Did you know that only 2% of the world’s population has natural red hair? Interesting, right? We’ve got nine more surprising facts about redheads for you.
Although redheads get a lot of (undeserved) grief, they are quite an interesting group.
And don’t forget to celebrate Kiss a Ginger Day on January 12th with a peck on the cheek of your lovely ginger friend.
1. Redheads Don’t Go Grey
Yes, you read that right. So, what happens as the years go by? Do they stay redheads forever?
No, that’s also not the case. What happens is quite simple, red hair simply ages differently. Instead of starting to go grey as blonde or brown hair does, red hair goes white.
Different tones of beautiful.
2. Having Red Hair is a Genetic Mutation
And what a beautiful one.
For you to have red hair, both your mother and your father have to have the MC1R gene (also known as the ginger gene), which has been shown by research to be the result of a mutation.
It’s actually believed that red hair originated in Paleolithic Europe, particularly among Neanderthals, an extinct species of archaic humans. Over the years, Neanderthals evolved into Homo Sapiens and spread out across Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East. And of course, they took the red gene with them across those continents.
3. Redheads Are More Likely to Be Left-Handed
Think about your ginger friends. Are they right or left-handed? If their dominant hand is the left one, there might be a reason for it.
We should start out by saying that there’s still not enough scientific research about this connection, but it seems to be very common.
Being left-handed is a recessive trait (and about 10 to 15% of the population is) and so is having red hair. It’s known by scientists that recessive traits tend to come in pairs, which explains this interesting fact.
4. Redheads Don’t Need As Much Vitamin D As Blondes or Brunettes
Have you noticed that a lot of natural redheads have quite a pale skin colour?
It’s thanks to their skin tone that redheads can produce their own vitamin D even when they only go outside for a short amount of time or when the sun rays they’re exposed to aren’t that strong. And because of this ability, they can more easily avoid health issues like arthritis and diabetes.
This also means that redheads have better chances of thriving in places where the weather conditions are cloudy and gloomy. The superpowers of having red hair.
5. Red Hair Is More Difficult to Dye
Red is quite a powerful hair colour. The reason why it can be so tricky, even for hairdressers to dye it, is that it’s not easy to get rid of every single hint of red.
This isn’t to say that it’s impossible for redheads to change hair colours. It’ll just take longer for the colourist to achieve a perfect final result.
But then, who’d want to get rid of such a unique, beautiful hair colour anyway? Our advice for redheads is that, if they ever get bored with their look, getting a new haircut is the way to go. At most, a red balayage would be great to bring some life back into the hair.
Read More: Balayage Hair: 18 Questions You Always Wanted To Ask
6. Many Believe That Gingers Might Become Extinct in 100 Years
Remember when we mentioned how well redheads can adjust to gloomy places? Well, they don’t do so well in warm places. Considering the fact that temperatures everywhere keep on rising due to climate change, you can see how this could pose a problem for redheads.
In fact, it’s been suggested that in order for the gene to survive, redheads should move to Scotland, where 40% of people carry the ginger gene and 13% actually do have red hair.
But this extinction theory has also debunked. The percentage of redheads worldwide is actually on the rise as 4% of people are carriers of the red gene, despite only 1% actually having red hair.
We don’t know which hypothesis is correct but we have our fingers crossed for the second one.
7. They Have Less Hair…
Blonde people have an average of 140 thousand hair strands. Those with brown or black hair have somewhere between 100 and 110 thousand.
And redheads? Only 90 thousand. It’s a pretty big difference, even though you can rarely ever notice it.
8. … But the Hair That They Do Have Is Thicker
After reading the previous fact, you may have wondered why redheads don’t look like they have less hair than blondes or brunettes. And here’s why. Each of their hair strands is considerably thicker than other colours, which makes it look just as full.
One look at any photo of Eleanor Tomlinson (you probably know her as Demelza in Poldark) and you can clearly see how thick and beautiful red hair can be.
9. Having Red Hair and Blue Eyes Is Very Rare
Do you ever look at a photo of Marcia Cross (she played Bree in Desperate Housewives) and wish you two had the beautiful combination of red hair and blue eyes?
Well, the truth is, that hair and eye combination is the rarest one in the world.
Just like having red hair, having blue eyes is a recessive trait (as well as a genetic mutation) and only 8 to 10% of the world has it. For you to be both red-haired and blue-eyed, you’d have to get two sets of genetic information for each and the odds of that happening are only at 0.17%.
This explains why most redheads have brown or hazel eyes. Still beautiful: just look at Isla Fisher.
Facts About Redheads: How Many Did You Know?
Who knew that redheads had so many interesting facts about them. Talk about a small but unique portion of the population.
So, how many of these facts about redheads did you know already? And which one was did you find most surprising? We still can’t believe number 6.
If all this hair talk made you start thinking about your next trip to the hairdressers, make sure to shoot us a message. We’ll make you look even better than you could ever imagine.
