Stupid Question About Hair & Eye Color

This is probably a stupid question but here it goes anyway.

Why do people have different color hair & eyes? And i know its because of their genes ... but why are there different genes in the first place?

I understand that skin color is related to how much direct sunlight there is.

But i have never heard an explanation of why people have different eye colors... do certain color eyes have better vision? can certain eye colors see better in the dark? in the light? sharper vision? There has to be a reason, right?

And what about hair color? This one makes no sense. Hair isn't really important. Perhaps hair works are a mating thing...like different color birds. does your hair color have anything to do with the enviorment? a camoflage? why do people have different color hair? whats the point? is the opposite sex atracted to a certain color hair?

And what the hell is with Freckles ??? I am covered in freckles? why? is it a natural camoflage? I am a spotted man, and i don't know why.

I have red hair, blue eyes and freckles ... my ansestors are North European.
Where did all of these different traits come from? When did we start to see a difference in these traits? Why are northern European people so much different than people that lived in Northern China and Original North American... the simple lattitude of it doesn't explain it. Do any of you have any answers? or theories?

Please Help me.

I dont know why this is under ancient civilizations but I have green eyes and I know that people with blue and green eyes are more sensitive to the sunlight. I dont know why people think its just northern europeans that have different color eyes and hair. All white people share that trait. One reason I can think of that our eyes and hair are different colors are bcause if a disease breaks out them someone with different traits like eye/hair color genes might be able to survive it. Another is diversity. You need diversity

because people where genetically altered by aliens, to look more like the alien species who altered them

Brown eyed people have faster reflexes than blue eyes people, but green eyed people are faster than browns. Blue eyed people are more shy. Ummmm, most psychopaths are green eyed, or so I've been told.

Just read Croats comments VERY true. I have green eyes, and they turn yellow in sunlight.

Hey my eyes turn a little yellow around the edges too. Wait people with green eyes are more likely to be phicopaths? That explains my sister.

[edit on 27-12-2004 by Croat56]

Originally posted by Croat56
Hey my eyes turn a little yellow around the edges too. Wait people with green eyes are more likely to be phicopaths? That explains my sister.

[edit on 27-12-2004 by Croat56]

I'm so glad I dont have a little sister. For me its the entire iris, well most of it, goes yellow, and my eyes start to water.

Hair colour has something to do with bodyheat I think, Blond people usually have slightly lower body temps. If you stuck your head in a freezer for a month, your hair would go blonde or white.

Freckles are just...well.....I dont know.....But I have them too, some on my face, but they aren't really that dramatic. I also have a cluster of 30+ freckles on my left wrist

Wow the entire Iris huh. My eyes started as blue but then around puberty they turned green. Sometimes they switch colors but not to long. Its green most of the time

Wow the entire Iris huh. My eyes started as blue but then around puberty they turned green. Sometimes they switch colors but not to long. Its green most of the time

Originally posted by Croat56
Wow the entire Iris huh. My eyes started as blue but then around puberty they turned green. Sometimes they switch colors but not to long. Its green most of the time

You've got to be kidding me. Your eyes started out blue. So did mine. I also had nordic blond hair before puberty, but now its dark blonde.

Whoa when i was a baby I had blonde hair too. Then at 2 or 3 it switched to black. This is freakin me out.

[edit on 27-12-2004 by Croat56]

Originally posted by Croat56
Whoa when i was a baby I had blonde hair too. Then at 2 or 3 it switched to black. This is freakin me out.

[edit on 27-12-2004 by Croat56]

Well my hair didn't switch black. But this is still very strange. I've got Irish and Viking/English blood. My mum/mom has blue eyes and my dad has brown eyes, and so does his parents. So I should be brown eyed but i'm not

Well both my parents have brown eyes but both me and my sister have green eyes. Only my grandfather had diff color eyes and his were lightblue.
Those genes are something huh.

i read somewhere that green eyes were due to fat deposits in your eye somewhere....... but i could be mistaken

i have red hair, brown eyes and freckles. if you accept the theory modern humans originated in africa and migrated from there, what you start to get is previously isolated communities coming across each other and "mating", and then you get "mutations" which lead to variety in everything from eye color to hair color. this happens over 10's of thousands of years. freckles are just an over reaction of melanin ( everyone has melanin, it determines how dark or light your skin or hair is so the darker your skin or hair the more melanin you have) which causes the melanin in fair skin to over compensate to try and protect the skin causing hyperpigmentation, ( freckles ). Also, blondes and brunettes hair color is determined by the level of melanin. Red hair is derived directly from their genetic information, not melanin. I have read that is why someone who has truly red hair, ( not auburn ) will have a longer time before there hair color changes when they age and then it will turn completley white and not gray like everyone else when melanin production slows down.

Yup - natural selection and reinforced thru local mating. Darker = more melanin and hence better sun protection. Thicker hair for insulation as are larger noses (to insulate and humidify the air). Speed (fast twitch fibers) to hunt and kill prey on open ranges. As people started to travel more, mating outside the groups became common and you get mixing and variation. Eye color probably was more defined at one point due to local mating, but has since been mixed a bit and yes lighter eyes have less melanin and are more sensitive to light - whether that had some natural benefit is now up in the air - enhanced night vision maybe for high latitudes??

Various dominant/recessive genes and their combos are what it's all about. Blue is recessive if I'm not mistaken so it takes two blue genes to get blue whereas blue and green = green.... I'm hazel BTW so I'm a mutt....

There is only one eye color. Brown.
The rest are varying degrees of Brown, including none (Blue)
The other colors are due to refraction of light, from the Iris.
Just like Blue coloring in Birds. It's the play of the light, on the feathers.


It's not always related to amounts of melanin, in the rest of the body.

I have medium/dark complexion..But blue eyes.
I can say that I seem to be more sensitive to light..And need sunglasses more often than my dark eyed friends. Sometimes a bright sunny day, makes me SNEEZE, if I don't pop on the sunglasses.!!


PS:
This was NOT a stupid question!

[edit on 29-12-2004 by spacedoubt]

Mutations of course. The base of evolution.

I'm medium dark...lighter than you would think being half NA and half Italian...my father was Roman Italian....the light skinned, light eye Italians....I have very dark brown eyes with gold flecks in them...but I have night blindness and severe sun sensitivity...something most dark people do not usually get.....

Irish, Scottish, Bristish, native american ancestry here.
Dad was half NA so I'm dark. Dark brown hair, golden brown eyes,
and tanned looking all year round.
I think it's just mutations to the environment that caused all the different skin and eye colors. And the way genes come together to see which one is the dominant makes you the "colors" you are.

I'm gonna go with radagast here....

I can say that I seem to be more sensitive to light..And need sunglasses more often than my dark eyed friends.

You may have large pupils. I have this problem too, and man does a sunny day hurt without shades... For the same reason, I can't wear colored contacts, as the color will overlap my pupil, and I'll see that color haze around my view....

How come my eyes change color from season to season, in the winter my eyes are blue, as blue as you can get, then in the summer they are green. Odd.