Hazel Eye Color Facts | Causes And Advantages of Hazel Eyes (2024)

Causes of hazel eyes are multiple and varying but the most predominant is a mixture of Rayleigh scattering and a moderate amount of melanin within the iris’ anterior border layer. Hazel eyes often appear to dramatically shift in color or even have multiple shades at the same times like Brown, Golden, and even green. The shades usually melt into one another forming ahue of lighter brown with traces of green.

Eyes are the primary features we notice in a person, sometimes even referred to as “the window to the soul”. It is quite natural for people to be curious about their eye color and hence while consulting the expert optometrist and ophthalmologists at our health clinics these are some of the most frequent inquiries that are posed to them:

• “What is the color of my eyes?”

• “Can I wear colored contact lenses?”

• “Can my child have Hazel eye color?”

But there’s the most perplexing eye color which is a conundrum for most people is hazel/honey eyes. with this post, we’ll be re-evaluating what causes hazel eyes, what color they are often mistaken for, who’s more likely to have Hazel eyes and why and some of the personality traits associated with Hazel eyes. People with Hazel eyes often have their eye color described as a light-weight brown, golden, brownish-green, and like its namesake, the color of hazelnut. The issue with explaining the exact color comes from its ability to vary tones depending on the amount of sunlight reflecting off of it. Although hazel eyes appear to contain flickers of blue, green, or amber, these color pigments don’t exist within the human eye leaving it a mystery where the hazel eye color truly comes from. Hazel is in fact a rare eye color with only 5% of the total population blessed with this color, let’s explore what causes them, who can have natural hazel eyes, and why.

Contents

  • 1 What Causes Hazel Eye Color?
  • 2 Medical Advantages of Having Hazel Eye Colour
  • 3 Ethnicity And Hazel Eyes
  • 4 Factors Deciding Hazel Eye Colours
  • 5 Celebrities With Hazel Eye Color
  • 6 Personality Traits Associated With Hazel Eye Color
  • 7 Do You Want Hazel Eyes?

What Causes Hazel Eye Color?

It’s a well-known fact that our eye color is something we genetically inherit from our parents. We are also taught that brown is the most popular eye color within the world and is the most common allele. The blue eye color gene is recessive and is relatively rare and mostly found within Western countries is similar to hazel eye color. Since Blue eye color is a recessive gene it was previously believed that only two blue-eyed parents could only give birth to blue-eyed babies but this theory has been disproved quite often. Scientifically, it was previously considered that there are only 2 genes that determined your eye color, but recent studies have shown that there are up to 16 genes that can determine an individual’s eye colour.

Although making up an outsized portion of how we will determine a child’s eye color, there are many factors aside from genetics that require to be taken into consideration. Many children are born with blue eyes and with age, their eyes begin to vary in color gradually developing into a shade of green, brown, or hazel. This usually occurs due to an increase in melanin levels or sunlight exposure.

Some people’s eye color changes over time, that’s because as babies some people don’t have the complete amount of melanin present in them. This suggests that as we get older, more melanin may accumulate in our iris causing them to vary in color. Children whose eye color changes to brown contain high amounts of melanin whereas those whose eye color changes to green or hazel contain a relatively less amount of melanin.

Babies born with brown eyes regardless of ethnicity will have this eye colour for his or her life. This suggests that the baby is of course born with higher levels of melanin in their eyes and skin.

Medical Advantages of Having Hazel Eye Colour

As each eye is unique in its color just like the tissue surrounding the eye called the Iris, similarly, each color has its own medical advantages and disadvantages. The varying amount of melanin controls the color of the eyes as but also has its own role to play in natural selection. People with Hazel color eyes are less likely to have nerve damage due to environmental noise. With pros however come cons, people with Hazel eyes are more susceptible to behavioural issues and anxiety disorders (Visit our site for online anxiety counseling).

Ethnicity And Hazel Eyes

Unfortunately, those with an Asian, African American or Hispanic heritage are unlikely to possess Hazel eyes thanks to the massive amounts of melanin they’re naturally born with. People of Caucasian descent may develop hazel eyes as their irises darken with age.

Factors Deciding Hazel Eye Colours

Hazel eyes are both complicated and spectacular as there’s no particular shade of hazel that the eyes. The color is decided by many factors including:

– The quantity of melanin within the iris

– The distribution of melanin within the iris

– How the sunshine scatters within the iris and pigmented molecules affect the color

– And the way the perception of the iris color contrast to our surroundings.

Much like everything, hazel eyes depend upon a spread of both internal and external elements which makes every hazel eye unique.

Celebrities With Hazel Eye Color

If you think you’re alone with such a rare eye color, here’s a list of a few celebrities with Hazel eye color

David Beckham

Hazel Eye Color Facts | Causes And Advantages of Hazel Eyes (1)

Kelly Clarkson

Hazel Eye Color Facts | Causes And Advantages of Hazel Eyes (2)

Angelina Jolie

Hazel Eye Color Facts | Causes And Advantages of Hazel Eyes (3)

Jeremy Renner

Hazel Eye Color Facts | Causes And Advantages of Hazel Eyes (4)

Personality Traits Associated With Hazel Eye Color

Each eye color has certain personality traits associated with them. Recent studies have reiterated the fact that the color of our eyes can reveal a lot about their personality their way of dealing with other people. People with Hazel eyes are more likely to be approachable, elegant, and have a positive outlook on life. With self-determinism and a little bit of mischief at heart.

