Red hair is a hair color shared by several species, among them humans, orangutans and horses. Although red hair in the human population is most commonly associated with those of British or Irish descent, dark red or reddish-tinged hair can be found in many parts of the world—for instance, to a small degree, in Japan. Some believe that the cluster of red-heads in the British Isles can be associated with Pictish or Celtic ancestry and certainly Scotland has the highest proportion of red-heads of any country worldwide with 13% of the population having red hair.

It is estimated that between 2% and 5% of the United States population have red hair.

Red hair is significantly thicker than the hair of people of European descent with other hair colours. The numerical density of hairs on the head in red-heads is also lower.

Biochemistry and genetics of red hair

The biochemistry of red hair appears to be associated with the melanocortin-1 receptor while the red colour itself is produced by an iron compound.

The genetics of red hair are now being uncovered, together with connections between red hair and melanoma and other skin disorders, and red hair and problems with anaesthesia.

There is evidence for genetic linkage of eye color with other hair colors such as brown hair, so it would not be surprising if red hair was linked with eye color inheritance.

Myths and stories about red-headed people

Elsie Tanner, a character on the British soap opera Coronation Street, was known for her fiery red hair and, stereotypically, for her fighting spirit.

• "Red-headed people have fiery tempers"
• "Red hair skips generations"
• "Red-headed people are better lovers"
• The Biblical mark of Cain is supposed by some to be red hair.

The Redhead Fetish

There are some people (male and female) who describe themselves as "redophiles." These people have a strong love for, and usually, are sexually attracted to redheads. As in any paraphilia, there are varying degrees to which a self-described redophile holds their desire. While some people favor the red hair solely for its aesthetic pleasantness, others are more passionate and insist on giving their attentions only to natural redheads because they possess certain desired physical features like pale skin that never tans, freckles, light pink areolas, and red pubic hair.

In addition to having appealing physical traits, redophiles perceive redheads as generally being more passionate than other people. Redophiles feel that having this in a partner is an additional spice to life that promises to always keep things interesting. Also, since redheads are such a small minority in the world, redophiles see redheads as a rare find, and thus are worthy of being treasured like pearls.

See also

• Blonde
• Brunette
• List of famous redheads
• strawberry blonde
• auburn
• melanocytes
• melanin
  • eumelanin
  • phaeomelanin
• keratinocytes
• henna
• human skin color

External links

• Box NF, Wyeth JR, O'Gorman LE, Martin NG, Sturm RA. Characterization of melanocyte stimulating hormone receptor variant alleles in twins with red hair. Hum Mol Genet. 1997 Oct;6(11):1891-7. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?holding=npg&cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9302268&dopt=Abstract)
• OMIM entry on red hair (http://www3.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/dispomim.cgi?id=266300)
• The roots of red hair (http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/genome/genesandbody/hg07f002.html)
• Red Hair genetics for non-specialists (http://www.derm.med.ed.ac.uk/06_teaching/redhairgen.htm)
• Melanocortin 1 receptor: What’s red got to do with it? (http://www.derm.med.ed.ac.uk/PDF/Whats%20red%20got%20to%20do%20with%20it.pdf)
• The Melanocortin 1 Receptor (MC1R): More Than Just Red Hair (http://www.derm.med.ed.ac.uk/PDF/morethajustredhair.pdf)
• Why is red hair with brown eyes so uncommon? (http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/jun2001/993598918.Ge.r.html)
• Distribution of hair and eye color and sex in 592 statistics students. (http://spider.stat.umn.edu/R/library/base/html/HairEyeColor.html) from Snee, R. D. (1974). Graphical display of two-way contingency tables. The American Statistician, 28, 9-12. (displayed as a table (http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/sugi/sugi17-paper.html#Tab_hairdat))