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Asked by 525nepk48 to Ed, Kerrianne, Nina, Oli, yoyehudi on 6 Nov 2017. This question was also asked by Ayrton.
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Oli Wilson answered on 6 Nov 2017:
Because genetics sometimes plays mean tricks on people like me…
Scientifically, the answer’s all about chemicals. Hair colour is caused by different types of a chemical called melanin: there’s brown eumelanin (brown colour), black eumelanin (black), and pheomelanin (reddish). If you have a bit of brown eumelanin but not much else, you have blonde hair. If you combine that with a bit of pheomelanin, you go more strawberry blonde. People like me, with lots of grey hair, aren’t producing much apart from a little bit of black eumelanin. The less melanin, the more silvery the hair looks – it’s got no colour in it.
The variations in production – like so many things in biology – are controlled by your genes. My mum went grey quite early, and I started when I was in year 12, so I probably got the faulty genes from her. Thanks, Mum..!
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Comments
525nepk48 commented on :
Awh, poor you! This was very helpful and answered my question thanks 🙂
Oli commented on :
To be completely honest, I don’t mind it all that much. I wish I could have had a pound for every time I’ve heard the word ‘distinguished’ though – it seems to be the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind when my hair comes up in conversation!
Anyway, I’m glad the answer was helpful 🙂