How did evolution create blonde people and why?

Question

How did evolution create blonde people and why?

Answer 1

Blonde haired fair skinned people originate from northern Europe and Scandanavian countries where they have very long cold winters. The Celts from Scotland, Eire(Ireland - Red hair and freckles), the Saxons from France and Anglo from Germany (I think), Nordic from Norway etc.

Spain, southern France, Italy, Greece etc have darker hair and olive skin due to the mediterranean climate.

Answer 2

Another theory has it the other way around. Light skinned people didn't just lose their pigment because they didn't use it, they developed light skin to survive.

Moving inland caused less Vit D to be available in the diet, so their bodies had to manufacture more. Because UV light has to penetrate the skin to allow Vit D synthesis, fair skinned people developed lighter skin to improve their survival.

If you think about it there are plenty of dwellers of cold cloudy places--like Tibet, Mongolia and Alaska where the natives remain dark skinned. Surely there's more to the story than just not getting a tan...

Answer 3

People with blonde hair are European. Europe is cold and cloudy with little sun, which prevented their skin from becoming dark to a crisp -- including their hair.