# Blonde hair, red beard **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 10, 2002, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835 "2002-12-10T20:23:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![satanslawyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@satanslawyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/satanslawyer)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/1 "2002-12-10T20:23:22Z")
What is the cause of this. Could it be the wide mix of Europeon genetics? Or a particular heritage? ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@jacobsta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/2 "2002-12-10T20:55:53Z")
I dunno if this applies for everybody that has this, but I have blonde/light brown hair and a red beard, and I’m German, Irish, and Scottish. I’ve heard, though I have no evidence, that the red beard is a result of my irish heritage. ---
**Author:** ![satanslawyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@satanslawyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/satanslawyer)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/3 "2002-12-10T21:00:29Z")
Sorry, should have mentioned, my heritage is mostly german, with some dutch, swede, and russian. ---
**Author:** ![William\_Ashbless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@William\_Ashbless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/William_Ashbless)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/4 "2002-12-10T21:07:06Z")
My understanding is that my birth parents are Austrian and German (at least in part), and I ended up with brown hair and red beard (hair was quite blonde when I was younger, but that vanished, partly probably because I don’t get outside nearly as much). Go figure. Nobody was as shocked as myself. I’m detecting a German commonality here. How interesting. Never gave it much thought before this. ---
**Author:** ![Siemsi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b19c9b/32.png) [@Siemsi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siemsi)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/5 "2002-12-10T21:10:46Z")
German ancestry here. The men in our families seem to have red-tinged beards as well with blonde hair. Hmmmmm. ---
**Author:** ![TheNerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/6 "2002-12-10T21:22:13Z")
Dunno about the blonde hair part. I’ve got dark brown, nearly black, hair and quite a bit of red in my beard. And yes, German ancestry. As well as Scottish, Irish, and a whole bunch of other. ---
**Author:** ![dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorkusmalorkusmafia/32/7266_2.png) [@dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorkusmalorkusmafia)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/7 "2002-12-10T21:29:04Z")
Both of the men I am dating have blond hair and a red beard. Both hail from a German/English heritage. However, I don’t think they are related. Phew. ---
**Author:** ![William\_Ashbless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@William\_Ashbless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/William_Ashbless)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/8 "2002-12-10T21:30:29Z")
I think we’re ferreting out the culprit here… The German strain seems to be statistically significant. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/9 "2002-12-10T21:35:26Z")
**raises hand** Yup put me down, I have sandy blond hair and quite a red beard. But my roots are Belgian and Polish and a smattering of cunuk… My closest friends still call me _Red Beard_ after the pirate. I’ll never live that down. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/10 "2002-12-10T21:43:41Z")
It works the other way around, as well. Many natural redheads, including those in my family have blond eyebrows, eyelashes and blondish-red facial hair. As far as I know the majority of redheads are Scottish, Irish or Polish(I think I’ve heard the last one being fairly common, anyway). ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/11 "2002-12-10T22:02:47Z")
My ex-boyfriend was Irish/Scottish with very blond hair and a red beard. A classmate of mine, also Irish/Scottish and dark brow hair and a flaming red beard (practically orange). No German in either of them, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![William\_Ashbless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@William\_Ashbless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/William_Ashbless)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/12 "2002-12-10T22:04:29Z")
The waters begin to muddy… ---
**Author:** ![SC\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@SC\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SC_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/13 "2002-12-10T22:22:21Z")
Irish and a touch of French here, and I’ve got medium brown hair, coppery red beard. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/14 "2002-12-10T23:09:02Z")
It is very common to have beard hair of a different color than the head hair, and it is often reddish or blondish on the beard, and darker on top. My head hair is a shade darker than my (pathetic) beard hair. I believe that red hair is very rare in Eastern Europe - except among Jews (who probably lived in Central Europe before going east), and people with reddish hair owe it to Western European Alpine-Celtic genes. At one time the Celts lived in Western Germany, Switzerland, and Austria too. Believe it or not, every once in a while a Mexican kid comes along with red hair and freckles, and those features are attributed to the “Gallegos”, or Celts of Northern Spain. My cousin, who comes from a long line of Mexican ancestors has jet black hair and a blondish-red beard. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/15 "2002-12-10T23:18:40Z")
I have blond hair, but when I was younger, a red beard, as I got older it became more blond. Im not german. ---
**Author:** ![William\_Ashbless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a87d85/32.png) [@William\_Ashbless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/William_Ashbless)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/16 "2002-12-10T23:20:43Z")
Great. My beard _would_ be explained sufficiently by being genetically accosted from _both_ the German and Austrian Celts. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2002, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/17 "2002-12-10T23:45:59Z")
**jacobsta** , the red beard / blond hair combination is typically Scandinavian. The original Celts tended to have brown or black hair. The famous Irish red hair tends to be the result of Vikings raping the Irish lassies. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/18 "2002-12-11T02:03:07Z")
Basic genetics information follows! Every cell in your body except sex cells has a complete set of genetic instructions. But not all genes work in all cells. So the gene for growing hair doesn’t turn on in the cells of the soles of your feet. Another example (involving hair) in my case produces brown hair on most of my head, but certain scalp areas have that gene turned off in the cells that originate there. That means that I am bald except for the sides…'cause the cell’s genes for making hair in the bald area switch off in those bald areas. Note that I could move hunks of scalp from the sides and back and put them in the bald area, and they would grow. Yup…that’s how hair transplants work. There are different genes that control different aspects of hair color, texture (thickness, amount and shape)…but not all work in everyplace you have hair. You might have noticed that the hair on your head is different from hair on your body. Remember that facial hair is a type of sexual hair…like arm pits and nether regions. I have black, blonde, brown, red and (mostly) grey in my beard and mustache. Although I have English, Scotch, and Irish in my family background, there has been so much genetic transfer in the British Isles from within and abroad that I believe that it is impossible to really be very precise in attributing hair color to any particular original group. Sorry if I was a bit lecturey. ---
**Author:** ![Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raymond_luxury_yacht/32/4099_2.png) [@Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raymond_Luxury_Yacht)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/19 "2002-12-11T02:22:48Z")
My father, of Irish descent (100%) has black hair with red facial hair. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835/20 "2002-12-11T04:23:43Z")
I’m German/Irish with hair that was so black at one time, that I was frequently asked if I died it. My beard has red hair in it. I hate it because my beard could be full, but the red hair would match closer to my skin, and make it look like I didn’t have much of a beard. Oh Well. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blonde-hair-red-beard/141835.md?page=2)