two 2's = a 3? genetics question.

[Babyfine]

My husband and I both have type 2 hair. Hubbys hair is about 2a and medium to course. Mine is 2a-b and very very fine. By Andre's hair typing I'd be a 2a hubby 2c. Fia's, I'd be a 2b and hubby 2b. Our son (15) has tight ringlets around 3a or even 3b.(very fine) He had fairly straight hair until he hit puberty and then he curled up.
His hair is very big and I think beautiful .It really puffs out in humidity! He used to get frustrated because he couldn't comb it straight down and flat like all the other guys were wearing, flopping in his eyes- it curls up even when it's short, curly bangs!!
My dh's and my hair is straight when short- only showing waves when we get longer. Hubbys curls up on the ends when it's more than shoulder length- while mine never gets past S waves no matter how long.
My brotherdoes have 3a hair- but my mom has wavy hair and my dad has poker straight hair.(well Dad's hair has always been short so who knows?) My other son has 1b hair- very fine. Neither son got my dh's coarser hair. So there are curls in my side I guess- I don't know who. Everyones hair looks fairly straight or wavy to me in my ancestry.
So it is possible to have a curlier haired child than what you both have? Maybe if I went back to great greats I'd find a curly hair?

[Presto]

My parents are maybe 2a and 2b. I am definitely a 3a.

It turns out my mother's father has spirals all over! My grandmother apparently had curl envy and made him keep it close cropped, so we never knew until after she died and he remarried. His new wife loved the curls, and I briefly got to see him with shaggy curly white hair.
It was so pretty! I think he's back to a short hair do again.

Perhaps somebodies father a generation or two back kept short hair but was hiding curls? :D

[Rohele]

I think it's completely possible.

My mom has really curly hair. Her parents didn't, neither did her sisters. Myself and my sister don't either - we are wavy haired though.

My mom's hair seemed to come out of nowhere, and she didn't pass it along. I'm guessing the genes are hiding somewhere, waiting to pop out in a later generation.

[Babyfine]

Well my mom did tell me that her grandfather(my great) had curly red hair.
Her aunt(my great aunt) also had curls but set her hair in big rollers mostly so it was hard to tell.
I guess now that I think of it Lorraine Massey has curls and none of the rest of her family did.
I have gotten comments lately-" Where did your son get such curly hair?"
My brother does have ringlets when his hair grows long but kept short you can't tell.
my ds' hair is still curly when cut fairly short- although it can be cut short enough to not see the curls.
He was also a straighty until about age 13.

[CrystalStar]

Ahhh, well, perhaps the curly gene is recessive, with the straighter gene being dominant. As you have 2 alleles per chromosome, the allele pair making up curly hair could be recessive meaning the dominant straighter gene would overshadow it.

However if both you and your partner had this recessive gene, and the child received a recessive allele from each parent, the result would be a curly haired child!

[Dez]

yes, genes pop up everywhere, i have blue eyes, both my parents have brown. My dad has extremely curly hair as well as my sister, I have medium curly and my mom and other 3 siblings have straight. I'm sure somewhere along your line there are curly genes hiding out.

[Altocumulus]

Me: 2c/3a. Ex-husband: 3c. Our daughter: 1b/1c

Current husband: 3a. Our son: 1b (maybe...hard to say because he keeps it short, but somewhere in the 1 range for sure).

So that, combined with other's examples of straight/wavy haired parents having curly haired children, suggests texture is not a simple Mendelian trait, but is more likely to be a more complex gene/set of genes.

It's an interesting question!

[heidihug]

I have straight brown hair, my husband has wavy auburn hair, and DS22 has tight black curls.

As said above, hair trait genes are incredibly complicated, as compared to, say, eye color.

[Eden Iris]

My mother has 3b/C hair. I don't, and neither do her sisters. Who knows, maybe my girls are carrying a curly time bomb in their eggs.

[Silver & Gold]

My oldest son has very thick, curly hair. My husband and I both have fine hair. My husband's hair is pretty straight and although mine has some wave to it, it can never approach the curl that our son has.

However, my brother has hair just like our son so it is clear where the trait comes from. My mother's hair is poker straight and my father's hair is quite curly although not nearly as thick as my brother's or son's hair.

Genetics is an interesting thing. I see all kinds of traits that skip a generation or seem to move sideways along a family line.

[Amara]

Isn't genetics fun!? You never know how things'll end up.

[rhubarbarin]

Hair type is unpredictable. One of my sisters and I have curly/wurly hair (2c/3a). My dad has 2b hair. My mom has 1b hair, as does my other sister. All her sisters and their mother are 1s - (except her oldest sister who went recently went curly after menopause, but previously was stick straight). Their dad has 3b hair! None of them got his curls, not even waves. I think he is the reason my sister and I are curlies.

One of my cousins got curls too, even though his mom (my mom's sister) and dad have stick straight hair, he is a 3a. All our other cousins have straight hair.

[Babyfine]

Yes, it is interesting- i think hair must be more complicated than eye color, for example.

[Fractalsofhair]

All my cousins and myself have straight hair. My mother and my cousin's mother both have curly hair. My grandmother on my mum's side has wurly hair, that she keeps short and brushes. My grandfather and father both have pretty straight hair, with a hint of a wave. My great great grandfather rocked a fro(Though... He did use a curling iron on it... And in some photos he does have straight hair.)My uncles all have straight hair. My hair, although it is mostly straight, is curly some days! Genetics is interesting, but hair care can have a lot to do with hair type.

[misspriss]

Also, your DS is 15, right? I had 3a hair in high school, now it's more 2b. It was like 1c before puberty.

My mom is 1a, my dad ? (always been too short to tell, but it starts to curl up when it gets long). My older sister, I'd say 1c. Younger sister 3a/b. Me 2b/c. It varies so much!

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[The Drood]

The genetics of the two parents do effect the outcome of the child. However, remember the genetics involved have traits inherited from 200,000 years of Humans (actually remnants from Abiogenesis).

If anyone along that line inherited or mutated the gene for curly hair, it's possible for the new child to display that trait.

This is why people can be staggeringly different aesthetically from their close family members.

[mwedzi]

I think the genetics of hair type and skin color are really complicated. I'm sure it's possible. Well, you know it's possible! :)

[Flynn]

... I don't think it's as simple as you seem to be thinking.

[Babyfine]

Also, your DS is 15, right? I had 3a hair in high school, now it's more 2b. It was like 1c before puberty.

My mom is 1a, my dad ? (always been too short to tell, but it starts to curl up when it gets long). My older sister, I'd say 1c. Younger sister 3a/b. Me 2b/c. It varies so much!
Yes, 15. I, too, had 2c hair in high school-went back to a 2a or even 1C in my 20's.
Now getting a BIT wavier, probably with better care.
Hope my sons's doesn't straighten back out, though.

[Ash]

Genetics is fascinating. :) My dad is about a 3a/b and my mom is a 2a. I think generally curly and wavy hair runs in my family and then there is me with my 1a/b hair.