How Much Do You Know About Hazel Eyes?

Typically, hazel eyes in moderate indoor lighting often appear to have a little more brown than green. Hazel eyes are known for their variability in color, which can shift between brown and green depending on the lighting and surroundings.

-Many eye colors can be mixed; just because they are mixed doesn't make them hazel...

2nd is correct.

A lot of eyes have very tiny stripes, specks, and spots of other colors. Many brown eyes have small traces of green, but not enough for them to fall under the category of hazel. These eyes would still look a shade of brown in both in and outdoor lighting.

-This is a very common misconception many people have about hazel eyes- that they are just a lighter brown. This could not be farther from the truth... Light brown eyes are a subcategory of brown, whereas hazel is a completely different color. Amber just means a very light brown/gold. Neither amber nor light brown eyes contain significant amounts of green, which is why they fall under brown and not hazel. Sometimes light brown and amber eyes can be lighter in color than hazel, but this still does not make them the same thing.

-Hazel is a pretty specific shade with a clear definition and fits into the category of brown-green. (:

There are certainly more eye colors than brown, blue, and green-- hazel and grey are the other two main colors that make up the five "base" eye colors, but numerous subcategories exist...including blue-green, greyzel, and "black."

Just because an eye contains several colors, that doesn't make it hazel. Hazel eyes should mostly consist of brown/light brown and green, and have a little orange, yellow/gold, and maybe a grey ring. They should be medium in color-- usually looking pretty dark indoors and pretty light outdoors (if the sun is out). They should change color pretty drastically-- not just slightly. They are neither green nor brown, but a unique blend.

True. This even applies to other mixed color eyes. The brown will virtually always be in the center, sometimes forming a starburst pattern, and it sometimes fades into orange, then yellow, and then green towards the edges. If there is blue or grey in the eye, it will almost always be around the very edges.

This interesting phenomenon suggests that when pigment producing melanocytes are first delivered to an infant human's iris, they are first distributed in the center of the eye and travel outwards, so that the outer portions of the eye contain less melanin (are lighter in color).

Hazel eyes are not the MOST common, but they're definitely not rare either.

For some reason, hazel eyes are most common in people of these regions or with this type of ancestry. One theory is that the groups listed are very mixed-- they have European, African, and Asian roots and so ''in-between'' colors like hazel are common because these people carry so many mixed genes, including those for blue, green, brown, etc. eyes whereas people of "pure" ancestry have a more limited gene pool and are just likely to inherit either brown or blue eyes depending on where they are from.

All eye colors are recessive to brown.

Hazel and any medium/mixed colors usually have the most patterns, or at least, the most visible patterns. With blue and brown eyes, they are just one solid color, so even if there are multiple layers of brown or blue, you won't be able to see patterns. Hazel, on the other hand, are green, brown, gold, orange, etc. so because each layer is different, you can usually see what each layer is doing (forming a starburst, stripes, spots, flecks, etc.).
(Think of it like this: if you color on a blue canvas with just blue paint, you won't really be able to see much in terms of patterns. Yet, if you have a grey canvas and you use brown, green, yellow/gold and orange paint, the patterns you make will be easy to see.)

Most "white" Americans are mixed- They have Southern, Western, Northern European ancestry, maybe some African blood, and maybe some Native American blood, etc. So brown eyes are more common than blue. In most of Europe, however, blue eyes are the most common.