Genes and Aesthetics

The other day a friend pointed out that I had a noticeable streak of gray in the bun I was wearing.

(This friend is excused from this particular faux pas because the other day some mean asshole douchebag McGee told her she thought she was pregnant. Oh, charming! How delightfully funny, a true comedy of errors! DIE.)

So today in a fit of existential crisis I pulled 7 long, gray hairs out of the back of my dark brown head. They're sitting next to me at my desk tied in a knot, looking up at me pleadingly like abandoned children. I can just hear them sighing "I didn't ask to be born gray!"

The way I see it, this fine foray into premature aging can be due to one of three possibilities:

1. It has been a stressful few months/years.
2. They're all from the same dead follicle I've had since I was a teenager.
3. I did not inherit my mother's magical perpetual youth gene.

I know that at this stage of my life #2 is the best bet, since all the gray hair is concentrated in one spot, but it was still something to muse about. Mainly because I've been reading a lot about genetics lately, and since I'm a huge dork I enjoy applying these ideas in silly situations. According to my mother, my grandfather is the one who carries the magic perpetual youth gene (we'll call it MPY for short). So, since my mother displays the trait for MPY, we know it's X-linked. This gives me a 1 in 4 chance that I have inherited MPY, but it gives my older brothers a 50/50 chance of inheriting it.

I'd say that my 1 in 4 chances are a lot worse -- unless I'm twice as lucky as the guys, I'm going gray by 30 -- but my brothers also have a 50/50 chance of inheriting my grandfather's amazing, never-balding head of hair (also X-linked) or my grandmother's family history of baldies. At least I should have that one in the bag.

Salt and pepper hair can be quite alluring. If not that, I always thought I'd look nice in auburn.

This post brought to you out of a desire to replace crisis with vanity. Mission accomplished?