# What's up with hazel eyes?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-hazel-eyes/301685>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 29, 2005, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-hazel-eyes/301685 "2005-04-29T07:39:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![nevermore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a587f6/32.png) [@nevermore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevermore)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2005, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-hazel-eyes/301685/21 "2005-05-01T10:39:00Z")

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[QUOTE=Sarah Woodruff]  
I thought that the number or size of melanin cells would determine how much “brown” pigment there would be in the iris, like with skin colour.

[QUOTE]

that may in fact be the case; I really don’t know enough about pigmentation to say. I know melanin production does affect eye color, so some genes involved in it eye pigmentation surely affect at least melanocyte manufacture and/or competence in melanin production, if not also size (I don’t know whether or not that’s a factor). melanin’s just one of many different factors in coloration of the eye, though; it’s the interaction of all these factors that ultimately produce the color you see.

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**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:** [May 1, 2005, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-hazel-eyes/301685/22 "2005-05-01T11:27:01Z")

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One day I was working with my Turkish colleague going over a document, and the afternoon sunlight caught my brown eyes from the side. She said to me, “_Gözlerin bal rengi_” (Your eyes are honey colored.) A nice Turkish sort of expression.

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