In the last couple of years Prince Harry has had more eyes on him than ever before, and the beaming new dad has been showing the world that red hair can look really good. While Prince Harry has taken some ribbing for his hair over the years , it’s pretty clear that the former Meghan Markle loves him dearly (red hair and all) and everyone is wondering if baby Archie will be a ginger, too. It looks like Harry’s genes are pretty strong. Several media outlets are reporting that baby Archie appears to have reddish hair , but only time will truly tell if that peach fuzz turns into real read hair. Is baby Archie really a readhead?
baby archie red head 0 Motherly Photographs of baby Archie seem to suggest his hair does have a reddish hue, and it is totally possible for a couple to have a redheaded baby even if one of them isn’t a ginger. “Even when we can’t always see red hair, many people still carry the genes,” says Professor Mark Elgar, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Melbourne. “Recessive genes can stay hidden for a long time, which is why brown-eyed parents can have blue eyed child, just as brown-haired parents can have a redheaded baby,” says Professor Elgar. According to Elgar, this is why reports of redheads with blue eyes (like Prince Harry) “going extinct” are exaggerated. “It does not look like the traits will disappear due to dilution of either the redhead or the blue-eyed genes from the human population.”

The ginger genes

So, if the Duchess has the gene for red hair, baby Archie may share Prince Harry’s hair hue. According to USA Today , John H. McDonald, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Delaware put the chances of a redheaded baby for the couple at about 10%. In fact, there’s a chance that any baby—even those with two non-redhead parents—can be a redhead. Recessive genes can pop up seemingly out of nowhere, surprising parents. While the internet is getting very excited about the possibility that baby Archie is a ginger, we know no matter what his hair eventually looks like (he dies;t have a lot of it right now) his mama will love him as much as she loves his father. Here’s to the redheads. ?
[A version of this post was originally published November 5, 2018. It has been updated.]

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