Still, all reds have to deal with more than their share of stereotypes - the sexy siren, the goofball clown, the devilish prankster, the bullied weakling. "Red hair is something you must live up to," said Marion Roach, author of "The Roots of Desire," a book on redheads.
They are typified as impulsive, quick-tempered, libidinous, and wild. The personalities of people with red hair are often believed to be imitative of their red hair, and they are seen as fiery, hot-tempered, hot-blooded, passionate, and angry.
Throughout history, artists from Sandro Botticelli to Dante Gabriel Rossetti have mined the potent symbolism of red hair to alternately suggest promiscuity, sensuality, deviousness, and—above all—otherness for centuries.
Having red hair isn't the only thing that makes some redheads unique. They are also more likely to be left handed. Both characteristics come from recessive genes, which like to come in pairs. Redheads probably won't go grey.
One of the many facts about redheads is that their hair will never turn grey. The pigment in their hair that causes it to be red will just fade over time, causing their hair to turn blonde or white, but never grey.
Rarest kind of redhead
Having red hair and blue eyes is the rarest hair/eye color combination possible. The odds of a person having both of those recessive traits is around 0.17%. Instead, most redheads have brown, hazel or green eyes, according to Medical Daily.
Women who choose to wear a very red hair are distinguished by their audacity. The red is the sign of courage, but also of sensuality. Dazzling color par excellence, the red is the color of passion and blood. This shade is energetic and when a person likes red she must have a strong personality.
The rarest natural hair colour is red, which makes up only one to two percent of the global population. You commonly see these hair colours in western and northern areas of Europe, especially Scotland and Ireland. However, natural redheads may not exist for much longer.
Ireland has the highest number of red-haired people per capita in the world, with the percentage of those with red hair at around 10%. Great Britain also has a high percentage of people with red hair.
Susceptible to sunburn — and melanoma
While it makes redheads more susceptible to sunburn, that very sensitivity to ultraviolet rays also allows their bodies to produce more vitamin D, which is essential to bone development and good health.
Women with red hair color exhibited higher sexual desire and sexual activity, a higher number of sexual partners of the preferred sex, earlier initiation of sexual life, and lower sexual dominance (and therefore higher sexual submissiveness).
Key Takeaways. Humans and mice with red hair have a different tolerance for pain because their skin's pigment-producing cells lack the function of a certain receptor. Lack of this receptor function causes changes that tip the balance between pain sensitivity and pain tolerance.
Less than 2% of the world's population are natural redheads. But in addition to being relatively rare, people with red hair have unique medical concerns. Here's what you should know about how DNA associated with red hair may increase your risk for certain health conditions and provide protection against others.
Without question, the countries of Ireland and Scotland have the highest percentage of people with naturally red hair.
Having natural red hair is rare (like, two percent of the population rare), so coming across someone with natural strawberry blonde hair isn't common. While you may not be a natural-born redhead, your colorist can help you achieve your ideal strawberry blonde shade at the salon.
And when you meet a red head with blue eyes, you are looking at the rarest colour combination of all for human beings. Around 17 per cent of people have blue eyes, and when combined with 1-2 per cent having red hair, the odds of having both traits are around 0.17 per cent.
Many women have great beauty in other ways but red heads have the color thing that just pleases the eye. Take it from a redhead, they're just striking — gorgeous. Well, I also like red hair because of these following reasons: It looks vivid, radiant, attractive, and quirky.
Here's why. Red hair is caused by a recessive gene and it's not possible for this gene to simply die out. Even if there were no more redheads, people would still carry the recessive gene and that gene can appear at any time. Redheads may become rarer in the future, but they aren't going anywhere.
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.
Some scientific studies have found that bees are more attracted to people with red hair. This is one of the many strange facts about redheads. Research has found that it is most likely because of their hair's resemblance to bright flowers.
This can be tricky, since most natural redheads have either very light copper brows and lashes or barely-there blondish-white ones.
Fun Fact: Redheads tend to have thinner enamel than other people, and so the inner layer of dentin is more visible and appears more yellow.