Is It Possible To Have Red Hair Even If You’re Not Born With It?

Most redheads have red hair at birth, but did you know it’s possible to become a redhead as you age?  Red hair is carried in our genes. Both parents must carry the gene for a child to have red hair. Two redhead parents have an almost certain chance of having a redhead baby, but when only one parent has red hair or both parents carry the gene and neither has red hair, things change. 

Some babies are born with a full head of hair, some are born with hair that they lose after a few weeks or months, while other babies are born with no hair at all. Babies born to redhead gene-carrying parents can also fall into any of these categories. A baby may be born with blonde or light brown hair that gains its red color over time. 

The truth is: if a baby with brown/blonde locks becomes a redhead, he/she was always a redhead. It just took a while for the red to show up in the baby’s hair. Since red hair is in our DNA, it’s something that is with us from birth, but the pigment in our hair and skin can take time to develop after birth. Similarly, lots of redheads are born with strawberry blonde or light red hair that gets darker as they get older. But, they’re always redheads.

Why is this? It’s due to pigment changes. They are a natural part of aging (at any point in life) and the reason why someone with the redhead gene but with darker locks gets red hair later in life.

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