Can a child's hair color change? Baby hair color: easy to recognize

The baby has not yet had time to be born, and fortune-telling is already beginning in the family, who will the child look like? Yes, and mom thinks: what will my child look like? How genetics affects the appearance and personality of a child and, read on.

How to find out who the child will look like

You have probably imagined the appearance of your child during pregnancy more than once, imagining who the child will look like. Will he be tall like a husband? Will his hair be curly like yours? Or maybe he will inherit grandfather's sense of humor?

Experts say that the 46 human chromosomes contain between 60,000 and 100,000 genes (which make up DNA). The child gets 23 mother's chromosomes and 23 father's. With all sorts of combinations of genes, one parent could theoretically produce 64 trillion different children. This should let you know that it is impossible to predict what a child will look like. The science of genetics is very complex, but you can get at least a brief overview to fuel your imagination.

Do you remember anything about genes and fruit flies from school biology lessons? Back in those days, you were told that a dominant gene drives out a recessive one. Scientists have long known that humans are more complex than Drosophila. But only recently have they begun to realize just how much more difficult it is.

As it turned out, human characteristics are characterized by polygenicity, that is, their formation is influenced by a large number of genes. To complicate the picture even more, imagine that for some characteristics, such as height, weight, and even character (read more in the article), the environment has a big influence on which genes predominate.

What will the child look like: the color of the child's eyes

Who will the child look like: height and weight

For a rough estimate of height, determine the average height of mom and dad. Then add a centimeter for a boy, or subtract a centimeter for a girl. If your height is 158 cm, and your husband's height is 164 cm, then the average height will be 161 cm. Thus, your son's height will be somewhere around 162 cm, and your daughter's height will be 159 cm. Of course, such an unpredictable science as genetics does not tolerate such rough measures. So it's likely that your child will be a head taller than the taller of the two of you, or a head shorter than the shorter one.

Nutrition and health have a very big impact. If your daughter's genes have set her height at 160 cm, then she may not reach this mark due to inadequate nutrition or some external factors that prevented normal development. In another case, it can outgrow the target mark thanks to a balanced diet, which is also proved by recent studies.

But it is impossible to guess whether your child will be thin or full. Genes only approximately characterize the future weight of the child, but do not guarantee it. Of course, when both parents are overweight, the likelihood of such problems in the child is quite high. can be explained by genes, family lifestyle, but rather a combination of both factors.

What will the child look like: hair color

As a rule, dark hair color prevails over light. But as in determining eye color, the hair can take on various shades mixed from the hair color of both parents. It depends on the pigments in your and your husband's hair and how they mix. Parents with a similar hair color may have a child with a slightly different shade of the same color.

Unexpected combinations happen to parents with different hair colors. This happens when the recessive color gene of one parent interacts with the gene of the other parent. So it is possible that a dark-haired partner, but with a recessive white gene, when interacting with another partner's white gene, will have a child with blond hair.

Red hair color is considered dominant in relation to white

Regarding the red hair color, which was previously considered recessive, is now recognized as dominant in relation to white. You may be red and not even know it, because the red tone of your hair is blocked by a stronger brown or black pigment.

Who will the child look like: personality

According to experts, many personal characteristics (for example, reaction to noise) are genetically incorporated in a child from birth. But experts also believe that the environment has a huge impact on the formation of behavior. For example, the desire to take risks can be genetically based (the gene for adventurism was recently discovered), but you can make this restlessness and thirst for adventure manifest itself to a lesser extent, in a different way, or even disappear altogether.

In the same way, creatively, or possessors of absolute pitch (also scientifically proven about the existence of the corresponding genes) will perfectly manifest themselves in an environment conducive to this. But if they have never touched brushes or musical instruments, then the talent will simply disappear. Luckily, this also works the other way around. So, a child without any predisposition will be able, through diligence and work on himself, to develop an ear for music or artistic skill. It is hardly possible to find a trait that cannot be developed by oneself, or for which the gene is completely absent.

