My book I featuredthis week on the Facebook group Wild West Readers Challenge was Sabrina,a heroine with red hair and a fiery temper—the stereotypical redhead. So, justhow typical is her personality when it comes to redheads? Having been born withauburn hair myself and having given birth to five redheaded children (out ofsix), I have a vested interest in the question. This is why I found thefollowing map showing the areas of greatest concentration of people born withred hair to be interesting.

Based on my pedigreechart, I am not Irish or Scottish. My DNA shows a smidgen of those twoethnicities, but I am mostly English. I show a greater portion of German, andSwedish/Norwegian in my DNA than what shows up on my pedigree chart. I suspectmy auburn hair from my ENGLISH ancestors might have been influenced by theredheaded Danes and Saxons who invaded England centuries ago. On my father's line, a great-grandfather had auburn hair. I'm not sure which ancestor on my mother's line was a redhead, but my maternal grandmother assured me there was one.

Then again, mymtDNA—the DNA of my mother’s-mother’s-mother’s-ad finitum—is Celtic. Except for those women whose Scandinavianancestors migrated to the northern islands of Great Britain, most women fromthe British Isles have Celtic ancestry. All I know is, there are three generations between me and my next closest red-haired ancestor.

Four of my six children inherited their ginger to bright red hair trait fromtheir father due to his strong Scottish ancestry mixed with his English. Myfifth child with red hair was born with auburn hair darker than mine. My sixchild, like her father, was born with brown hair.

13% of all Scots areborn with red hair. 10% of all Irish are born with red hair.

from "Why did The AngloSaxons Migrate to Britain?"  You-Tube
 

Please, those of you who are Irish, when you see this map, do not send a firestorm my direction. It is not my map. Although Scots and Irish have been at odds over the years, they do have common Celtic origins, as did the Britons and the Welsh.

One source claims only about 2% of the world’s populationare redheads. Another stated that one out of every thirty-three people (0.03%) is a natural redhead.  In the UnitedStates—with its mix of so many nationalities and ethnic groups—the percentageof natural redheads is lower, but still a respectable  2%-5% of the population.

In spite of natural redheads being in the minority as far ashair color goes, they are not at risk for going extinct.

One source claims that, world-wide, there are more naturalredheads than there are natural blonds/blondes.

The melanocortin 1receptor (MC1R) is responsible for red hair. Melanin helps determine a person’sskin, hair, and eye color.

MC1R is a recessivetrait. It comes from both parents. In humans, it is primarily linked to thoseof European origin.

MC1R is a very oldreceptor. Fragments have been found in Neanderthal skeletons, although both identifiedsamples had mutations not found in modern humans. This receptor has also beenfound in other ancient species—in one case, in a frog dated millennia ago. 80%of the world’s population carries the gene.

Red hair andblue eyes are the rarest combination. With redheads, the MC1R gene has a mutation—orpossibly several—the reason why redheads are so rare. A person who has red hairand blue eyes, is dealing with two sets of recessive genes. The odds ofone person having both traits are around 0.17%.

There might be something to that. Ihave a parent, two siblings, and a daughter with blue or blue-gray eyes, butneither I nor any of my redheads have blue eyes.

Parents of redheads do not need to be redheads, but both must carry MC1R

Some people who carryvariants of the MC1R gene are more susceptible to skin cancer. Unlikeother hair colors, redheads carry two copies of the MC1R gene, which governsthe production of melanin. It not only helps determine the color of hair, skinand eyes, it informs the cells that create melanin to make eumelanin (usuallyassociated with darker hair and skin) or pheomelanin (usually associated withlighter hair and fairer skin). In redheads, the MC1R gene mutates and causesmelanocytes to primarily make the reddish pigment pheomelanin, which makesredheads more susceptible to damage from the sun.

Also, femaleredheads have a higher risk of gynecological cancers, such as cervical, uterineand ovarian cancer. Redheads are exposed to higher levels of estrogen beforebirth, due to prenatal estrogen influence either to certain medical conditionsas well as the development of certain hair and eye colors, particularly redhair, in the fetus.

