Journal: News & Comment

Bye bye blonde

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I do not have blonde hair, although I did until I was about five years old. My hair is brown, and even my skin is pretty dark, for a Caucasian. One of my daughters is blonde, at least for now, and also has blue eyes. Some speculate that, because fair hair requires blondness on both sides of a person's family in the grandparents' generation, it will die out within 200 years, with the last stragglers being from Finland, which has the world's highest proportion of the flaxen-headed.

Half of my ancestors (and thus a quarter of my daughters') were from Finland, but not that many were actually blonde. My dad (born in Germany) was -- before he went grey -- and has blue eyes. My wife has blue eyes, dark blonde (or light brown) hair, and the freckled complexion of a redhead. Will any of my descendants, other than my older daughter, have blonde hair? Chances are not. Not that it matters -- if ozone depletion continues, being blonde is probably a disadvantage anyway. Being anything other than black-haired and brown-eyed has always been rare among humans, and it's only becoming more so.

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