November 5th is National "Love Your Red Hair" Day, and let me tell you something: Once you get past all of the ginger jokes and the older women asking you if your hair color is natural, it's a pretty sweet deal to feel so unique.
To celebrate, here are some little-known facts about redheads that you've probably never heard before:
1. Ireland does not have the most redheads
Scotland has the highest concentration of redheads at 13%, while Ireland's redhead concentration is around 10%. While we also make up 5% of America's population, the U.S. has the greatest number of redheads at 6-8 million, compared to Ireland's 300,000 or Scotland's 420,000.
2. We produce vitamin D easier than other people
The low melanin concentration in our skin that causes us to burn so easily also allows for the production of vitamin D to happen with less necessary exposure to sunlight.
3. Red hair holds its pigment better than other hair colors
This means that we a) go gray much later than everyone else or don't gray at all, and b) have a really hard time trying to dye our hair any other color. (But really, who wouldn't want red hair?)
4. Sperm banks stopped taking in donations from redheads
In 2011, Cryos International, the largest sperm bank in the world, made news when they stopped taking donations from gingers because their supply greatly outweighed their demand. (The answer to my previous question: apparently a lot of people!)
5. People throughout history have thought redheads are evil
In medieval times, people thought that red hair was associated with the heretical nature of the Jews and their rejection of Jesus, and therefore Judas was depicted as a redhead in most paintings. During the witch hunts of 16th and 17th century Christian Europe, some women were burned at the stake for their fiery hair as it was seen as a sign of guilt of witchcraft. Satan and Cain were often painted as red heads to show their evil-ness as well.
6. Red hair and GREEN eyes, statistically speaking, are the rarest combination in the world
Only about 2% of the human population has green eyes, while almost 17% of the world has blue eyes. If you pair that with the rarity of red hair (at 1-2%), it would only make sense that the rarest combination in the world is actually red hair and green eyes.
The idea that blue eyes are the rarest eye color comes from Mendelian genetics (you know, those squares you drew in high school), but it has been discovered that up to 16 different genes are responsible for eye color. So while blue eyes are most often trumped by the dominant brown-eyed gene, there are many other factors that determine your color of eyes, an idea which isn't taken into account with the "redhead/blue eye" claim.
7. We are not going extinct
Red hair is a recessive trait that is controlled by, really, only the MC1R gene (this works perfectly with those little squares from high school biology). Yes, there are more interracial couples now than ever in history, but that doesn't mean that the gene will never be expressed: Someone could carry the gene for generations and not know it. While only 2% of people actually gingers, up to 4% of people are carriers of the gene that have the potential of passing it down to their offspring, even if they themselves are expressing a dominant brown- or black-haired gene.
Back in 2007, a hoax article was published first talking about the probability of us going extinct. This was then perpetuated by other articles talking about climate change leading more of us to get skin cancer because of the heat and sun and dying off as a form of natual selection.
Sorry, world, you're not getting rid of us that easily. Happy National Redhead Day!
