Simply put, achromotrichia is the absence of pigment in the hair. But while non-redheads gradually go grey and then perhaps to fully white hair, redheads actually retain their ginger colour for a lot longer, skipping out the greying stage.
The worry about going gray now has a concrete number to obsess over—and it varies depending on your natural hair color. A new survey reported by the Daily Mail says ladies should start worrying in their 30s: specifically, ages 30, 32, and 35 (for redheads, brunettes, and blonds, respectively).
Thanks to genetics, gingers tend to retain their red hair colour for a lot longer, skipping out the greying stage that most other people experience.
As of today, there does not seem to be any correlation between the various hair colors vs. the rate of hair turning grey.
Redheads actually retain their natural pigment a lot longer than other shades, so there is no need to panic about going gray or white. Natural red hair simply fades with age through a spectrum of colors of faded copper to rosy-blonde, then to silvery white.
According to research published in Current Biology, people with the MC1R gene, aka the gene that produces red hair and fair skin, tend to look several years younger than their non-ginger counterparts.
Redheads actually have less hair than most other people. On average they only have 90,000 strands of hair while blonds, for example, have 140,000. However, red hair is typically thicker so it still looks just as full.
Typically, white people start going gray in their mid-30s, Asians in their late 30s, and Blacks in their mid-40s. Half of all people have a significant amount of gray hair by the time they turn 50.
Grey hair and genetics
The average age for grey hair varies greatly, and one of the main causes of grey hair in your 20s is genetics. The age at which a person's hair turns grey is influenced by the IRF4 gene, and one specific variant (rs12203592) is a marker for premature greying.
Just like the hair on the head, the hair on the rest of the body, including the pubic area, is subject to graying. As people age, their skin produces less melanin. Melanin is the pigment responsible for giving skin and hair its color.
Hair Loss and Redheads
While redheads have the normal risk for traction alopecia from prolonged tight hair tying, and for male/female pattern baldness, they're more prone to winter hair loss.
Redheads May Look Older
A study published in Current Biology found that adults who carried two copies of the MC1R gene variant typically appeared two years older than their same-age peers. Interestingly, this wasn't because redheads had more wrinkles, which you might guess since they're more prone to sun damage.
Researchers think that the ginger gene, known as MC1R, may cause the temperature-detecting gene to become over-activated, making redheads more sensitive to the cold.
Lifespan: up to 20 years in captivity, 5-10 years in the wild.
The skin of a redhead is thinner compared to others and is derived from the ectoderm. Teeth enamel is also derived from the ectoderm and thus is thinner than usual. Since the enamel coating is thin, the inner layer of tooth-dentin is more visible and offers a yellowish appearance.
Recessive traits like red hair can skip generations because they can hide out in a carrier behind a dominant trait. The recessive trait needs another carrier and a bit of luck to be seen. This means that it can sometimes take a few generations to finally make its presence known.
It turns out you can blame Mom and Dad, at least a bit. Scientists say they've identified the first gene for gray hair. The variant, dubbed IRF4, is also associated with blonde or lighter-colored hair. That makes sense, because melanin is the pigment that paints hair with the chestnut, golden or raven hues of youth.
It's estimated that 74% of people aged 45 to 65 have at least some gray in their manes. To understand why hair may gray at the temples first, it's helpful to understand why hair turns gray to begin with.
Vitamin B-12 is the most common culprit, with folate, copper, and iron deficiencies increasing your risk, too. Dietary supplements may help these deficiencies and you might see your natural hair color start to grow back after several weeks.
As a general rule, Mike Liang, advanced colorist at Julien Farel Restore Salon & Spa in New York suggests going gray when you reach 80 percent non-pigmented or white hair. If your hair starts to feel increasingly dry, brittle, or damaged or you experience scalp irritation, it might be time to ditch the dye.
The pigment in our hair is caused by melanin— the same pigment that is also responsible for our skin color. Gray hair is caused by a loss in melanin, whereas white hair does not have any melanin at all. As you age, your hair produces less and less melanin that leads your hair to appear gray, and then eventually white.
The results showed the average IQ of blonde-haired women was 103.2, 102.7 for brown hair, 101.2 for red hair and 100.5 for black hair. However, the differences were so small as to be unlikely to represent a real difference.
Most (natural) redheads will have brown eyes, followed by hazel or green shades.