Ever wonder why your beard hair is a different color than your head hair? Sure you have, that's why you're reading this!

And if this isn't you, I bet you have a buddy who's beard is a different shade than what he's rockin' up top.

When this happens, it's most often red that sprouts out. Some may refer to it as orange, copper, or ginger, but you get the idea.

To sum it up, this happens due to a mutation in a chromosome involved in producing hair pigment.

Don't worry, it's not dangerous.

In this article we'll break down why this happens. 

Genetics And Hair Color

All of your hair color is genetic, this includes your head hair and beard hair alike. You can thank your ancestors for the color you've been dealt, and the combinations over the years can result in a wide range of color combinations. 

Scalp hair, by default, is white. The specific shade of color of your hair is determined by the amount of melanin in your hair, both head and beard.

Melanin is a type of organically developed pigment, and there are two sorts of melanin:

Eumelanine which infuses hair with brown and black pigmentation. 

Pheomelanine which infuses hair with red and yellow pigmentation.

Science talk is cool and all, but...

What Causes Beard To Be Different Color

As I mentioned above, this happens due to a mutation in a chromosome involved in producing hair pigment. 

That mutation occurs on the MC1R gene on chromosome 16 in the DNA sequence.

This MC1R gene is critical in making a protein involved in the production of the melanin that determines red hair I mentioned above.

Every person inherits two different types of MC1R, one from each parent.

Though If you inherit a mutated version of the gene from BOTH parents, you're likely to have red hair from head to toe. 

But if only one of those MC1R genes is mutated, you may very well end up with red hair in your beard, but not on your head.

So you can thank your parents for this one!

Age

Age can certainly influence hair and beard color, but it doesn't really impact the difference between the head and beard hairs.

Age will primarily just influence it changing color over time to grey and white which is caused by a decrease in Melanin production over time.

What Else Causes Beard Color Change?

Besides your natural pigment, stress and malnutrition can change your hair color. 

Grey coloring of your hairs (head or beard) are directly linked to stress, whereas dull, unhealthy looking hair can be a result of vitamin deficiency.

If you're not eating the best diet regularly, you can choose to supplement with a product like Beard Boost to help keep the health and growth of your beard strong.

Final Thoughts

If you are someone who's beard is a little more red than the rest of your beard, we encourage you to embrace it! 

Be proud of the beard you were blessed with and wear it with pride.

I hope you found this article helpful. If you did, leave a comment below!

Thank you for your support, and know that you can hit us up if you ever need anything.

Live Bearded, Brother!