Will I Have Ginger Babies? | Ginger Parrot (2024)

FAQs

Will I Have Ginger Babies? | Ginger Parrot? ›

If one parent doesn't carry the ginger gene, then your child will definitely not be ginger, no matter how hard you try (or how ginger one parent is) – both parents must carry it, whether they are redheads themselves or not.

If one parent is redheaded and the other isn't, the chances their child will have red hair is about 50 percent, though the shade of red may vary greatly. Lastly, if both parents are carriers of the gene variant but don't have red hair, the child has about a 1 in 4 chance of having truly red hair.

If both parents passed on a ginger 'infected' hair colour chromosome, the child would be ginger. If one parent passed on a non-ginger chromosome, and the other a ginger chromsome, the child would be non-ginger, since everything other than ginger is dominant over ginger. Ginger is a recessive trait.

The test will scan each parent's DNA for signs of the so-called MC1R gene that causes redheadedness. "Through a simple saliva test to determine deep ancestry, we can … identify whether an individual is a carrier of any of the three common redhead variants in the gene MC1R," said Dr.

So what does that all mean for your chances of having a red-headed child? Since you need two pieces of “red hair” DNA to have red hair, your child will only have red hair if they receive “red hair” DNA from both parents. Even if you don't have red hair, you can still pass on a red hair allele to your child!

Red hair is caused by a mutation in the MC1R gene. It's also a recessive trait, so it takes both parents passing on a mutated version of the MC1R gene to produce a redheaded child. Because it's a recessive trait, red hair can easily skip a generation.

The one that takes precedent is the dominant gene. Red hair is a recessive gene, so your husband has two red hair genes. The only way for your child to have red hair is if you have a recessive red gene (being covered by the dominant brown hair gene) and that is the gene that gets passed onto the baby.

Inheritance of red hair

MC1R is a recessive gene. This means that two copies (one inherited from each parent) are required for the trait to be observed. In this case, two copies of the variant are required for the child to be a redhead.

Their second child has red hair, but both parents have has progenitors with red hair. In a nutshell the answer is yes. Most of us don't know the hair color of every relative. So both parents being blonde, does not show what hair color genes that they have.

Am I still considered a natural ginger even if only when I was a baby? Not anymore than those who were born blonde but darkened over time. My cousin was a ginger til he was in his twenties. He's in his 40's now and has more brown hair (what's left of it) so he's considered a brunette.

Who carries the ginger gene? ›

It had been thought that red hair is controlled by a single gene, called MC1R. The new research sheds light on other genes that are involved. Previous studies had shown that redheads inherit two versions of the MC1R gene that leads to red hair – one from their mum and one from their dad.

According to a twin study, women are more likely than men to have red hair even when the genotype is the same [12].

While dark-haired parents tend to have dark-haired kids, hair color genetics is quite complex. Your hair color depends in part on how many genetic variants you inherit from both of your parents. If you have brown hair, your shade of brown depends on how many light and dark markers you inherit from your mom and dad.

Natural red hair is the rarest hair color in the world. A mere one to two percent of people are born with auburn hair. The prevalence is slightly higher in the northern and western fringes of Europe, especially the British Isles (mainly Ireland and Scotland), than in the rest of the world.

It's a recessive gene

A ginger child can only be born if both parents carry the gene. If one parent doesn't carry the ginger gene, then your child will definitely not be ginger – both parents must carry it, whether they are redheads themselves or not.

If neither parent is a redhead but both carry the gene, there is a 25% chance their child will have red hair and a 75% chance their child will carry the gene themselves. So, that's how two dark-haired parents can end up with a redhead baby. It's only a 1 in 4 odd but it does happen more often than you would think.

Previous studies had shown that redheads inherit two versions of the MC1R gene that leads to red hair – one from their mum and one from their dad. Although almost everyone with red hair has two copies of the red-haired version of MC1R, not everyone carrying two red-haired versions is a redhead.

Less than 2 percent of the world's population has red hair, making it the rarest hair color in the world.