Redheads feel hot and cold temperatures more severely than anyone else. In 2005, the University of Louisville discovered this hidden gift and hypothesised that the redhead gene, MC1R may cause the human temperature-detecting gene to become over-activated, making redheads more sensitive to thermal extremes.
Conclusion: Red hair is the phenotype for mutations of the melanocortin 1 receptor. Our results indicate that redheads are more sensitive to thermal pain and are resistant to the analgesic effects of subcutaneous lidocaine.
The summer heat can be red hot, particularly for gingers, who are much more sensitive to heat and at higher risk of skin cancer.
Also, we are quite rare, especially those of us who are natural redheads and that rarity grabs attention. That, along with the visual impact of the red hair (according to studies, the colour red, whether it be in clothing or hair, causes a subconscious physiological attraction.
Irish immigrants arriving in Australia looking for labour gained a reputation as heavy drinkers and fighters, with 'blue' being local slang for a fight. The term evolved to come to mean a redheaded Irishman.
'Ranga' is an abbreviation of 'orangutan'. Used mostly in Australia, the word has gradually spread across the world and has now been adopted to refer to all redheads. It's thought that is began being used as a derogatory word around the 1990s in Australia school yards.
Emigration from Europe has increased the population of red haired humans in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Non-derogatory terms
According to the Associated Press Stylebook, "red-haired, redhead and redheaded are all acceptable for a person with red hair." Some people with red hair prefer the term auburn to describe their hair color.
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.
Which do you prefer: Blondes or brunettes? Redheads, perhaps? Well, whichever you personally find most endearing, here's a bit of interesting news: Men apparently prefer blonde women to their darker or red-haired counterparts…at least according to a new study published in The Journal of Social Psychology.
Redheads (men and women) differ chemically from the rest of us in that they can't make melanin (the brown pigment in freckles and tans). Instead, they make pheomelanin, which is reddish. Their sweat doesn't differ in composition from anyone else's, so there is no reason for them to smell different.
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.
In a 2006 study published in Anesthesiology, women with red hair required much more anesthesia than women with dark hair, linked to a distinct genetic phenotype that redheads have.
However, people with red hair produce little of the melanin that is good at blocking the sun's harmful light, and produce more of the melanin that doesn't do as good of a job in blocking sunlight, making them more likely to get sunburned.
As a redhead, or someone with a redheaded child, it's important to be aware of the risks of sun exposure to this particular skin type. Redheads carry a gene called MC1R, which increases a person's risk of developing malignant melanoma as a result of sun exposure[1].
This was followed by a small study published in the journal Anesthesiology, which found that women with red hair required up to 20% more anesthesia to keep them sedated than did women with dark hair.
First up, studies have found that people with ginger hair are better in bed. This is because of a specific gene connected to redheads – the MC1R gene. This gene makes the individual more sensitive to touch than people with other hair colours.
As a group, redheads seem to be more likely to develop certain health conditions and have certain health risks. These include: Increased skin cancer risk. Altered sensitivity to pain.
They may be more sensitive to certain types of pain and can require higher doses of some pain-killing medications. However, studies suggest that their general pain tolerance may be higher. People with red hair also respond more effectively to opioid pain medications, requiring lower doses.
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.
Less than 2 percent of the world's population has red hair, making it the rarest hair color in the world. It's the result of the mutated MC1R gene. If both parents carry that gene, their child has a 25% chance of getting lovely, red locks, even if the parents don't have red hair themselves.
Only 2 percent of the world's 7.7 billion humans have naturally red hair. It's in their genes — specifically the one called MC1R. If your hair is red, your MC1R gene will have a mutation (or possibly several). These variants also affect melanin production (most redheads have freckles too).
"It's rare, but it happens. There are more red-headed Aborigines around the place than a lot of people realise. "I knew when he was four he was going to be good. You could kick a ball as high as you could, and he'd never drop it.
And the statistics bear that stereotype out. 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.
Since your genes never change, your hair color will never actually change to gray or white. The hair follicles instead just simply stop producing pigment. You can still be a redhead even if you don't have red hair on top of your head any longer because genetically you haven't changed.