RED HEADS: part 2

Here is FINALLY part 2 of the  RED HEAD series!

The more research I do, the more I realize that gingers are the coolest.

This portion of the series focuses on scientific and historical red head facts! ENJOY!!

Click "read more" to continue!!!

-Red hair is caused by a mutation in the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), which is one of the key proteins that determines hair and skin colour. Basically, we are mutants. Yup. We are going with that.

-The red head gene is a recessive gene, so for someone to be a red head, both parents have to carry the gene.

-Natural red hair is harder to dye than others.

-Red heads have fewer hairs on their heads, but they are thicker. Gingers generally have 90,000 strands, compared to blondes with 110,000 and brunettes with 140,000.

-Red heads do not go grey. Be jealous. We retain our natural pigment longer and ,when the colour does change, it goes a lovely faded copper to a silvery-white.

-Red heads are more sensitive to thermal pain. We are a lot more sensitive to hot and cold.

-Gingers also need approximately 20% more anesthesia that people with other hair colours to sedate us. No one is sure why this is. Some believe it has to do with the mutated MC1R gene.

-Hitler banned ginger marriages because he was afraid of “deviant offspring”.

-We generate our own Vitamin D. Because we are deathly pale, we tend to burst into flames, vampire style, when exposedto UV rays. We cannot absorb enough Vitamin D because of the low concentrations of eumelanin in our bodies. So, through the beauty of evolution, we have developed the ability to make our own when in low light conditions. Again, mutants. 

-Less then 2% of the worlds population have red hair. Most are concentrated in the U.K, Ireland and Australia.

-Scotland has the highest percentage of gingers (13%).

-Red hair and blue eyes is the rarest combination in the world.

-There is an entire day in the Netherlands celebrating gingers and all their glory.

-The first red headed humans walked the earth about 50,000 years ago in Africa.

-Boudicca, a Celtic warrior was the first redheaded British monarch and she was a WOMAN (GIRL POWER). 

-Mummified red heads were found that dated back 3,000 years in the Chinese desert of Takla Makan.

-In cases of severe protein deficiency due to starvation, dark hair can turn red.

-Gingers have an elevated risk of developing melanoma which is the deadliest form of skin cancer. BATHE IN YOUR SPF 1000000.

Hope you all enjoyed this informative list of red headed badassness (... yup that's a word).

Stay tuned for part 3, famous red heads!