11 Things That Can Change Your Eye Color

Eye color is generally considered so static that iris scans are considered a reasonable security method. However, it can indeed change—mostly for reasons you won’t want, though:

Ringing the changes

Putting aside any wishes of being a manga protagonist with violet eyes, here are the self-changing options:

• Aging in babies: babies are often born with lighter eyes, which can darken as melanocytes develop during the first few months of life. This is similar to how a small child’s blonde hair can often be much darker by the time puberty hits!
• Aging in adults: eyes may continue to darken until adulthood, while aging into the elderly years can cause them to lighten due to conditions like arcus senilis
• Horner’s syndrome: a nerve disorder that can cause the eyes to become lighter due to loss of pigment
• Fuchs heterochromic iridocyclitis: an inflammation of the iris that leads to lighter eyes over time
• Pigment dispersion syndrome: the iris rubs against eye fibers, leading to pigment loss and lighter eyes
• Kayser-Fleischer rings: excess copper deposits on the cornea, often due to Wilson’s disease, causing larger-than-usual brown or grayish rings around the iris
• Iris melanoma: a rare cancer that can darken the iris, often presenting as brown spots
• Cancer treatments: chemotherapy for retinoblastoma in children can result in lighter eye color and heterochromia
• Medications: prostaglandin-based glaucoma treatments can darken the iris, with up to 23% of patients seeing this effect
• Vitiligo: an autoimmune disorder that destroys melanocytes, mostly noticed in the skin, but also causing patchy loss of pigment in the iris
• Emotional and pupil size changes: emotions and trauma can affect pupil size, making eyes appear darker or lighter temporarily by altering how much of the iris is visible

For more about all these, and some notes about more voluntary changes (if you have certain kinds of eye surgery), enjoy:

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Take care!