WASHINGTON - Having a strange hair life? Blame your parents. That's right, misbehaving hair may be inherited, according to a study released Monday.


Researchers studying mice determined that the aptly named gene Frizzled 6 controls hair patterns. Subjects without the gene had strange patterns, including whorls of hair on their hind feet, back of the head and chest. Some also had tufts and ridges in the hair on their head.


Humans "have a gene that's virtually identical, so there's every reason to think it would be similar in effect, though that is, at this point, unknown," said researcher Jeremy Nathans of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.


Not having the gene can't be blamed for a simple bad hair day, however. Rather, it would result in a permanent differences in the hair, such as a cowlick or an unusual whorl.


Indeed, Nathans doesn't like the phrase "bad hair."


"These are the things that make life interesting," he said. "We're all different."

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