People have long been fascinated with eye color; after all, eyes come in a wide range of shades. Exactly what color are your eyes? Blue with brown spots? Green with gray spots? The genetics of eye color is very complicated. All blue eyes are not created equal because eye color is determined by many different gene combinations, as seen in the image below:.
The colored part of the eye is called the iris. The iris has pigmentation that determines the eye color. Irises are classified as being one of six colors: amber, blue, brown, gray, green, hazel, or red. Often confused with hazel eyes, amber eyes tend to be a solid golden or copper color without flecks of blue or green typical of hazel eyes. Children whose eyes change to brown contain high amounts of melanin whereas those whose eyes change to green or hazel contain less.
Babies born of brown eyes, no matter the ethnicity will have this eye colour for their life. This means that the baby is naturally born with higher levels of melanin in their eyes and skin. Unfortunately, those with an Asian, African American, or Hispanic heritage are unlikely to have Hazel eyes due to the large amounts of melanin they are naturally born with.
People of a Caucasian descent may develop hazel eyes as their irises darken with age. Hazel eyes are both complicated and spectacular as there is no one shade of hazel that the eyes come in. The colour is determined by many factors including:. In eyes with lower concentrations of melanin, less light is absorbed, and more is scattered and reflected by the iris. Since light rays with shorter wavelengths blue and green light scatter more easily than light rays with longer wavelengths red light , eyes with less light-absorbing melanin appear green or hazel, and eyes with low concentrations of melanin appear blue.
Also, the distribution of melanin can vary in different parts of the iris, causing hazel eyes to appear light brown near the pupil and more green in the periphery of the iris.
Hazel eye color is both complex and magnificent, since its specific features are determined by many factors:. How the perception of eye color is influenced by lighting and the color of our clothing and surroundings. Just as it takes many strokes of the artist's brush to produce a masterpiece, hazel eyes involve the dynamics of several elements to create the unique work of art that's represented in every hazel eye. If you wear eyeglasses, consider lenses with an anti-reflective coating to eliminate distracting reflections in your glasses and allow others to see the beauty of your hazel eye color.
If your eyes aren't naturally hazel, but you've always wanted them to be, you can achieve your wish with color contact lenses. Color contact lenses are available in many colors, so you can choose from a spectrum that includes every shade from light hazel to dark hazel. But it's not simply a matter of choosing a lens color you like; the natural color of your eyes has a role in determining which lenses will look best.
If you have very light eyes, color contacts with an "enhancement tint" might be a good choice. These lenses have a translucent color that lets some of your natural color show through — to make your light blue eyes a deeper blue, for example. If your eyes are light enough, you might achieve the hazel eye color you want with an enhancement tint. More likely, you'll need lenses with an opaque tint to achieve a hazel eye color.
These lenses are designed to mask your natural eye color with the color you desire. These lenses work well if you have dark brown eyes and want to give them a lighter appearance, including hazel. Remember, hazel contact lenses require a contact lens prescription. So if you don't already wear contacts, you'll need an eye exam and a prescription before getting them — even if you have perfect vision without corrective lenses.
Did having hazel-colored eyes contribute to these celebrities' fame? Genotype-phenotype associations and human eye color.
0コメント