The Vikings maybe brought a few red-hair genetic variants over with them, but the majority of redheads were already here.” Previously it has been argued that Scotland's poor climate was responsible for the high frequency of the ginger mutation.
In northern Europe, it's speculated that the M1CR mutation was brought to the mainland from the Viking raiders of Norway. The greatest concentration of red hair is found in Scotland and Ireland, and the coastal areas where the Vikings settled show the highest number of gingers.
The recessive gene that carries red hair has been traced back 50,000 Years when early modern gingers first appeared in the grasslands of Central Asia.
Contrary to what many people assume, redheads did not originate in Scandinavia, Scotland or Ireland, but in central Asia. Their coloring is due to a mutation in the MC1R gene that fails to produce sun-protective, skin-darkening eumelanin and instead causes pale skin, freckles and red hair.
Red hair has long been associated with Celtic people. Both the ancient Greeks and Romans described the Celts as redheads. The Romans extended the description to Germanic people, at least those they most frequently encountered in southern and western Germany. It still holds true today.
Ireland has the highest per capita percentage of redheads in the world -- anywhere from 10 to 30 percent, according to Eupedia, a website that explores European genetics and ancestry. They are almost equally prevalent in Scotland and other pockets of Celtic pride.
It turns out that brown hair DNA is stronger than the other colors. You only need one brown allele to have brown hair. It is a dominant trait. The DNA for blonde or red hair is not as strong as brown.
Worldwide, red hair is quite rare, and just over 0.5 percent, or one in 200 people, are redheads — this amounts to almost 40 million people, the Daily Mail reports. In Ireland, an estimated 10 percent of the population has red hair, though about 40 percent of the Irish carry the recessive gene.
Redheads probably won't go grey. That's because the pigment just fades over time. So they will probably go blonde and even white, but not grey.
The Vikings maybe brought a few red-hair genetic variants over with them, but the majority of redheads were already here.” Previously it has been argued that Scotland's poor climate was responsible for the high frequency of the ginger mutation.
Genetic research has shown that the Vikings in West Scandinavia, and therefore in Denmark, were mostly red-haired. However, in North Scandinavia, in the area around Stockholm, blonde hair was dominant.
Why do people sometimes appear to be younger than others of the same age? The culprit turns out to be an innocent-sounding gene, MC1R, responsible for producing, among other things, locks of fetching red hair as well as pale skin, researchers have discovered.
Redheads Look Older Than They Are
Some evidence suggests redheaded adults often appear older than their actual age. For example, one study published in 2016 in Current Biology found that adults who carry two copies of the MC1R gene variant are more likely to look two years older than other people their age.
Most (natural) redheads will have brown eyes, followed by hazel or green shades.
Previous studies had shown that redheads inherit two versions of the MC1R gene that leads to red hair – one from their mum and one from their dad. Although almost everyone with red hair has two copies of the red-haired version of MC1R, not everyone carrying two red-haired versions is a redhead.
Red hair is a recessive trait, which means that only those who get two “redhead” versions of the gene, one from the mother and one from the father, will have red hair.
How many redheads are there? Less than 2% of the world's population has red hair. The highest concentration of redheads is in Scotland (13%), followed by Ireland (10%).
Lifespan: up to 20 years in captivity, 5-10 years in the wild.
What is the rarest shade of red hair? Natural red is the rarest hair color on the planet, with just 1 to 3% of the population having it.
Here's what studies have revealed about redheads and pain: They need about 20 percent more anesthesia to be sedated. They also need more local topical anesthetics, such as lidocaine or Novocain, which is why many redheads have a fear of dentists, according to the American Dentistry Association.
Over the centuries, they've been scorned, persecuted and marginalized. But it was an example of modern-day disdain towards redheads that prompted an Italian photographer's mission to safeguard their diversity, The Local has learned.
According to an article by evolutionary biology professor Mark Elgar, PhD, of the University of Melbourne, blue-eyed redheads are the absolute rarest, with 0.17% of the population having that combination of hair and eye color. So if that describes you, you're most likely one in a million (or more!).
About 1–2% of people of European origin have red hair. Especially female redheads are known to suffer higher pain sensitivity and higher incidence of some disorders, including skin cancer, Parkinson's disease and endometriosis.
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.