Hair‐colour Variation in the United Kingdom*

Abstract

Summary 1. Spectrophotometric curves were obtained for 1000 hair samples of young adult males. The sample was drawn in such a way as to constitute a random sample of England, Scotland and Wales. 2. A number of relatively simple statistical procedures were examined as methods of analysing the distribution of hair shade and hue in this sample. 3. Using these statistics, a study of broad regional differences in hair colour was made. Thanks are due to the Director of the Light Division, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, for permission to use the Hardy Spectrophotometer, and to Prof. L. S. Penrose and Dr N. A. Barnicot for assistance in the preparation of this paper. Acknowledgements are also made to the Director of Personnel Research, War Office, for arranging for the samples to be made available

Critique of the International Agency for Research on Cancer meta-analyses of the association of sunbed use with risk of cutaneous malignant melanoma

“…The reported frequency of red hair in the UK in 1956 was between 5.3% and 7.7%. 29 Such people cannot tan and have an increased for the RR of CMM risk, with respect to sunbed use apparently being statistically significant. With them removed, the statistical significance disappears.…”

Human pigmentation genetics: the difference is only skin deep

“…The Davenports (7) began a description of the inheritance of red hair color, and subsequent studies have investigated large numbers of family groups in an attempt to discover its mode of transmission. The description of red hair is recognized to include the hair colors that grade from very light strawberry blonde through carrot red to dark auburn (69,70) ; and it has also been noted that red hair may be present as beard and axillary hair in combination with scalp hair of another color. Furthermore, many red-haired children become brunettes as they grow older, or at the very least, the color darkens.…”

A Genome Scan for Eye Color in 502 Twin Families: Most Variation is due to a QTL on Chromosome 15q

“…Elaborating the analysis to the full two-locus model including non-additive main effects and interactions did not strengthen the evidence for epistasis. We conclude that most variation in eye color in Europeans is due to polymorphism in OCA2 but that there may be modifiers at several other loci.Skin, hair and eye colors are some of the most obvious forms of human diversity (Sunderland, 1956), yet the complexities of the genetic mechanisms underlying the differences of these pigmentation phenotypes within individuals remain largely unknown. It is expected that a relatively small set of major genes contribute to the color variation of these cutaneous tissues within diverse human populations.…”

“…Skin, hair and eye colors are some of the most obvious forms of human diversity (Sunderland, 1956), yet the complexities of the genetic mechanisms underlying the differences of these pigmentation phenotypes within individuals remain largely unknown. It is expected that a relatively small set of major genes contribute to the color variation of these cutaneous tissues within diverse human populations.…”