There are several factors that cause the baby’s hair color to change as it grows. Why does this happen? Find out.
It is curious to see that children who are born with brown hair at the age of two already have almost black hair or vice versa. What determines the baby’s hair color? The answer is in genetics, the hair color of the parents or sometimes of grandparents or great-grandparents is responsible. Ultimately it is determined in DNA.
Why do some babies have lighter hair?
Brown, blond, red-haired, black-haired babies … there are countless shades of hair. Hair is colored due to a substance called melanin, which also colors the skin and eyes. The genes will determine the melanin concentration and this will produce hair color.
There are two types of melanin: eumelanins, responsible for dark hair, and pheomelanins, for light hair. According to the concentration levels of each of them, we will have as a result the natural color of the hair.
Babies at birth have a lower concentration of melanotics, but as they grow and are exposed to the sun, the number of melanotics grows and thus the color of the skin and hair is more intense. This also explains why hair color changes as babies grow.
In adulthood, melanin decreases and then the hair begins to be lighter, that is when the gray hair appears, that is, hair without pigment completely white.