“Red hair and blue eyes are both recessive traits which means a person needs to inherit both of the genes for red hair and blue eyes, from both parents. In contrast, brown hair and brown eyes are dominant traits, which is why they are much more prevalent.”
Most (natural) redheads will have brown eyes, followed by hazel or green shades.
Red Hair And Blue Eyes Is Rare
Red hair occurs naturally in one to two percent of the human population, while just 17 percent of the world's population has blue eyes. The majority of redheads have brown, hazel, or green eyes.
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 and green eye genes are simply not as common in populations as other hair and eye colors. One study found that the red hair-green eyes genetic combination is one of the rarest, at -0.14 correlation. Having red hair and blue eyes is even rarer.
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.
We found that green is the most popular lens colour, with brown coming in a close second, despite it being one of the most common eye colours. Although blue and hazel are seen as the most attractive eye colours for men and women they are surprisingly the least popular.
Lifespan: up to 20 years in captivity, 5-10 years in the wild.
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%).
Red hair is caused by a mutation in the MC1R gene. It's also a recessive trait, so it takes both parents passing on a mutated version of the MC1R gene to produce a redheaded child. Because it's a recessive trait, red hair can easily skip a generation.
Green is considered by some to be the actual rarest eye color in the world, though others would say it's been dethroned by red, violet, and grey eyes. Green eyes don't possess a lot of melanin, which creates a Rayleigh scattering effect: Light gets reflected and scattered by the eyes instead of absorbed by pigment.
Red hair is most commonly found at the northern and western fringes of Europe; it is centred around populations in the British Isles and is particularly associated with the Celtic nations.
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.
Red is the rarest hair color, according to Dr. Kaplan, and that's because so few MC1R variants are associated with the shade. “Only three variants are associated with red hair,” she says. “If a person has two of these three variants, they almost certainly have red hair.
The redhead gene
MC1R is responsible for producing the skin pigment melanin, which redheads can't produce because of the mutation. This same gene is responsible not only for hair and skin color, but also for the midbrain function that determines pain response.
The DNA for blonde or red hair is not as strong as brown. In order to have blonde hair, both of your alleles need to be blonde. The same is true for red hair. These are recessive traits.
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.
A redhead is a person with red hair. Although sometimes it looks more like orange, “orangehead” isn't a thing. Only about one percent of the entire population is a real redhead. In England, a redhead is “ginger” haired.
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.
Despite plenty of debunked “studies” that pop up around the internet every few years, redheads are not going extinct.
Research has shown that people with red hair perceive pain differently than others. 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.
A recent survey conducted by CyberPulse, a division of Impulse Research Corporation in Los Angeles uncovered this colorful research. Intelligence was the number one trait associated with brown, the most common eye color in the U.S., by 34 percent of respondents.
The Buton tribe is located exactly in the province of Southeastern Celebés (Sulawesi), and all its members have eyes of a deep blue, even more than any Nordic person. The contrast with their dark skin makes them stand out even more. One can see that their eyes are of a spectacular clear blue.
Blue eyes are crowned the sexiest among men and women
According to our research, blue is the sexiest eye colour, as the majority of the world's sexiest people, both male and female, have blue eyes.