Even before the baby is born, future parents like to dream, imagining what the long-awaited baby will be like.

In anticipation of his birth, the family wonders who he will look like? What will be the appearance of the unborn child?

What hair color will my daughter have if her mother is blonde and her father is brunette? Is it possible to have a baby with brown eyes from blue-eyed parents? Let's figure this out.

How to determine the color of a child's hair?

Many parents long before the birth of a child want to know the future color of his hair. Theoretically, this is possible if you know some laws of genetics. And you don't even have to take tests.

The genes of both parents are involved in the process of forming the hair color of the unborn child. Note that any genes, including those responsible for hair pigmentation, can be either dominant or recessive.

In other words, strong or weak. In the process of the birth of a future person, strong dominant genes block the action of weak recessive ones and are passed on to the future generation.

That is, if the father has a dominant hair color gene, then his son or daughter will inherit it.

If both parents have dominant or recessive genes, then the "result" of their "struggle" will be unpredictable. The genes of grandparents can intervene, affecting the outcome. In this case, the hair color of the unborn baby can only be determined with a certain degree of probability.

You can independently determine the factor of dominance or recessiveness of your genes by the following signs.

If you have brown or green eyes, a normal clotting factor, or a tendency to baldness (in men), the genes are dominant.

Recessive genes are characterized by straight hair, lack of skin pigmentation, and Rh negative blood.

Remember that genetics is not mathematics. It does not give exact answers to questions of heredity, but only determines the most likely possibilities. But the genes of relatives of several generations can be included in the process of gene transfer. As a result, quite unexpectedly, a red-haired child is born in the family, who inherited the hair color from some distant relative. Especially often this happens at the birth of the first child.

Also, do not forget that during the first 5 years of a newborn's life, hair color can change more than once. Usually they change in the first or second years of life and are finally formed by the age of 5 years. But during puberty, due to changes in the amount of testosterone in the body of a teenager, hair color can change again.

Therefore, what color the baby’s hair will be can be judged no earlier than 2 years. The instability of hair color in Madentsev is explained by changes in the hormonal background, which determines the distribution of melanin in the hair (the pigment that is responsible for hair color).

Telegony can be attributed to the area of ​​myths - the theory that the gene pool of a woman's first sexual partner affects the hereditary characteristics of her future offspring.

For example, supporters of this concept argue that a child can inherit some of the external signs of the first man of his mother (although he is not the father of the baby). Supporters of telegony are often believers who turn to this theory to justify the inadmissibility of premarital sexual relations. Geneticists consider telegony a superstition.

Hair loss

Within 3-4 months after birth, the baby's hair thins significantly, and some babies become completely bald. Hair loss in the first months of life is a physiological phenomenon and is associated with changes in hormonal levels. Hair loss can occur with different intensity - in some it is almost imperceptible, in others it is zoned (baldness usually occurs in the temporal and occipital areas), in the following - almost all hair can fall out. No active action to strengthen the hair during this period is not necessary. After 6 months, the hair begins to grow back. If even after 6 months there is practically no hair, then it is worth consulting with a pediatrician (to exclude deficiency of vitamins and minerals, hormonal imbalance).

The appearance of bald patches and baldness zones on the back of the head also often worries parents. In most cases, the reason is that the baby rubs these areas of the head on the bed, mechanical friction and leads to hair loss. Baldness in the back of the head is not a sign of rickets if there are no other symptoms (strong sweating, anxiety, pallor and marbling of the skin, fever, decreased muscle tone).

Rare "hairstyle"

Many parents worry when the baby is already 1 year old, and the hair on the head is still very sparse and short. Most often this applies to fair-haired babies. Hair density is also genetically determined, parents can be advised to find their 1 year old baby photos and look at their hairstyle. If it's identical, then there's nothing to worry about. In some children, hair begins to grow actively only by the age of 2, and this does not mean that the child will not have beautiful hair in the future.

