Blonde hair colour : classification, characterisation and genetic associations for use in forensic science

The vast variety of normal pigmentation variation is a huge genetic puzzle and hair colour is one part of this puzzle. It is hypothesised that there are genetic variants specifically associated with an objectively defined Blonde phenotype. The first objective of this study was to examine the natural, adult hair colour variation among a population of European ancestry and to evaluate methods for both the measurement and classification of hair colours. The second objective was to characterise the microscopic and chemical features of hair colour in this sample and to determine how they relate to the macroscopic colour. The final objective was to compare genetic results with objectively measured and defined hair colour phenotypes in the search for genetic associations with "blonde‟ hair colour. Having this information will assist in developing forensic predictive tests for physical features