Are your eyes beautiful brown? Or brilliant blue? Or a sheen of emerald green? Or maybe a lustrous hazel?

In this blog I’ll be telling you the secret behind the color of your eyes!

What gives color to our eyes?

Inside our eyes is a tissue known as the “iris”. Iris is a curtain like structure, similar to the diaphragm of a camera, that controls the amount of light that enters the eye.

Iris is the structure that determines what color your eyes will be. This color depends upon the amount of “melanin” pigment present in your eyes. Eyes with greater concentration of melanin have a darker color such as brown and eyes with minimum melanin pigment appear blue-grey.

What determines the color of our eyes?

It is genetics! Pure and simple. The eye color of your parents determine your eye colour because you receive a set of genes from them.

A gene is a set of 2 alleles, one from each parent. Which of the two alleles is transmitted to the child is purely random selection. So depending upon the combination of alleles that you inherit from your parents.

What to know what color eyes a baby will have? Try this baby eye-color calculator! Just enter the eye colors of parents to know the prediction about what color the baby’s eyes will be.

What are the different types of eye colors?

1. Brown

This is the most common type of eye color with 75% people worldwide having brown eyes. Although there is a significant variation in the shade of brown. Eye with a deeper shade of brown might appear black, but in reality they are just brown.

2. Blue

Around 8-10% people worldwide have blue eyes. It is the second most common type of eye color after brown.

3. Hazel

People with hazel eyes have a combination of several colors in their iris, including green, brown and amber. 5% of the world’s population has hazel eyes.

4. Amber

Amber is a color closer to a lighter brown with a tint of red to it. 5% people in the world have amber eyes.

5. Grey

Grey eyes have a color similar to cat’s eyes. This color is relatively rare, and a total of 3% people in the world have grey eyes.

6. Green

Only 2% people in the world have an emerald sheen to their eyes. Babies are not really born with green eyes. Babies with blue or brown eyes eventually might grow into the emerald green shade to their eyes.

7. Red

Red eyes often result out of a skin disorder resulting from deficient melanin production in the body. This condition is known as “albinisim”. Due to absence of melanin in their body, these people have a pale while skin and red eyes.

Since the function of melanin in the iris is to prevent excess light from entering the eyes, the absence of melanin in the eyes makes the person extremely sensitive to light. Unfortunately, these people often have poor vision. This condition is found in less than 1% of the world’s population.

8. Heterochromia

This is a condition in which the two irises are of different colors. Sometimes it can just be a harmless genetic trait. While some other times it may be linked with diseases like Bourneville disease, Bloch-Sulzberger syndrome, and Recklinghausen disease.

Heterochromia is present in less than 1% of the people in the world.

Can eye color be changed?

The answer is No! You can neither choose nor change your eye color. It is a gift of God that you must cherish. Whatever color your eyes are, they are beautiful!

Sometimes the eye color of a baby might change as it grows, usually it gets darker.

Although if you just want to try something for fun, there is an option of colored contact lenses. The lenses are coated with an artificial color that impart a specific color to your eyes when you put them on.

Do remember to take due precautions while using contact lenses and do take them off once the party is over.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop a comment below email me on neha.pednekar1489@gmail.com

I’ll meet you soon in my next blog. Till then take good care of your eyes and stay healthy!