Lifespan: up to 20 years in captivity, 5-10 years in the wild.
It's been proven that people with ginger hair don't go grey, but instead retain their natural pigment for much longer than any blonde or brunette counterparts. Red hair simply fades with age, covering a whole spectrum of copper and rosy-blonde colours until it reaches a silvery-white.
Most (natural) redheads will have brown eyes, followed by hazel or green shades.
A McGill University study found that redheads could handle more electric shocks than those with different coloured hair. Other research discovered that gingers are better at handling stabbing or sharp pain.
Fun facts about red hair strands
Redheads are less likely to go grey. The pigment in red hair typically fades over time from red to blonde and white, but not grey. Redheads produce more Vitamin D in a shorter amount of time than people with other hair colors.
Research indicates that redheads have higher thresholds for pain and need less vitamin D than the rest of us thanks to the MC1R gene mutation, which gives their hair its hue.
And when you meet a red head with blue eyes, you are looking at the rarest colour combination of all for human beings. Around 17 per cent of people have blue eyes, and when combined with 1-2 per cent having red hair, the odds of having both traits are around 0.17 per cent.
Some evidence suggests redheaded adults often appear older than their actual age. For example, one study published in 2016 in Current Biology found that adults who carry two copies of the MC1R gene variant are more likely to look two years older than other people their age.
“In addition, there is recent evidence that redheads are more tolerant to local anesthetics and more sensitive to opioids.”
Ireland has the highest per capita percentage of redheads in the world -- anywhere from 10 to 30 percent, according to Eupedia, a website that explores European genetics and ancestry. They are almost equally prevalent in Scotland and other pockets of Celtic pride.
Ireland has the highest number of red-haired people per capita in the world, with the percentage of those with red hair at around 10%. Great Britain also has a high percentage of people with red hair.
Other Sacharov redlines: "The connection between red hair and a fiery temperament may be more than just an old wives' tale. An Israeli psychiatrist reported that redheaded children are three to four times more likely than others to develop hyperactivity.
Contrary to what many people assume, redheads did not originate in Scandinavia, Scotland or Ireland, but in central Asia. Their coloring is due to a mutation in the MC1R gene that fails to produce sun-protective, skin-darkening eumelanin and instead causes pale skin, freckles and red hair.
If both parents are ginger, their offspring would be ginger. Reason: We inherit half our chromosomes for our father (23) and half from out mother (23), 46 in total. If both parents passed on a ginger 'infected' hair colour chromosome, the child would be ginger.
Researchers think that the ginger gene, known as MC1R, may cause the temperature-detecting gene to become over-activated, making redheads more sensitive to the cold.
According to research published in Current Biology, people with the MC1R gene, aka the gene that produces red hair and fair skin, tend to look several years younger than their non-ginger counterparts.
As a group, redheads seem to be more likely to develop certain health conditions and have certain health risks. These include: Increased skin cancer risk. Altered sensitivity to pain.
This is to be expected because red hair is associated with fair skin, which is more vulnerable to UV radiation [1]. Less expectedly, red hair is also associated with pain sensitivity, endometriosis, Parkinson's disease, decreased platelet function and, perhaps, defects in the immune system [2–11].
Eumelanin ranges from brown to black in colour. Pheomelanin ranges from red to pink. Redheads have much more pheomelanin than eumelanin in their bodies. That's why their skin tone is often so light, and why their hair is often reddish.
The same mutation that makes their hair red is also what causes them to be more sensitive to temperature changes — even slight ones. They feel hot and cold temperature changes faster and with greater intensity than those with other hair colors.
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.
Making up one to two percent of the world's population, redheads carry variants of MC1R which are responsible for their characteristic features but also increases risk of skin cancers, the most dangerous of which is melanoma, a major public health concern with more than 3 million active cases in 2015.
According to an article by evolutionary biology professor Mark Elgar, PhD, of the University of Melbourne, blue-eyed redheads are the absolute rarest, with 0.17% of the population having that combination of hair and eye color.
The rarest hair and eye color combination is red hair with blue eyes, occurring in less than 1% of the global population.
The skin of a redhead is thinner compared to others and is derived from the ectoderm. Teeth enamel is also derived from the ectoderm and thus is thinner than usual. Since the enamel coating is thin, the inner layer of tooth-dentin is more visible and offers a yellowish appearance.