It should be noted that the thickness of the hair shaft approaches that of an adult by the age of 5, so before 5 years you should not worry about the lack of thickness of the child's hairstyle.

It is not recommended to stimulate hair growth with folk remedies in a child. This can cause allergic reactions, as well as damage the hair follicles (which are located superficially).

A balanced diet can improve hair growth. Vitamins A, B, E, C, D, trace elements - calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, selenium are responsible for the growth and condition of the hair. Animal proteins, polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6) should be present in the diet of the child and mother (when breastfeeding).

Of course, that baby silky strand that you will lovingly keep in a box along with other family heirlooms is only a distant resemblance to the hair that will appear on your child's head later. But the first hair of a baby needs the same careful care as the hair of an adult.

Where does it all begin?

The first hair appears in the fetus at the end of the third month of intrauterine life, and by about the seventh month, almost the entire body of the baby is covered with fluff. These "intrauterine" hairs (called lanugo) are constantly changing: when new ones appear, the old ones fall out and remain in the amniotic fluid. Since they are very short, thin and, in general, there are very few of them, they do not cause any inconvenience to the child. A full-term baby no longer has lanugo by the time of birth. They remain only in a child born prematurely, and fall out after 2-4 weeks.

A baby can be born with a lot of hair and almost without it. But the child's head is actually not bald at all: if you look closely, we will still see vellus hair.

After the birth of a child, the process of hair change continues, and during the first three months of life, the hair is completely replaced. During this time, a child can lose more than 300 hairs a day. The hair is very fragile and soft to the touch: it is not for nothing that they are called vellus. They are 2-3 times thinner than in adults and do not have follicles. Gradually, they will be replaced first by intermediate (harder), and then by ordinary "adult" hair, but this will not happen very soon - during puberty. The pigmentation of children's hair, eyelashes and eyebrows is unstable, therefore, during the first months and even the first few years of life, the color of a child's hair may change: blond hair may darken, and dark hair may lighten slightly. The appearance of the hair can also change - say, wavy hair becomes straight; often the reason for this is some kind of internal change.

How to care for baby's hair?

1. The baby’s head should be washed with shampoo (with a neutral pH), and not with soap, which has an alkaline pH, and no more than once a week, since even the most gentle shampoos, if used frequently, can cause the protective film to be washed off the scalp, which will lead to drying of the skin.
2. Hair must be thoroughly rinsed so that no shampoo or soap remains on it. If the baby has long hair, you can use special baby rinses. For rinsing, you can also use decoctions of various herbs (chamomile, sage, calendula - anti-inflammatory, succession - anti-allergic, nettle - to strengthen the hair roots). These decoctions can be used without special indications, but with some caution: some herbs can cause allergies in a child.
3. Both the skin and hair of the baby should not be wiped, but blotted with a soft towel or diaper. Intensive wiping can damage the hair and delicate skin of the crumbs.
4. Brush thick and long hair almost dry. To do this, use special combs, preferably made from natural materials (wooden, bone). Natural materials of combs have an antistatic effect, less irritate the skin, hair is less "split".

There is an opinion that at 1 year old the baby needs to be shaved bald. Is it true? - Not! It has been proven that shaving your head baldly does not have any effect on the quality of growth and quantity of hair. But you can damage the skin of the child. If the child has thin and brittle hair, they need to be cut or trimmed by 0.5 cm regularly (every 1-2 months). If the condition of the child's hair is normal, then cutting it in the first year does not make sense. It really becomes necessary to cut the hair if the hair is so long that it forms a bang that obscures the eyes.

Issues you may encounter

White hair. Medical questions. A child from birth to one year. Care and upbringing of a child up to a year: nutrition, illness, development. Baby hair and care. After the birth of a child, the process of changing hair continues, and my hair is blond with red...

baby hair. ... I find it difficult to choose a section. A child from birth to one year. And the question torments me, will my beauty's hair change? Well, that is, color, structure? And is it worth cutting it bald at 1 year old, as our grandmothers did.

