How Many Genes Are Involved with "Hair"?

porajj

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My reason for posting this is to try and attempt to find out who's side of the family I inherited my hairline from.

Im 20, have baby fine hair, and a receeding hairline. When I was born, I was born bald and a lot of my baby pictures where I was starting to grow hair frightenly resemble the exact hairline I have now (little more receeding on the right side than the left). In general, it was no surprise I was going to lose hair.

Anyways, I was talking to my mother today about my grandparents and their hair. My grandfather on my mums side had a full head of hair until 27 or so when he went to WWII. When he got back, he was completly bald. My mum mentioned that my hair is the exact color of her mother's hair but also has the same structure as my own mother's (super fine, wavy). My mum also has a slight receeding hairline but nothing that noticable.

Interestingly enough, she also said that my hair has the same receeding pattern as my father and receeded at the exact same time my father's hair started to receed (hes almost 60 now with the same slightly receeded hairline he had when he was 20).


Ok, enough backstory.... heres my question:

Are there multiple genes that control the overall structure, appearance, and volume of your hair? Is it possible that I could of inherited the pigmentation of my grandmother, the receeding hairline of my father, and the thickness of my mother? Or is there only one main gene that controls all of those factors (ie, all or nothing)???

thanks
 

powersam

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gimme a minute and i'll go ask max next door as it just so happens he is a cutting edge geneticist researching the genes involved with hair. He and his team figured they'd leave cancer and parkinsons for later as they had a big night last night....

ok then, one would assume that it involves many different genes, as it is a common occurence for a child to have the curly hair of the father but the dark hair of the mother.


nb/ genetics is a science with a hugely long way to go as they have barely scratched the surface of genetics, dna etc.
 

abcdefg

Senior Member
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yeah in all honesty it will be hundreds of years before science start using genetics to actually accomplish anything useful. We dont really know if there is anything at work inside genes making them what they are. The body is just insanely complex.
 
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