Cateye and heterochromia
This is my eye. My left eye with a reflection through my balcony French doors, to be precise, and bloodshot because this morning my cat pulled a stunt somewhat like this cartoon. Instead of a baseball bat, it was one of his hind legs that punched me. I’m thankful to still have my eye; he came very close to hitting it directly.
My eyes have a coloring that’s known as central heterochromia, meaning my iris has a circle of a different color around the pupil. In addition to having heterochromial eyes, I also have hair with sectoral heterochromia (I was born with a blonde streak, the rest is dark brown):
I have the Internet to thank for finally being able to put a name to my blonde streak and eyes.
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April 2nd, 2008 at 18:50
Hello
I have sort of similar features, my eyes are brown in the middle with a blue rim around, with the upper side so light that it looks fading. My hair is brown but with golden flashes and, what is oddest, now that I am turning 47 my hair is getting blond spots rather than grey… I look a lot younger, could be taken for 30 y.o. or less. I was told I could have a genetic condition called mosaicism or chimerism (I am currently under test for that), and that could even help me resist infections – in fact I never got any children’s disease. May I ask you if you ever noticed something similar, sorry if I am disturbing you but finding a heterochromic kin is so rare…
Have a nice time.
Simon
April 2nd, 2008 at 19:32
No worries, I know the feeling! I’ve only ever met one other person with heterochromial hair in real life, and that was when I was 7 years old. I had loads of illnesses as a child, so I don’t think I have the heightened resistance to infection. I do wonder what color(s?) my hair is going to turn as it greys…!
May 12th, 2008 at 22:36
You are the only person I have ever come across whose hair is remotely similar to my son’s. He has brown hair with a definite platinum blonde (not white) patch in back. It was present at birth but has grown from the size of a dime to over 2 inches across at age seven. The scalp is pinker in this spot, and I think a bit more sensitive than the rest of his head. He has no other heterochromia irregularities. The UCLA Dermatology staff was stumped and amazed.
Has anyone ever suggested you excise this spot? I am worried that my boy will face this one day.
May 13th, 2008 at 06:44
Goodness no, no one’s ever suggested excision! It doesn’t affect health in any way, it’s just a different hair color (and I too have pinker, more sensitive skin where my blonde hair is). In a way I see it as a gift, to be living proof that differences can live side by side.
Keeping in mind that I’m not a doctor and this is based only on what I’ve read over the years, in the cases where heterochromia is a sign of health problems, it’s just that — a sign, it’s not the cause. Kind of like having freckles is a sign of sensitive skin, but not the cause!
October 4th, 2008 at 17:16
My son’s eyes are like yours — dark blue with a brown center, though the brown center in his eyes is turning more green as he gets older. I think this is about as beautiful as eyes can get. My husband, who has black hair, had a white-blond streak near the back of his head all his life (until he went bald), growing from about a silver dollar shape and size of scalp. For the concerned parent, he is now 59 years old and no sign of problems. Probably a bit of genetic mosaicism. The genetics involved with central heterochromia is something that I have had trouble finding, so if anyone has the answers I would be interested.
April 27th, 2009 at 02:28
i have heterochromia of my eyebrows and eyelashes, my left are light orange/blonde and my right are very dark brown. I was born like this but they have become more contrasting as i got older. My natural hair colour (on my head) is dark red/aurburn.
i only discovered that there was a name for this yesterday! how exciting.
May 2nd, 2009 at 10:29
I too was born with one bleach blonde eyebrow and the other dark brown. I never knew exactly what it was until researching it just now. I’ve had it this way for 19 years and have always loved it. My hair color is also red/auburn. Nice to know I can put a name to it.
May 20th, 2009 at 01:01
I too have central heterochromic eyes. I always just thought my eyes are green, but they’re really greyish blue with a greenish brown middle.
To those of you who mentioned something about mosaicism, or chimerism, and don’tknow much about it, I know just a little bit about it from a genetics class. If I recall correctly, it happens during conception. Two or more sperm fertilize an egg. Or, two eggs are fertilized with two different sperma, and then somewhere in the growth process they fuse together to make one embryo. So people who have this condition could actually be considered TWO people, because they have two complete sets of DNA. Each cell, however, has just one set. This results in patches of cells that have different DNA from their neighbors. In skin, this would result in patches of differently colored skin. That could explain different colored hair. But, it is very rare. Most cases of heterochromia are probably caused by irregularities in the production and control of pigments.
March 20th, 2010 at 23:28
Your eye is beautiful. I will show my eye to you tomorrow!
May 5th, 2010 at 02:16
I have a similar condition except mine is a dime sized black streak with the rest of my hair being blond. Is this the same thing? I too never got chicken pox or mono even though i was exposed to them. This exciting, I never knew there was a name for this!
February 6th, 2011 at 23:05
Amazing picture, what camera did you use when taking this?
I got a really close friend who got kinda the same eyes, now I know what it’s called and I will tell her that.
April 18th, 2011 at 09:32
Wow! What a coincidence!!! I also have approximately the same features! I have blue eyes with a “sunflower” around each of my pupils and a natural blonde streak in my hair! It’s only on one side and hidden beneath the rest of my hair, but it has been going strong since I was born!
July 25th, 2011 at 03:40
i have dark dark green around my iris but all around my pupil is golden brown.. i could never figure out why noone else had my eye color