Writing Tips

Common Genetics: Hair

This is simply a chapter where I will be talking to you about the basics of how people look and what you should consider when making your MC's parents (if biological).

As we all know, and probably hear a lot from family friends, is that we look like our parents, and usually more like one of them.

Why am I talking about this as a tip? Well, I've noted some people do get looks a bit wrong scientifically here on Wattpad and thought it might be good to give a guide on how hair, skin, eyes, height, weight, and other genetics are put together to create a new person.

The first segment is hair. I will make individual chapters for each one since these can be lengthy.

Listed below are the known hair colors in the human race.

Blondes:
Albino
Platinum
Blonde
Dirty Blonde

Brunettes:
Light Brown
Brunette
Dark Brunette
Nearly Black

Black:
Black

Redheads:
Ginger

There's also mixes of these together too. I, for example, am a brunette with the basic brown shade, but I have very dark roots and natural red highlights. Why do I have this combo? Because my mother has super dark hair, my dad is a dirty blonde, and there's a rare redhead gene in my mom's family. All of these things come into play for how a child's hair will look when their hair is fully matured (note that hair at birth is temporary, it can change).

So definitely be wary of naming your character something like Scarlet or Crimson for being a redhead. Their hair is subject to change, especially if both parents are not redheads themselves.

Now, more onto how hair color is determined...

Certain types of hair are dominant over others, and it's generally by their color level. The lighter the color, the less chance it will be selected for the child when the sperm cell and egg merge together (this is where all genetics are determined, if you're not in high school yet or taken biology, this may be confusing). A DNA strand from the nucleus is ripped in half of both of these cells and the two different ones merge together. The genes selected from both are random, and whichever hair color gene is dominant will make the child have the dominant colored hair in life (this stays the same when people dye their hair, just an FYI).

So, when deciding your character's hair color, you should also think about what their parents will look like.

Here, I'll give an example of a character (actually two since she has an identical twin) in a future story of mine:

She is a natural redhead thanks to her mom also being a redhead. Her father is a blond, but directed to be a strawberry blond (blond hair with red highlights generally). These two factors about her parents make her a great candidate to be a redhead.

Another example that shows a recessive beating a dominant gene, is also considered here.

The main in my paranormal book, Nic, is a brunette. Her mother is a brunette, but her dad has black hair. To make it more probable that she got brown hair, I make it so her father's mother was a brunette before it turned gray with age.

Formula used to get a brunette from a brunette parent and black haired parent: (B: black. b: brown)
Bb x bb = 1. Bb 2. bb 3. bB and 4. bb

This formula gives you four outcomes since every person has two hair color traits. Since "bb" is a 50% result, same as "Bb", it will pop up as a visible hair color.

It's basic math and equations. Here's a list of "codes" you can use to determine what your character's hair color will be by parents' hair colors.

Albino: a (always recessive)
Platinum: p (always recessive)
Blonde: l (dominant over a & p only)
Dirty Blonde: d (dominant over a, p, l, & redheads only)
Light Brown: w (dominant over all blondes & redheads)
Brunette: b (dominant over all blondes, redheads & w)
Dark Brunette: t (dominant over all blondes, redheads, w, & b)
Nearly Black: n (dominant over all blondes, redheads, w, b, & t)
Black: k (dominant over all blondes, redheads, & brunettes)
Redhead: (dominant over a, p, & l only)

If it makes things easier, capitalize the letter that's dominant over the other to help you see the outcomes.

I really hope this helps with keeping logic with parent and character looks. I'll cover eyes next on genetics!