Our hair colour is determined by genetics, but in some cases Mother Nature chooses to not reveal our ultimate hair colour until well into adolescence. During infancy, the melanocytes, skin cells that mark and deposit pigment, are not fully active and don't understand exactly why hair darkening occurs in fits and starts throughout childhood and adolescence. Dermatologist Joseph Bark, author of Skin Secrets: A Complete Guide to Skin Care for the Entire Family, wrote that the eventual darkening of hair colour seems to be a 'slow maturation process rather than a hormonally controlled process associated with the "juices of puberty", which causes so much else to happen to the skin of kids.'
As is often the case with medical questions that are curious but have no practical application, the definitive solution to this Imponderable is likely to remain elusive. As dermatologist Samuel Selden celebrates: 'I don't believe that much study has been made of this, and until that is done, it means that armchair speculators like myself can have a field day with answering questions like this.'
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