When you look at the mirror, do you see a blue-eyed reflection? Well, actually, your eyes are not blue, or any other color. They are brown.
The More Melanin You Have, The Darker Your Eye Color
Optometrist Dr. Gary Heiting said that "everyone has melanin in the iris of their eye, and the amount that they have determines their eye colour. There's really only [this] one type of pigment." And yes, that's brown.
Melanin is the pigment hat determines our skin, hair and eye colour. The more melanin we have, the darker our eye color, and the shade you see is actually down to amount of light absorbed by the eye. As the light scatters it reflects at shorter wavelengths, which sit at the blue end of the colour spectrum, accounting for the colour that we see.
If You Think Your Eyes Change Color, You Are Right
Ever notice your eyes changing color? That is because the amount of melanocytes you have is somewhere in the middle, which results to changing amounts of light entering the eye.
"It's an interaction between the amount of melanin and the architecture of the iris itself," added Heiting. "It's a very complex architecture." This part of the eye is therefore unique to most individuals and can act as something like a fingerprint, due to the existence of various textures and patterns.
This would also explain why most babies are born with blue eyes, but as they grow and develop, he melanocytes start to build up and will eventually determine the eye colour that the baby will have for the rest of their life.
People who have naturally high levels of melanin in their skin, eyes and hair live in places where the sun's UV radiation is strong, like Africa. This is a form of natural protection against the sun's harmful rays.
