• Question: what determines hair colour?

    Asked by mollieet to Mike, Pip, Tianfu, Tim, Tom on 28 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Tom Lister

      Tom Lister answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      It is the types and quantities of melanin pigments produced by the cells at the root of the hair. Melanins are huge complex molecules and can come in different colours. People usually split them into brown-black eumelanins and red-yellow phaeomelanins. White hair has no melanin.

    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 28 Jun 2012:

      It’s determined by genes that are passed down by your parents, but that’s about as much as I know (did’t study biology).

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