Human Hair Color Inheritance

Ruth hated her human hair color. Though she was sometimes nicknamed the red-head, she was far from having beautiful locks of red hair. Her orange tinged hair was a heavy mix of brown and orange, which created, at least in Ruth's opinion a very ugly human hair color, to say the least. Every time Ruth went to the mirror to comb her hair she got frustrated all over again.

Why is my Human Hair Color so ugly, Ruth once complained to her mother. "You don't like your human hair color?" Ruth's mother asked questioningly. "It's a family inheritance, which has stayed in the family for quite a few generations. It is a special family hallmark. I have that Human Hair Color." Ruth looked up as she examined her mother's hair. Her mother's hair was always combed so neatly Ruth had never even noticed her mother's human hair color. Indeed, it was the same human hair color as hers. But what did inheritance mean? Ruth's mother continued, "my mother had the same human hair color." Ruth tried to picture her Grandmother's human hair color. "No," she thought to herself. "Grandma's human hair color is gray, not red brown. Her human hair color is even uglier." She still did not understand what inheritance meant. But Ruth's mother was not finished talking. "Of course Grandma's Human hair color is not our color anymore. Grandma's hair is turning gray already. All Human hair color turns gray when a person gets old. Your human hair color will also be gray one day, g-d willing.

"Really?" Ruth asked looking at her mother surprised. Her human hair color might have been ugly but gray was much more ugly.

"Yes, hopefully you will live to a ripe old age and your hair will turn gray. We call it old and gray."

"Is that also an inheritance?" Ruth asked.

Ruth's mother laughed. "Well none of this is really called inheritance. Inheritance is really when someone passes his worldly possessions down to his children and relatives after he has laughed the world and can no longer enjoy his physical possessions. The inheritance that I am talking about is an inheritance parents give children even before they are born. Parents pass down their own genes to their children and that gives them certain character traits and certain characteristics such as their height, their metabolism and their human hair color. Sometimes it is very clear that a child got his human hair color such as in our case. Other time it doesn't come directly from the parent but from a few generations back. Then it is harder to see how it is an inheritance. How early a person turns gray is also a genetic inheritance. In our family people tend to get gray very young. But that doesn't mean for certain that any one of us will turn gray young. We don't know which inheritances we receive from our parents until we receive them."

Inheritance, gray human hair color this was all to much for little Ruth to comprehend. But the next time Ruth looked in the mirror to comb her hair she appreciated her human hair color much more. She was proud of her inheritance.