Is brown hair really not an actual hair color?

[JAR]

Is brown hair really not an actual hair color?

The reason I ask this is because I was told a while back by my science teacher in 7th grade that brown hair actually isn't a hair color and that brown hair is just a result of a combination of a gene for blond hair and a gene for black hair.

The reason I question this claim is because while there are people in my family with variations on blond,red, dirty blond and brown hair, there aren't any people in my family that I know of who have black hair. My dad's hair is such a dark shade of brown that it looks almost black, but it is brown nevertheless.

[popsy]

From this site, http://www.keratin.com/as/as005.shtml
the following:


"So black hair is the result of a very high production of eumelanin which is very densely packed into the hair fiber. Brown hair comes in various shades and richness of color but basically brown haired people have a somewhat lower density of eumelanin in their hair fiber. The warmer, richer tones of brown hair are due to a greater presence of red - yellow pheomelanin. So the relative quantities of eumelanin versus pheomelanin in brown hair increase the heterogeneity of brown colored hair."

It appears your science teacher was correct.

[UnrepentantSinner]

Actually I'd have to disagree. We don't not consider purple a color because it's a mixture of blue and red. Brown hair results from (as noted by popsy's citation) the presence of both eumelanin and pheomelanin.

It's my understanding that Asians don't have brown hair because of a lack of pheomelanin. I'm too lazy to verify that though.

[Zep]

Axolotls don't have hair.

[UnrepentantSinner]

Originally posted by Zep
Axolotls don't have hair.

And from the pics you've posted... neither do you. ;)

[athon]

I hate the fact that science teachers can teach something that are not required to understand.

Hair colour is similar to eye colour, in that the 'colour' is derived from one or two coding genes that produce a variant of the pigment 'melanin'. A series of other genes - some coding, some non-coding - then control the amount and the placement of the pigment in various cells.

He would have been more correct to have said 'green' in 'green eyes' is not a colour - we don't have a green pigment, but rather it depends on the layer/s of iris tissue in which the melanin is created.

Athon