Why do so many men have red in their beards?

Genetics. Women too find red hairs in their nether regions.

@stanleybmanly But why red? For instance, I’ve never seen a blonde with a black beard, a black-haired person with a blonde beard, etc. But I have see it with red and frequently at that.

I can’t offer a explanation but I can confirm. I have brown hair and a red beard.

@johnpowell Exactly! lol Man, I want someone to be able to explain it to me!

My fathers first name is McLelland if that helps.

And here is a more sciency answer.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/why-do-so-many-men-have-red-beards-but-not-red-hair

It is weird that the recessive gene red would be less obvious on the top of ones head and prevalent on ones body. My dad was brown haired, but more red on his body. I don’t ever remember seeing him with much of a beard, but even his arm hair was reddish. As a girl when I would spend a lot of time in the sun my hair had some strawberry highlights.

Obviously, it’s genetic, but I don’t know if there is a reason why besides mutation and natural selection.

@johnpowell Awesome! Thanks! Interesting. I wish people would research it more, simply because I want to understand why it happens that way. lol

Do you want a theory like people in cold climates are more pale skinned because it let’s them absorb vitamin D more readily? I have my own theory about that, but what I am wondering is if you were looking for some sort of practical explanation for why it might be beneficial?

Oh, and if you want too much info my armpits are red, but my junk is the color of my hair. I am a brown and red ice-cream sandwich..

Well I have red all in my beard and I have black hair. I’m getting grey now too so when I let it grow it is quite a conglomeration. My sisters are both full redheads. I can also confirm the mc1r gene variant.

Probably for the same reason my black cat looks brown in direct sunlight. “Black” hair is often really more like dark mahogany, and as it loses darkness, it appears redder than pure black.

Many men have a beard that doesn’t match their hair color; it’s often lighter. I have dark brown hair everywhere except my face, but my mustache is 3–4 shades slighter with a hint of red, as was my beard until it turned salt-and-pepper. I’ve had grey in my beard for over a decade but not a single grey hair on my head.

@JLeslie More like why it tends to only happen with red. Like I mentioned above, there aren’t usually other variations. A redhead wouldn’t have a black or blonde beard, and a blonde wouldn’t have a black or brown beard, and a brunette wouldn’t have a blonde or black beard – but all of them could have a red beard.

@jerv Yeah, I definitely think that’s right to some degree. But people with really blonde or actual black hair can have purely red beards.

I don’t know why I think it’s so fascinating, but I do.

@DrasticDreamer That’s an interesting observation actually. Although, don’t blondes sometimes have darker body hair than their head? Maybe that’s just sun exposure?

Also, I wonder if the brown hair red body hair combination happens much more often on men than women?

@DrasticDreamer What is red if not strawberry blonde? Then again, I always thought blondes were a little weird. I mean, their eyebrows tend to be darker than head hair, as is the facial hair of the few naturally blonde guys I know.

When I was younger, my hair would have been considered dark brown. My beard was even darker, but still brown. If I spent any time in the sun, both hair and beard would lighten…but only in highlights. Not only would the individual hairs turn blonde, but also red, lighter brown, and yes, even strawberry blonde. From a distance it would look like your typical sun-lightened brown hair, but if one were to look close you could see the individual colors.

Now that my hair has grayed considerably, my beard is very light, almost white. My hair still has some color to it, but the gray is progressing.

Thank him: description

I’m the same with this. You can’t tell from my profile image; because I had my facial hair trimmed to short stubble. But at the moment I have not shaved in about a week its starting to look fairly reddish.

Did a bit of rooting on the web about this, according to the website Motherboard:

“Generally speaking, people inherit hair color not only from their parents, but also from their grandparents and earlier ancestors. So it’s entirely possible that one distant ancestor had a hair color that suddenly appears again though a certain combination of genes…”

I’m amazed at the response here.
I’m a 55 yo male and I never noticed many men have red in their beards. Alas, mine has all gone to gray, but I can’t wait to check the other guys out!
;-)

Both my parents had dark hair, three out of four of my grandparents too, the other, my grandfather on my fathers side was a redhead when younger but darker colored as I remember him.

I have noticed a tinge of red in many beards, including my father and brother. Both had black hair that turned red as it went into their beards but black again toward the chin. Later the black portions turned grey but the red stayed red for a while, until it too greyed out.

When younger I had bright red hair.
As I got older it darkened to brown.
Older still and part of it turned grey, the other part went elsewhere (landfill, birds nests, etc)

Same with the beard.

Now the pubic hair, that is another story; for another time.

@ibstubro Some will just have a little red in their beards, but others will have pure red beards, even when their head hair is very black, blonde or brown. I’m telling you, it’s really fascinating because it never happens in any other variation. Lol It’s strange!

I’ll start watching, @DrasticDreamer.
Odd that I never noticed before.

I also have brown hair and the odd, random red hair in by beard. It’s pretty weird. It’s like there’s a tiny percent of my genetic code that’s a ginger just waiting to burst forth.