Discussion

We didn't cut. Egor was born pitch black (there was even a second of doubt that he was mine! My husband and I were blond and light blond in childhood), then the fluff grew back and became light.

nonsense it's all about shaving!

cutting is nonsense, right, and the hair will change color another 100 times ...

A child from birth to one year. Care and upbringing of a child up to a year: nutrition, illness, development. Moms, tell me, please, until what age is the shape of the child's head formed? Sonny was born with a slightly elongated head shape and a flat nape, but...

Discussion

the older one still has a sloping nape on one side, but it is not noticeable under the hair. I was also very worried, then I reconciled.

We also had a large bevel, it was very noticeable. The doctors advised only to put a pillow on it so that it would not lie on one favorite side all the time. Well, a special pillow on which we refused to sleep. Now we are a year old and everything has evened out by itself, nothing is noticeable

04/21/2009 01:15:16, was

For some reason, my hair color changes to the color of the next child completely involuntarily. When Edik was, I was a blonde, under Ruslana - a brunette, and now I'm blonde again - I have a blonde Yurochka. And every child changes me towards youth...

Discussion

My daughter literally changed a lot in a year. When I was expecting my first child, I didn’t even think that it would be a girl. And she wanted a second child, a boy, although everyone said that she needed a girl ...
And now I feel that the relationship with my daughter is completely different, not the same as with my son. A year after her birth, I realized that I had become softer, somehow "homely" ... I learned to tightly control my emotions (with the elder I could yell and slap on the pope, but now I can't). And now I want a third thematic child. Hope everything works out :)

And my son (1 year 10 months) chooses shoes and makes me put on beautiful rubber bands, hairpins or headbands on my hair. In the past, I had a simpler attitude towards my riches.
And my son made a good housewife out of me, I began to cook with pleasure, and learned to clean the apartment every day.

Sometimes the mother of a newborn baby looks at her child and wonders why his hair is a completely different color than mom and dad. What determines the hair color of a newborn? Is it any wonder that the parents are fair-haired, and the baby was born dark.

Melanin is to blame

Very often, a newborn does not at all correspond to the parents' idea of ​​how he should have been born. For example, instead of curly hair, the baby has a completely bald head, or instead of golden curls, some inexpressive fluff. But most often, babies are born with small dark hair. The hair color of a newborn depends on the amount of melanin pigment, and this is genetically determined, regulated by the endocrine system of the baby and depends on the hormonal background at the time of birth.

Therefore, there is absolutely no reason to worry that the baby's hair color is completely different than that of the parents. As you know, hair in the fetus begins to grow at the end of the first trimester of pregnancy. They appear all over the body, and these vellus hairs are called lanugo. Usually this hair disappears before the end of intrauterine stay and the child is born with only hair on the head, sometimes on the ears. However, it is the physiological status of the fetus, which until birth was completely dependent on the mother, that leads to the formation of such unusual (often black) hair on the head.

The amount, color and structure of the hair of a newborn baby depend on both genetic factors and hormonal levels. The change in the hormonal background that occurs after birth (that is, the baby becomes an independent person, independent of the mother), causes hair loss, with which the baby was born.

Usually, the hairs of a newborn baby fall out at about two to three months. Then the hair of the color that corresponds to the child's genotype begins to grow. Many children skip the full baldness stage as new hair gradually replaces the vellus hair that falls out.

Hair and growing up

Most often, the hair will still undergo some changes as the child grows up. The density, shade, waviness of the hair is fully established only after puberty. Of course, they will not be radically different from the hair that has grown after pumping out the vellus, but they will still change somewhat. Although sometimes after 15 years, teenagers with very blond hair darken and become pronounced brown hair.

