Why non-redhead men get ginger beards

There’s a scientific explanation

(Rex Features)

It’s a riddle that baffles us all, particularly the ginger-bearded men amongst us.

“Why does the tangerine shade of my beard fail to match my shining brunette/blonde locks?”

In other words, why do non-redhead men grow ginger beards?

Well, it’s not because their mother slept with the milkman – although you never know.

According to one Dutch scientist, it’s down to a rare genetic mutation.

Petra Haak-Bloem, a specialist at Erfocentrum, a Dutch information centre for genetics, revealed that a person’s hair colour isn’t dependent on one single gene.

“The same genes can express themselves differently for anyone,” she told Motherboard.

“That allows for lots of possibilities, one of which is that the colour of your head hair differs from the colour of your armpit hair, pubes, or beard.”

As well as inheriting hair colour from their parents, people can also share the same shade as their grandparents or even older ancestors.

It all depends on the combination of genes, Haak-Bloem explained, which can be entirely random.

One gene in particular, MC1R, plays a crucial role in giving people red hair, she noted.

When a person has a ginger beard that doesn’t match the colour of their hair, it’s because they have a mutated version of the MC1R gene.

However, substantial research into the phenomenon is lacking – “you mean that uncovering the origin of red beards is not a scientific priority?” – making it difficult to make any absolute conclusions, Haak-Bloem notes.

Just two per cent of the human population possess the ginger gene; the majority of whom reside in northern Europe, a recent study revealed.

Even fewer will boast the mutated MC1R gene – meaning that those who do have a red beard doesn’t correspond to the hair on their head are a rare breed indeed.