Hazel Eyes: What They Are & Glasses That Complement Them

Each person’s eye color is uniquely theirs, which is one of the most amazing things about us human beings. The colored part of the eye — the iris — can come in a wide range of hues, and hazel is one of the most amazing ones. It’’s a unique blend of multiple colors, including browns, greens, and golds.

Because of all of the diverse colors found in hazel eyes, they’re something of a mystery. Let’s take a look at exactly what hazel eyes are, why they look the way they do, and how to find the perfect eyewear to accentuate your unique eye color.

What Color Are Hazel Eyes?

Hazel eyes are a blend of green, brown, and gold — sometimes with flecks of amber and even blue. Every person with hazel eyes has a slightly different balance of these colors, making hazel more of an umbrella category than a specific hue. Plus, the concentration of each color can vary, moving outward from the pupil toward the edge of the iris.

In addition, hazel eyes have a unique response to light. In different environments, they can look like they change colors, making them some of the most dynamic, beautiful eyes on the planet. For this reason, some people with hazel eyes question what their true eye color is, especially when looking in the mirror in different lighting.

How Many People Have Hazel Eyes?

Around 5% of the world’s population has hazel eyes — about the same percentage as amber eyes.

Compare that to brown eyes, which are the most common eye color at 70-80% of the population (including both light and dark brown eyes). Around 8-10% have blue eyes. With gray eyes at 3% and green at 2%, hazel isn’t the rarest eye color but it’s still pretty unusual.

In the U.S., the percentage of hazel-colored eyes is higher. According to a 2014 survey by the American Academy of Ophthalmology, around 18% of the US population has hazel eyes.

There’s also a very small percentage of people who have eyes that are each a different color — a condition called heterochromia. And some people with albinism even have eyes that appear pink or red.

Side note: If your eye color has changed recently, consult your eye doctor. It’s good eye care to have regular eye exams anyway, but a change in eye color can sometimes indicate a health condition.

Why Do Some People Have Hazel Eyes?

The color of your eyes, much like your skin color, depends on the amount of melanin they contain.

Melanin is a pigment that absorbs light, and when something absorbs light, it looks dark. So the more melanin you have, the more likely it is that you’ll have darker eyes. In contrast, light eyes have less melanin.

The colored part of your eye is called the iris. It has two layers: the pigment epithelium at the back and the stroma at the front. Almost everyone has brown pigment in the back part of the iris, but the front layer differs widely.

If the stroma has plenty of brown pigment, you’ll have brownish eyes. But if there’s very little pigment in that front layer, it reflects light from the blue wavelength part of the spectrum, and your eyes will look blue.

Side note: Interestingly, the sky looks blue for much the same reason, an effect known as Rayleigh scattering.

If the stroma contains some light brown pigment though, it interacts with the blue light and you’ll end up with green eyes or hazel eyes. While green eyes usually have a consistent — and lesser — amount of melanin across the stroma, hazel eyes have flecks of various colors because the amount of melanin differs across different parts of the iris.

It’s worth noting that melanin can continue to develop in the first few years of our life. So some babies are born with blue eyes which later darken to hazel, green, or even brown.

Where Do You Get Your Eye Color From?

Several genes regulate your body’s production of melanin, which, as we mentioned, is responsible for the pigmentation in your eyes. In general, brown eyes are more likely to be an inherited trait than blue eyes, as the gene for brown eye color is more dominant than the one for blue eyes. However, it’s not quite as simple as one gene or the other.

In fact, there are 16 different genes involved in determining a person’s eye color, and the role of each of these genes is still something of a mystery. As far as we can tell, heredity — traits passed down through generations — is the main cause behind hazel eyes.

In general, most people have a similar eye color to their parents. However, sometimes, babies with brown or hazel eyes are born to parents with blue eyes.

In addition, we know that melanin protects the eyes from the sun, which is why eye colors with a higher concentration of melanin (hazel and brown, for example) are more common in hotter, sunnier parts of the world. It seems like this trait evolved as an adaptive response to the hot sun in these areas.

What Glasses Complement Hazel Eye Color?

With such complexity in your hazel eyes, you have a world of choices if you want your eyes to pop. Decide which of the colors in your eyes you’d like to emphasize, then work from there. You can either aim to match that color or complement it to create a beautiful balance.

At Pair Eyewear, you can choose any Base Frame and then add the Top Frames of your choice to highlight your eyes.

For example, if you’d like to highlight the green colors in your hazel eyes, you could choose glasses with a green tint. Try The Emerald Sparkle or The Forest Green Top Frames.

Or if you’d like to help the gold flecks stand out, you could go with gold or bronze Top Frames — or frames that include those colors, like The Champagne Sparkle or The Hufflepuff Plaid.

For a complement to the green, gold, and brown in your eyes, try a shade of purple or pink. How about a clear pink Base Frame or The Metamorphosis Top Frame?

Another option is to go with multicolored frames — just make sure the colors complement rather than completely overshadow your eyes. These Top Frames might work: The Sunflowers or The Captain Marvel Suit.

And if you’re not sure, a tortoiseshell material or a pair in shades of neutral brown can provide a lovely frame that allows all the colors in your eyes to shine, for example, The Tortoise or The Woodgrain.

Of course, if you don’t naturally have hazel eyes, you can create the appearance of them with colored contact lenses. If you’re prepared to go to that extent to complete your look, kudos on being truly dedicated!

Celebrate Your Gorgeous Hazel Eyes With Gorgeous Eyewear

Hazel eyes are incredibly unique, with their mixture of colors that include brown, gold, green, and even blue. They’re made even more distinct by their response to light, which makes their appearance shift and change. If you have this incredible eye color, use it to your advantage with high-quality eyewear in complementary colors and patterns.

Your hazel eyes deserve to shine, and you can make them look their best with the right pair of glasses. Make sure to check out all of the one-of-a-kind Top Frames in the Pair shop, many of which come in colors that sync up beautifully with hazel eyes.