Hazel Eye Color: What Causes It And Why?

Causes of hazel eyes are multiple and varying but the most predominant is a mixture of Rayleigh scattering and a moderate amount of melanin within the iris’ anterior border layer. Hazel eyes often appear to dramatically shift in color or even have multiple shades at the same times like Brown, Golden, and even green. The shades usually melt into one another forming a hue of lighter brown with traces of green.

 Eyes are the primary features we notice in a person, sometimes even referred to as “the window to the soul”.  It is quite natural for people to be curious about their eye color and hence while consulting the expert optometrist and ophthalmologists at our health clinics these are some of the most frequent inquiries that are posed to them: 

• “What is the color of my eyes?”

• “Can I wear colored contact lenses?”

• “Can my child have Hazel eye color?”

But there’s the most perplexing eye color which is a conundrum for most people is hazel/honey eyes. with this post, we’ll be re-evaluating what causes hazel eyes, what color they are often mistaken for, who’s more likely to have Hazel eyes and why and some of the personality traits associated with Hazel eyes. People with Hazel eyes often have their eye color described as a light-weight brown, golden, brownish-green, and like its namesake, the color of hazelnut. The issue with explaining the exact color comes from its ability to vary tones depending on the amount of sunlight reflecting off of it. Although hazel eyes appear to contain flickers of blue, green, or amber, these color pigments don’t exist within the human eye leaving it a mystery where the hazel eye color truly comes from. Hazel is in fact a rare eye color with only 5% of the total population blessed with this color, let’s explore what causes them, who can have natural hazel eyes, and why.

 What Causes Hazel Eye Color?

It’s a well-known fact that our eye color is something we genetically inherit from our parents. We are also taught that brown is the most popular eye color within the world and is the most common allele.  The blue eye color gene is recessive and is relatively rare and mostly found within Western countries is similar to hazel eye color. Since Blue eye color is a recessive gene it was previously believed that only two blue-eyed parents could only give birth to blue-eyed babies but this theory has been disproved quite often. Scientifically, it was previously considered that there are only 2 genes that determined your eye color, but recent studies have shown that there are up to 16 genes that can determine an individual’s eye colour.

Although making up an outsized portion of how we will determine a child’s eye color, there are many factors aside from genetics that require to be taken into consideration. Many children are born with blue eyes and with age, their eyes begin to vary in color gradually developing into a shade of green, brown, or hazel. This usually occurs due to an increase in melanin levels or sunlight exposure.

Some people’s eye color changes over time, that’s because as babies some people don’t have the complete amount of melanin present in them. This suggests that as we get older, more melanin may accumulate in our iris causing them to vary in color. Children whose eye color changes to brown contain high amounts of melanin whereas those whose eye color changes to green or hazel contain a relatively less amount of melanin.

Babies born with brown eyes regardless of ethnicity will have this eye colour for his or her life. This suggests that the baby is of course born with higher levels of melanin in their eyes and skin.

Medical Advantages of Having Hazel Eye Colour

As each eye is unique in its color just like the tissue surrounding the eye called the Iris, similarly, each color has its own medical advantages and disadvantages. The varying amount of melanin controls the color of the eyes as but also has its own role to play in natural selection. People with Hazel color eyes are less likely to have nerve damage due to environmental noise. With pros however come cons, people with Hazel eyes are more susceptible to behavioural issues and anxiety disorders (Visit our site for online anxiety counseling).

Ethnicity And Hazel Eyes

Unfortunately, those with an Asian, African American or Hispanic heritage are unlikely to possess Hazel eyes thanks to the massive amounts of melanin they’re naturally born with. People of Caucasian descent may develop hazel eyes as their irises darken with age.

Factors Deciding Hazel Eye Colours

Hazel eyes are both complicated and spectacular as there’s no particular shade of hazel that the eyes. The color is decided by many factors including:

– The quantity of melanin within the iris

– The distribution of melanin within the iris

– How the sunshine scatters within the iris and pigmented molecules affect the color

– And the way the perception of the iris color contrast to our surroundings.

Much like everything, hazel eyes depend upon a spread of both internal and external elements which makes every hazel eye unique.

Celebrities With Hazel Eye Color

If you think you’re alone with such a rare eye color, here’s a list of a few celebrities with Hazel eye color 

David Beckham

Kelly Clarkson

Angelina Jolie

Jeremy Renner

Personality Traits Associated With Hazel Eye Color

Each eye color has certain personality traits associated with them. Recent studies have reiterated the fact that the color of our eyes can reveal a lot about their personality their way of dealing with other people. People with Hazel eyes are more likely to be approachable, elegant, and have a positive outlook on life. With self-determinism and a little bit of mischief at heart.

Do You Want Hazel Eyes?

No matter the natural color of your iris, if you’ve always wanted hazel eyes or maybe a lighter eye color you can achieve this through colored contact lenses. This won’t permanently change the color of your eyes but will give the looks of it for a little time.

Color contact lenses are available in a wide variety of colors so you’re not just limited to hazel but also other uncommon shades like gray eyes, amber eyes, amethyst eyes, and more popular colors of blue, green, and brown.

If you’re eager to determine what color contacts are best fitted to you, search color contact guide Google. Alternatively, to debate with our optometrist what color contacts are right for you, you’ll book a meeting in Eyemantra hospital. Eyemantra has over 11+ years in providing eye treatment to patients. It offers world-class facilities to the patient and provides a conducive environment for quick recovery.

We also offer various services like Retina Surgery, Specs Removal, Lasik Surgery, Squint, Cataract Surgery, Glaucoma Surgery, and much more.