11 Things That Can Change Your Eye Color

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Published 2024-07-11
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You can dye your hair, you can get a tan, but the color of your eyes is pretty much set in stone - or is it? From weird diseases to temper flare-ups and even iris implants, here are just a few ways that your eye color might not be so permanent after all.

Hosted by: Hank Green (he/him)
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Sources:
docs.google.com/document/d/1-jqYhGCjon2FQPCru0BJ-A…

All Comments (21)
  • @SciShow
    Visit brilliant.org/scishow/ to get started learning STEM for free. The first 200 people will get 20% off their annual premium subscription and a 30-day free trial.
  • @t.b.cont.
    I wonder how many people clicked this hoping to change their eye colour, only to be horrified that it mainly just discusses diseases
  • @CrazyLife2112
    In the final weeks before my mother succumbed to cancer her eyes went from a brownish green to bright newborn blue. I don't know if it was the illness or the chemo that caused it and I don't know exactly when it happened. I just remember talking to her one afternoon and realizing her eyes were the wrong color. It was kind of surreal.
  • @Aeder42
    As an optometrist, yes I was impressed you straight faced Fuchs heterochromic iridocyclitis without skipping a beat
  • My sister had a weird thing where her eyes would shift their colors, like pulling a shade, well into her teens. Her eye colors were blue, green, and brown. One eye would be fully brown and the other part blue and part green, then the brown would start turning blue while the green in her other eye would begin taking up more space. Strangest thing I ever saw. Finally settled on one blue eye and one half green and half brown. I used to check her eyes weekly when we were kids. Absolutely amazing
  • @iquemedia
    I've got one: my eyes went from green to blue because of an acanthamoeba infection. the amoeba eat nerve tissue in your eyes and leave behind so much scar tissue that the eye appears to be blue. most survivors of the infection go on to have blue eyes for the rest of their lives, even if they did not have light/colored eyes before
  • I was hoping you'd go into more detail about the pupil reaction to a knock on the head. Just a tip: If someone you are near bumps their head, have them stare at a bright light source. Put your hand over their eyes while they are still looking at the light with their eyes open. Quickly remove your hand and watch the pupils dilate. If the pupils dilate slowly, it is worth taking a trip to the hospital as this could indicate a concussion. It is not a full proof test and shouldn't be used in place of medical advice; if a severe head knock occurs, it is best to er of the sode of caution. A childhood friend of my sisters got a concussion when they were 11 years old. She wasn't taken to hospital. She was found in a coma the next morning. She eventually died 3 months later. Head trauma is not something to take risks with.
  • Brain surgery also can change your eye color too. A friend had hydrocephalus and had to get a shunt installed so they needed brain surgery for it. She went into the surgery with blue eyes and now she has heterochromia with one blue eye and one brown eye.
  • "you probably think you know the color of your eyes pretty well" meanwhile, me with hazel eyes that randomly look anywhere from moss green to dark brown-
  • @missheadbanger
    I was born with congenital Anaridia and only have a thin ring of iris at the edge of my pupils. I also have cataracts and nystagmus, with a high chance of glaucoma. I hope in the future I can get iris implants, I first need Cataracts surgery and Cornea transplant surgery. A big thank you to SciShow for bringing more attention to Aniridia, not many people who weren't eye doctors have heard of it.
  • @Ernzt8
    This reminds me of the documentary made by photograper Steve McCurry who went back to Afghanistan to find the girl from his famous National Geographic cover photo. Her eye colour changed significant.
  • @another_shiro
    I have brown eyes, but after having lazy eye surgery on my right eye it turned bright blue for about a week afterwards and then returned to its normal colour. It didn't seem like the pupil was affected from the surgery, so I always wondered if it was a weird colour illusion because the sclera was bright red and that just made the iris look blue in contrast somehow? Eyes are so strange.
  • @AmandaTroutman
    Bruh I was positive that as a black woman there was no way my husband's baby blues would be dominant over my brown.... Her eyes are blue blue and I'm like OK 20%european heritage you showed up and I'm impressed.
  • @belle5734
    Longtime SciShow viewer here! I miss when sponsorships were at the beginning or the end of the videos. I get into the zone and absorbed in the science, then BAM! Ad. :/ Having them at the beginning or the end was less disruptive.
  • @Katzztar
    I have noticed that my eye color lightened now that I'm older. when I was younger my brown eyes were so dark that they looked black. In HS science they were talking about how our pupils would change shape due to amount of light; to show this we had to partner up as teacher would turn lights on and off. It was very difficult to see any difference between my iris and pupils, so much so that my partner complained he couldn't see any change. He had to get a different partner to see it. I noticed that by age 40 my eyes were several shades lighter than the pupil.
  • @Omgbbqhaxlolol
    Ya know what, I am proud of you Hank, I am. We love you, keep being you!
  • @Myrtle2911
    My eyes were blue as a kid. It's clear in photos. Somewhere around my early teens, I noticed them starting to go kind of turquoise. By High School, they were quite greenish. They settled on green with brown flecks when I was in my 20's and are almost identical to my dad's. I've wondered for years if the hormones associated with puberty caused the color change.
  • @dfgdfg_
    When born I had dot of brown on one eye, and over the years it has spread out and now I have almost a perfect 90 degree arc of brown in one eye. I love the uniqueness 👁️‍🗨️