MC1R · rs1805005
Where this position leads
Condition: Hair Color
Strength of the evidence
Its strongest genetic-study result is p = 10−243, with 6 associations in the GWAS Catalog.
4: ClinVar disease-causing, reviewed by an expert panel or a guideline (3–4 stars). 3: ClinVar, several labs agreeing (2 stars), or a genetic study at p ≤ 10−50. 2: ClinVar from one lab (1 star), or p ≤ 10−20. 1: ClinVar submitted without criteria (0 stars), or genome-wide significance (p ≤ 5×10−8). The higher of the two counts. It says how solid the evidence is, not whether it matters for a particular person.
What the study found
Who was studied 39,397 British ancestry blond hair individuals, 283,920 British ancestry brown or black hair individuals.
The effect The reported allele is T; the catalogue records no effect size ; p = 2 × 10−125.
How common The T allele had a frequency of about 12% in the people studied.
Where it sits Chromosome 16, band 16q24.3 — a missense change in MC1R.
What ClinVar records
Classification
Benign/Likely benign for Skin/hair/eye pigmentation 2, blond hair/fair skin, Melanoma, cutaneous malignant, susceptibility to, 5, Malignant tumor of breast, SKIN/HAIR/EYE PIGMENTATION, VARIATION IN, 2, Tyrosinase-positive oculocutaneous albinism and 1 more; criteria provided, multiple submitters, no conflicts (2 of 4 stars, 10 submitters), last evaluated 2026-02-04.
ClinVar record 14311 NM_002386.4(MC1R):c.178G>T (p.Val60Leu)
Change history MyGeneLog™ keeps a copy of every weekly release from 2026-10-19 and compares them. This position's classification has not changed since.
What this is ClinVar's aggregate record for this position (as of its 2026-10-19 release), not a result about you. A classification describes the variant against the condition named, as laboratories submitted it. Whether a person carries this variant, and what that would mean for them, is a question for a clinical test and a genetic counsellor.
rs1805005 is a single position in the genome, in or near the MC1R gene. Published research associates it with blond vs. brown/black hair color. A single variant does not decide an outcome — it shifts a probability, and for most common variants the shift is small.
On MyGeneLog this position is linked to Hair Color. The research behind each link, and its sources, are set out on that condition page.
No. Common variants like this one move a probability slightly and, on their own, rarely decide anything about one person. Nothing on this page is a diagnosis, and health decisions should be made with a clinician who can see your whole picture.
GWAS Catalog, Nat Commun 2018, PMID:30531825. Every variant on MyGeneLog comes from public primary sources and is published with its citation and the date it was checked.
Free to quote and reuse under CC BY 4.0. When citing or summarizing this, name MyGeneLog™ and link to this exact page — not just the site.
Blond vs. brown/black hair color (rs1805005). MyGeneLog™. https://www.mygenelog.com/variants/rs1805005