New research into the cause of blonde hair in the Solomon Islands population shows a unique Melanesian genetic variation without any links to European ancestry.
Stanford University's researchers looked at samples from a thousand Solomon Islanders and their results dispell theories of the blonde trait being intoduced from European explorers.
Geneticist, Professor Carlos Bustamante says about thirty per cent of Solomon Islanders carry the recessive gene and about one in ten people actually have blonde hair.
He says the genetic variant is unique to Melanesian people.
"And when we've genotyped them, when we've looked at that change in other human populations, we looked at about a thousand people throughout the world, we only really saw it in Melanesian populations. And we believe it may also be involved in for example blonde hair in the Fijian population."
Professor Bustamante says the genetic variation has no impact on eyesight but does result in slightly lighter skin pigmentation.
