A predominant amount of pheomelanin will produce which hair color?

• A. Black Hair
• B. Brown Hair
• C. Red Hair
• D. Blonde Hair

Answer: (C)

Pheomelanin is the pigment that gives red and yellow tones in hair. When this pigment is the dominant pigment, the overall color shifts toward red shades, especially when there isn’t much eumelanin present. Eumelanin, on the other hand, produces black to brown hues, so hair with a lot of eumelanin looks dark. Blonde hair usually has very low pigment overall, often with little eumelanin, so red tones aren’t dominant unless pheomelanin is relatively pronounced. In short, a predominance of pheomelanin leads to red hair because it drives those red-yellow colors, while high eumelanin hides them with darker tones.