Mosaic Phenotype or what?

[envyeyes]

Since I was born I've had dark brown hair except for the right side of my body. All the hair on my right side -- eyelashes, leg, eyebrow, etc. -- have been bright orange, blonde and red. As I've gotten older my eyebrow has slowly begun to get browner and my eyelashes are following suit but the hair on the right side of my head has gone from a small strip above my eyebrow to full blown orange, blonde and red patches that are spreading towards the back of my head.
Recently I was told that I might have a mosaic phenotype but I'm not sure and all the sites I've been to that could explain this condition have been extremely unhelpul in determining whether that's what is or not.
Could someone help me? . . . a site or something?

[Picaq]

If you're a girl, this could be chromosome X inactivation.
If you're a boy, then I'm not quite sure.

[envyeyes]

I'm a girl . . .what exactly is that?

[Darby]

Some times cells in an embryo don't properly distribute chromosomes - one daughter cell gets three chromosomes (including both copies carrying the brown hair), and one gets just one (with the red hair). It's very unusual to get as general a distribution as what you're describing - to be different "sides," a really early cell division must have been faulty, and that often is a very bad thing.

The other mosaicism involves one twin embryo partially absorbing the other - that might be this situation, where the different areas are really different siblings. Halves would be unusual, but we don't really know the variations in this process too well.

[twoofus]

I have a similar condition which includes having two very different but perfectly formed ears. One is quite small and rounded and the other is half an inch bigger and pointy! I also have patchy hair colour ranging from black to blonde. I was born with black hair and it fell out at a certain point and grew in blonde and now it seems to encompass both colours but is mostly brown. My eyes are blue but the inner part is brown.