Hazel Eye Color Facts | Causes And Advantages of Hazel Eyes (5)

Do You Want Hazel Eyes?

No matter the natural color of your iris, if you’ve always wanted hazel eyes or maybe a lighter eye color you can achieve this through colored contact lenses. This won’t permanently change the color of your eyes but will give the looks of it for a little time.

Color contact lenses are available in a wide variety of colors so you’re not just limited to hazel but also other uncommon shades like gray eyes, amber eyes, amethyst eyes, and more popular colors of blue, green, and brown.

If you’re eager to determine what color contacts are best fitted to you, search color contact guide Google. Alternatively, to debate with our optometrist what color contacts are right for you, you’ll book a meeting in Eyemantra hospital. Eyemantra has over 11+ years in providing eye treatment to patients. It offers world-class facilities to the patient and provides a conducive environment for quick recovery.

We also offer various services like Retina Surgery, Specs Removal, Lasik Surgery, Squint, Cataract Surgery, Glaucoma Surgery, and much more.

Hazel Eye Color Facts | Causes And Advantages of Hazel Eyes (2024)

FAQs

Do hazel eyes have any advantages? ›

Another possible benefit of hazel or brown eyes is that you may be less prone to damage from environmental noise. It is believed that the higher level of melanin may offer protective benefits for the brain's nerves that may experience damage due to noise.

What are the facts about hazel eyes? ›

People with hazel eyes tend to have a moderate amount of melanin in their irises. Specifically, the amount of melanin in a hazel-eyed person is higher than in green eyes and lower than in amber eyes. This moderate amount of melanin results in the unique gold-green colour associated with hazel eyes.

What is special about Hazel? ›

Hazel eyes are thought to possess the most varied and complex eye color. They are a mixture of green, brown, and gold and can appear to change color in different lighting. Hazel eyes are also considered to be very expressive. Hazel eyes are associated with spontaneity, enjoyment, and adventure.

What do hazel eyes mean genetically? ›

Most likely, hazel eyes simply have more melanin than green eyes but less than brown eyes. There are lots of ways to get this level of melanin genetically. It may be that hazel eyes are the result of genes different from GEY and BEY2.

What causes hazel eyes? ›

Hazel eyes happen when your irises have less melanin than someone with brown eyes, but more melanin than someone with blue or green eyes. Hazel eyes are a combination of brown, gold or green. It's not an equal mix.

Are Hazel the prettiest eyes? ›

Hazel Is Considered the Most Attractive Eye Color in Females

The other prettiest eye colors in order of popularity were: Purple – 19.88% Black – 17.70% Blue – 17.39%

What personality do hazel eyes have? ›

Hazel brown or grey-brown eyes are positive folks who are always up for adventures. You are the type who would go with the flow, adapt to different situations easily and always get bored if things become monotonous. You are a brave heart and a very courageous person.

What is the personality of someone with hazel eyes? ›

These people also enjoy taking chances and are bursting with powerful, vivacious energy. People with hazel eyes are also courageous and determined to tackle the challenges that they face.

Who typically has hazel eyes? ›

Hazel. Approximately 5% of the world's population and 18% of people in the U.S. have hazel eyes, which are a mixture of green, orange, and gold. Hazel eyes are more common in North Africa, the Middle East, and Brazil, as well as in people of Spanish heritage.

What nationality has hazel eyes? ›

The way light scatters in hazel irises is a result of Rayleigh scattering, the same optical phenomenon that causes the sky to appear blue. Anyone can be born with hazel eyes, but it's most common in people of Brazilian, Middle Eastern, North African, or Spanish descent.

What race is most likely to have hazel eyes? ›

Around 18% of the US population and 5% of the world population have hazel eyes. Hazel eyes are more common in Spaniards, North Africa, the Middle East, and Brazil.

What ancestry do hazel eyes come from? ›

Although it naturally occurs in all races, hazel eyes are most common in those of Middle Eastern, Brazilian, Spanish, or North African descent. This is a relatively rare eye color, especially among people of African and Asian ancestry. The majority of people born with this eye color probably have some Caucasian roots.

Are hazel eyes desirable? ›

Hazel eyes are second in terms of having the most melanin, however, their eye is most pigmented around the edge of the iris with a combination of gold, brown and green filling the centre. Hazel eyes have also been voted as one of the most attractive eye colours.

Are people with hazel eyes attractive? ›

What is the most attractive eye color? Many surveys have asked this question and the answer is… there's more than one answer. One thing these survey results have in common is that light-colored eyes — green, gray, blue, and hazel — are named as the most attractive eye colors in the world.

Is the rarest eye color hazel? ›

Of those four, green is the rarest. It shows up in about 9% of Americans but only 2% of the world's population. Hazel/amber is the next rarest color after green. Blue is the second most common and brown tops the list, found in 45% of the U.S. population and possibly almost 80% worldwide.

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