Do Eyes Lighten with Age?

Eye color can become lighter with age — about 15 percent of Caucasians get lighter-colored eyes when they get older. This can happen because the eyes do not continuously synthesize pigment, and if the pigment changes or fades, then the eye color will change or fade accordingly. There appears to be a genetic predisposition for some people's eyes to lighten, and others' eyes remain the same.

More facts about eyes:

• Eyes begin working two weeks after conception, and a person's eyes remain the same size from the time they are born to the time they die.


• The human eye can see more than 10 million different hues of color.


• Only one-sixth of the entire eyeball is exposed, the rest is hidden underneath the eyelid and in the body.