Who will the child look like? This often worries future parents. But really, is it possible to know in advance what the baby will look like, who has not even been born yet? With the sex of the child, everything is more or less clear: it depends on which cell of the man fertilized the egg.

A girl or is it a boy?

50% of male gametes contain an X chromosome and the other 50% contain a Y chromosome. If the first half merges with the egg of the future mother, there will be a girl, if the second (Y) - there will be a boy. In nature, it is foreseen that a little more boys are born in the world than girls. Scientists suggest that in this way the balance of women and men is accomplished. The fact is that the male body is less resistant to diseases, any adverse factors immediately affect their body in the womb. This vulnerability of the male half of the population arises from the fact that the "X" chromosome occurs only once in them.

If we talk about the chances of giving birth to a boy or a girl, then you can believe that nutrition, postures and other methods are unlikely to help ... If you really want a child of a certain gender, then you need to go to a geneticist or be ready for artificial insemination.

Many grandmothers are sure that girls will definitely look like dad, and boys like mom. This is only true for boys. The fact is that the male sex inherits only one X chromosome from the mother, and this chromosome contains a very large amount of information about the facial features that naturally belong to the mother. The Y chromosome is not so rich in the genes responsible for appearance.

Girls get one X chromosome from their father and another from their mother, so there is a 50% chance that they are similar to one of their parents.

What color will the baby's eyes be?

Remember biology lessons at school? They talked about recessive and dominant genes. The recessive gene is "weak" and, in the presence of a dominant one, it can easily not manifest itself. The recessive gene is responsible for blue eyes, and the dominant gene is responsible for brown eyes. Therefore, other things being equal, if one of the parents is blue-eyed and the other is brown-eyed, then the child is more likely to have brown eyes. But it’s also impossible to predict which gene each of the parents will pass on to him, because a brown-eyed parent can have a second hidden gene for blue eyes.

If both partners have brown eyes, then with a probability of 75% the baby will have brown eyes. If the husband and wife are blue-eyed, then theoretically children with brown eyes cannot be born to them, because both partners carry the recessive gene. But there are cases when a brown-eyed baby is born to such a couple, why does this happen? It used to be thought that a specific gene was responsible for each feature of appearance, but recently scientists have proven that this is not one gene, but a whole group. Therefore, very rarely, but the genes of blue-eyed partners can be combined so that the baby will get brown eyes.

Despite such difficulties, there are still certain rules:

• parents with very dark eyes - children with blue or gray, most likely, will not be;
• mom and dad have brown, hazel, honey eye color - the probability of blue-eyed babies is extremely small, most likely the color of the parents' eyes is inherited;
• a couple has blue or gray eyes - the children will also be blue or gray-eyed.

What features of appearance usually dominate?

In addition to the color of the eyes of the parents, there is still a lot of interest in the appearance of the unborn baby. If there is some distinctive feature in the family of one of the parents, then most likely the unborn child will also inherit it. These include poor eyesight, strabismus, left-handedness, extra or short fingers - all of these traits are dominant. We offer you a complete list (link opens in a new window).

What will the hair be like?

Blond hair is a recessive trait. If mom and dad are fair-haired, then the baby will be like that too. But if one of the parents has dark hair, then the child inherits just such a color or the average between the shades of the parents. But all Slavs have a distinctive feature: their children are almost always born with blond hair, and only by the age of 12 does the hair acquire the color that will accompany a person all his life until gray hair appears.

Curly hair or straight? Most likely the first one. If mom or dad has curly hair, then the child inherits this feature. In extreme cases, the hair will be at least curly.

High or low heir?

As a rule, the child will grow to an average growth rate between the data of mom and dad. If in childhood the baby was not affected by adverse factors: ecology, diseases, poor nutrition, then sometimes the child can even become taller than his parents.

In general, is it really so important what kind of nose, ears or eyes your child will have. Believe me, as soon as you see him, he will be the most beautiful of all children for you. And it will stay that way for the rest of your life.