I was a blonde bairn, becoming a brunette adult, but with a lot of ginger in sideburns, 'tache and beard, and with light brown hair on my arms. My eyes are grey-blue.

Has that combination got a name?

these studies focus on adults. so you're a brunette. as for variation in hair color...one thing at a time i suspect ;-)

My wife wants you to know that my arm hair shimmers gold and red in the sun. Bless her.

...Taken together, these four regions explain approximately 21.9% of the residual variation in hair color (black-blond) after adjusting for the top four principal components of genetic variation. (Conversely, after adjusting for these four regions, the top four principal components of genetic variation explain 2.6% of the residual variation in hair color.)...

I don't get it. The four PCs explain 21.9% but then only 2.6%. Uh?!

In any case they seem to explain way too little - but 22% is a much larger little chunk than 2.6%, that seems nearly irrelevant.

I don't get it. The four PCs explain 21.9% but then only 2.6%. Uh?!


2.6% is stuff they assume is due to population substructure within the sample (a small minority of australians are of predominant italian ancestry which might result in spurious correlations) and what not i think. the 21.6% is for the 4 genes.

Ok, thanks.

So we have about 1/5 - 1/4 of pygmentation apparently explained genetically with this study. Not bad but still a lot to discover.