Redheads might appearto age faster than those with other hair, eye color, and skin types. Asredheads age, they can appear up to be up to two years older, the same as those witha history of smoking.

Unfortunately, I knowthat well. The reason is not as related as much to sun exposure as to saggingskin. (*sigh*)

The good news is, redheads produce more vitamin D, which isessential for bone health. Vitamin D is synthesized when you’re exposed toultraviolet B (UVB) rays from the sun. One study determined that, amongredheads, gingers could produce more of Vitamin D than people with other haircolors, including those with darker red hair. The level of created correspondedto how red the hair was.

Redheads are more likely to be left-handed than any otherhair color.

Redheads are believedto be the least shy of hair color types and the most outspoken.

Okay, let’s get tothe juicy part—the trait I played to the maximum in my redheaded heroine,Sabrina Duncan—a product of a Scottish father and English-origin Americanmother. She takes after her father both in appearance and in personality. Inother words, she has a hair-trigger temper and is a scrapper. Just howdeserving are redheads of being stuck with the reputation of having thatparticular personality trait?

Redheads are often accused of being hot-headed and having badtempers. A tendency to be quick to act, bold, and brash—all qualities blamed onbeing red headed. In reality, none of those traits are proven to be exclusivelya redhead thing.

That fiery temper may actually be intolerance to pain. Although general pain tolerance mightbe higher than many non-redheads, red-haired people are more sensitive tocertain types of pain, which can require higher doses of some pain killingmedication like lidocaine. On the other hand, most redheads respond well toopioid pain medications, which means they require lower doses.

Another factor thatmany people overlook that can contribute to the myth of the redheaded temper isthat they tend to be subjected to more teasing than those with different haircolors. InEngland the term “ginger” is used to single out redheads and to mock them. Being subjected to repeated ridiculeover a trait one cannot control can put many in a bad temper.

Do all redheads havea fiery temper? I would say, NO.

I, for one, do not have a hair-trigger temper. Some might claim itis because I was born with auburn hair, not the classic Celtic lighter, brighterred hair. Although I amoutspoken, my anger tends to be of the slow-burn variety—one that builds up andthen erupts like a volcano. It keeps on erupting until the pressure isreleased. Some of my redheaded children are mild-mannered—for the mostpart—although they do have their moments.

When we get down to it, there is nothing wrong with beingviewed as having a fiery temper. It helps to keep people in line—as readerswill learn about Hugh as the relationship between him and Sabrina developed. Hewent from a man who did not like redheaded women to becoming quite attracted toher. What might have contributed to that? Another trait associated withredheaded women.

It has been proven that red headed females have more sex thantheir blonde and brunette counterparts. (Please do not ask me how someone proved it.) Blondes might have a reputation for havingmore fun. However, red hair is often associated with youth and passion. They tend to have more children.

There are many men who dislike redheaded women—trust me, Ihave run into a few. In my younger years, I ran into more than one young manwho refused to date a redhead. However, there are even more who are attractedto red heads—perhaps due to the relative rarity of the hair color. (I ammarried to one. His paternal grandmother was a redhead, and he always liked redhair.)

 

Sabrina—fiery tempered but particular about making lifebetter for those around her—worked her way Hugh’s heart. Sabrina is on a KindleCountdown sale through Saturday, May 29, 2024. To find the book description andlink, please CLICK HERE.

   

 

 

 

Sources:

“Why did The AngloSaxons Migrate to Britain?”, Knowledgia;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bwPz...

 ‘Why Red Hair?” What Is the Origin and Reasonfor Red Hair?” By Celtic History Decoded;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8IN2...

“How DNAreveals Vikings never left Scotland” – BBC REEL, BBC Global;https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw3Vb...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmj_G...

https://www.rd.com/list/facts-about-r...

https://healthresearchfunding.org/12-...