance is always present. When it comes to a baby’s look it’s hard to guess what the baby will inherit, but it’s easy to say which chromosome the gene comes from.
What you really need to know is which parent passed on the gene in the first place! This is because chromosomes get mixed up during meiosis. This can make it hard to work out from a genetic test alone where a trait came from.
Sometimes we can use family history, or results from other relatives on tests, to work out roughly where a gene came from. Sometimes comparing parents and offspring also helps us decide how likely a particular inheritance pattern is.
Therefore, let’s see what possible combinations of x and y chromosomes can mix in mom’s belly!
You may have seen a baby with black hair whose parents were blonde. haired. We advise you to look for a possible culprit in the pictures of your grandparents or even great-grandparents. Maybe only then you can know why your baby has totally different hair color from you and your partner.
Your little one probably picked up that gene from that grandmother or great-grandfather who had the same beautiful and thick hair. But this is not the only case.
A normal and reverse combination when the parents are black-haired and the baby is blonde is also represented. Such combinations are not common, but there is always that stray gene that can come through and end up in your baby.
A common combination is that if the parents are black-haired then the baby will be black-haired as well, the same goes for blonde parents. If the mother is blonde and the father is dark-haired, the combination is omnipotent, however, there is always a “but”.
Girls get one x chromosome from each parent, so they can look like dads. While boys get one important x chromosome, from the moms, that determines their physical appearance.
In this case, the dad’s chromosome doesn’t carry the type of gene, unfortunately, so there’s a possibility for the baby boy to look more like his mother than his father.
That’s why there are theories that boys look more like their moms and girls like their dads. But this is not an accepted theory.
This also doesn’t apply to the question, which parent does the hair gene come from. Because in this case, it would mean that boys will inherit mothers’ type of hair and girls’ dad’s, which is also not 100% sure.
It can happen that your baby has some shade between the colors of mom and dad’s hair. It is honestly impossible to predict how the genes will mix and what your baby will look like.
In addition to color, curls are also important for moms and dads. Since curls are a dominant feature, it’s enough for one of the parents to have wavy hair or curls for the baby to inherit it.
Genes know how to play in mom’s belly because the number of combinations is unlimited and no one knows what gene will overpower.
So, look at the pictures of your ancestors, maybe there is a red-haired grandmother or a red-haired grandfather on them, and then imagine your red-haired baby with curls making a mess in your house while growing up. Anything is possible!
What parent determines hair growth?
On the mother’s side, the hereditary component is more dominant than on the father’s side. So, there’s a bigger chance that the child will inherit the mother’s genes for hair growth.
But many studies have also shown that men with bald fathers have an increased risk of developing male pattern baldness themselves, compared to the ones who don’t. This doesn’t mean that if your baby was born with no hair, it will stay bald forever, or it has a tendency to get bald in the future.
However, hair growth depends not only on the genes the child inherited but on the sex of the baby, age, health, and nutrition.
Who do you inherit GREY hair from?
Yes, we are blaming moms and dads as well as our inherited genetics for having grey hair. Both mom and dad have an equal influence on passing on that gene to their child. That gene has its function to regulate and produce melanin which is the pigment that gives color to the hair.
Therefore, grey hair is the result of melanocytes loss. The genes that the baby inherited will determine whether they will have grey hair in the future or not. However, environmental factors like stress are irrelevant.
Besides blaming parents for having grey hair, scientists have discovered the first gene responsible for gray hair. It is associated with lighter-colored and lighter-ten people that tend to have blond hair.
Which parent determines hair color?
The color of the baby’s hair is not inherited from only one parent. It comes from both mom and dad in the form of chromosomes passed down to their little ones.
Genes are made up of DNA contained in 46 chromosomes (23 genes from each parent), which determine the traits a child will have.
These chromosomes contain the genes that “decide” a baby’s physical characteristics. Each parent has two sets of chromosomes, one set they inherited from their parents and the other they received from their own parents.
This means that there are four combinations in which a baby can receive his/her genes. Since hair is determined by many different factors, it’s possible for both parents to pass along similar-looking hair traits to their little one even when only one possesses them!
For example, if you consider these genetic possibilities (mom blonde, dad black) then both blondes and black-haired babies are equally likely to be born.
Summary
After the birth of a newborn, both mom and dad have a tendency to say that the baby looks more like them than the opposite parent. And even before birth, parents wonder how the baby will look like, which genes will be dominant, and among all those questions, which parent does the hair gene come from also arises.
We can’t say it comes from mom or it comes from dad. It actually comes from the parent that has the dominant gene. However, even in those cases, deviations can be made. Whatever is the reason behind why that trait won, it really doesn’t matter as long as your baby is happy and healthy.
