Why did Europeans evolve with different shades of hair color?

Why did Europeans evolve with blond, red, brown, black hair when it should have just been one lighter color hair they evolved with?Why did Europeans evolve with different shades of hair color?
Smaller territory=Denser population=Greater degree of sexual selection

People who looked least like the general population were the most likely to attract a mate.Why did Europeans evolve with different shades of hair color?
Most of the first people in Europe were pretty much all dark.Red is an old gene however and may even predate the dark hair but by the time there was a substantial population base, it was already in the minority. You'll note red is most common in areas that have 'old' ,not very diverse genes,such as ireland.

Blue eyes (and probably most cases of blonde hair) did not even exist up until about 10,000 years ago,so is relatively a newcomer. As someone else mentioned it was probably seen as rare and desirable and was quickly bred into the population. As groups were small, often related to each other and often in remote areas, recessive features such as blue eyes would soon become the norm as two blue eyed people have blue eyed kids 99% of the time.
There are a few different pigments called melanin.that makes dark skin, eyes or hair.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanin#Mel/a>



If someone only has the red kind they might have red hair. Various amounts of the other melanin compounds are responsible for the other hair colors. Eyes are a bit more complex. When you are black, it blocks any variation. Less amounts of pigments allows colors to show.
Of all the 400 million europeans who belong to the EU, only about 10% have blond hair...



Why on earth do americans, or many americans, seems to think that ONLY pale white blond people can be europeans?? What about SOUTHERN Europeans, portuguese, spanish, greeks, italians??



The tone of skin in the european population has a lot more to do with exposure to the sun over generations than genetical mixing with arabs or africans.
Why wouldn't they have various hair colors? The traits neither greatly help nor greatly hinder the survival and reproductive prospects of the individuals who have them. There's nothing that favors any one variety so there hasn't been one that has won out over time.
Black hair europeans are generally mixed with another ethnic background.



Red and blond kind of baffles me as when I was in scotland I understood why they would have blond hair but red hair makes no sense. Black hair is dark brown, brown hair is brown, blond hair is light light brown, but what the hell is red hair? It makes no sense