What Color Hair Will My Baby Have If I Have Red Hair And The Daddy Had Blonde Hair?

Your baby could either have red or blonde hair.  Blonde hair is a recessive trait.  That means that if you are giving up a gene for red hair and the daddy is giving up a gene for blonde hair, your red hair gene will win out.  The catch however is that each of you has two hair color chromosomes(that is what carries the codes for the genetic information).  While you might have two chromosomes coding for red hair, you also might have one coding for red hair and one coding for blonde hair (the red always wins out, so your hair is red).  You could give your baby either a red hair chromosome or a blonde hair chromosome.  The baby's daddy has blonde hair, so he has two blonde chromosomes and can only give blonde chromosomes.  If you give a red and he gives a blonde, the baby will be a red-head.  If you, however, give a blonde chromosome and the baby will also get one from the daddy, then your baby will have blonde hair.  So you see, if you are a red-head, your baby's hair color will be determined by you!    Now to make it a little more complicated though, if you are giving up a red chromosome, the baby may not be carrot- topped, but may have a muted rendition of your red mixed with dad's blonde and end up being a strawberry blonde or anything along the red to blonde spectrum, other that a true blonde or a true red-head. (This is the simplified story).

Cheryl BryantBruce, M.D.
Elite Personal Physician Services, Inc.