Why Do Guys Get Red Hair In Their Beards? TikTok Rumors

Starting in 2022, a question started regularly being asked in TikTok videos: Why do men with dark beards start growing red hairs in them? Videos with the purported answer trended for a while, and they still pop up regularly on the social media platform.

We’re sorry to disappoint those who take TikTok posts from random users at face value, but the answer commonly given is flat-out wrong.

Here’s the truth about beards and red hair.

The TikTok “Red Hair” Misinformation

Some TikTok users responded to the question of red hair in dark beards with theories, like “too much sun” or “poor diet.” The sun can, indeed, play a role in lightening dark hair pigments and making red ones easier to see. That’s not the primary reason for red hair appearing in beards, though, and it’s not the “explanation” most often seen on TikTok.

The majority of users were convinced (and tried to convince others) that beard hair coming in contact with female vaginal secretions can be bleached, in the same way that those secretions can stain underwear.

In other words (while avoiding graphic language), the prevailing TikTok answer to the question was that bearded men who provide women with oral stimulation can wind up with some of their beard hairs bleached, turning them red.

That’s not true. Despite how emphatically users describe the supposed chemical reaction in their TikTok content, vaginal secretions aren’t “powerful” enough to affect hair color.

Here’s what’s really going on.

Why Some Men’s Beard Hair May Turn Red

The very wrong TikTok answer can be summed up in two words: oral sex. The real answer also requires two words. One word is genetics, the other is aging.

Hair color is dependent on the amount of melanin the hair contains, and there are two types of melanin. Eumelanin is responsible for black and brown hair, while pheomelanin produces yellow and red hair. The amount of each contained in a person’s hair largely determines the color of their hair.

However, genetics matter as well. Men who have some red hairs in their beards are carriers of a recessive gene known as MC1R, which is associated with red hair. And as they get older, their bodies produce less and less eumelanin, allowing the amount of pheomelanin in their bodies to predominate.

Here’s what happens. Men with the MC1R gene may appear to have dark beards (and dark hair on other parts of their bodies). When they age, though, the presence of more pheomelanin allows some of the hair to show the red color produced by the combined effects of its higher pheomelanin content and the MC1R gene. It has nothing to do with sex, sun, or anything else.

That’s one more reason not to believe everything you see on TikTok!