Eyes are the window to the soul – I bet you’ve heard that saying before. But it looks like they’re much more than that. Eye color can tell you a lot about a person, including some of their heritage, health risks, certain character traits that might be dominant and even more. When you talk to people, do you look them in the eye? And if you do, is their eye color something that you remember? Does their eye color matter to you? Do you think you make any assumptions about people based solely on their eye color? What if it’s a rare and unusual eye color? Did you know that gray eyes are very rare and usual? Today we’re going to tell you the truth about gray eyes.
Gray Eyes Are Super Rare
Chances are you don’t know a lot of people with gray eyes. Only 1% of the population has gray eyes and even then you basically have to be of European ancestry to have gray eyes. And even within Europe, it’s more likely to be people from Northern and Easters Europe who have gray eyes.
Gray Eyes Are Often Mistaken For Blue
Many people find it hard to tell apart blue from gray at a glance, which is why gray eyes are often mistaken for blue. But they’re actually different. While blue are true to color but differ in shades, gray eyes often have little flecks of gold and brown in them and they can often seem like they’re changing colors like mood rings depending on the lighting and what the person is wearing.
Gray Eyes Confuse Scientists
We generally know that the eye color depends on levels of melanin in the eyes. Essentially the more you have the darker is the pigmentation of your eyes. So brown eyes have a lot of pigmentation and lighter colors like hazel, green and blue have varying amounts but less than brown so when the light hits the eyes it bends in a specific way and produces those shades. When it comes to gray eyes, it is speculated that light gray eyes barely have any pigment in them at all and the dark gray have more pigment in the front layer of the iris which produces the cloudy gray look. It’s also said that a lot of babies are born with gray eyes, and then the pigmentation increases over time and they get their true eye color.
Gray Eyes Need More Protection
As we’ve mentioned the eye color depends on levels of melanin in your eyes, and the more you have the more protected you are from the sun. That’s how it works with our skin and it’s the same with our eyes. Having gray eyes is like having super pale skin, you need to protect it from the sun more, so people with gray eyes are encouraged to wear UV-protected sunglasses more. Gray eyes are also more likely to develop cancer, specifically melanoma of the uvea.
Gray Eyes Are More Sensitive
Because of the low level of pigmentation gray eyes tend to be more sensitive to light. So people with gray eyes are way more likely to squint or find harsh lighting conditions to be very trying. And it goes far beyond discomfort, what people with brown eyes might find “slightly uncomfortable” in terms of lighting, people with gray eyes might find truly painful.
Gray Eyes Myths And Superstitions
There have been many superstitions and myths about gray eyes over the years. Some old folklore tales state that men with gray eyes are way more faithful than others, while women with gray eyes have been described as greedy. People with gray eyes have also been said to have no wit and generally be less intellectual. However, in ancient Greece gray eyes were associated with wisdom. There were even some studies done as recently as the 1990s that stated that people with grey eyes think slower but more strategically.