Redheads might have less damage/signs of aging This means that there is a reduced risk of sun damage and early signs of aging in the skin of redheads. This means our skin stays youthful for longer, helping us appear younger.
Bad news for the ginger-haired out there: according to science, you may look older than your blonde and brunette peers. According to a new study reported in Current Biology, the gene that often causes people to have red hair can affect how young people look.
When red hair follicles stop producing their gingerish pigment, the colour fades from red through a glorious spectrum of faded copper to rosy-blonde colours, through to silvery-white. It's a sight to be seen, giving an almost autumnal effect as your red hair moves into its 'silver fox' phase.
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.
According to Health Magazine, redheads can produce their own vitamin D when exposed to low levels of light. 4. You may not need as much pain medication. The gene responsible for red hair (MC1R) also releases a hormone that is similar to endorphins which limit the feeling of pain.
Redheads (men and women) differ chemically from the rest of us in that they can't make melanin (the brown pigment in freckles and tans). Instead, they make pheomelanin, which is reddish. Their sweat doesn't differ in composition from anyone else's, so there is no reason for them to smell different.
One of the many facts about redheads is that their hair will never turn grey. The pigment in their hair that causes it to be red will just fade over time, causing their hair to turn blonde or white, but never grey.
Previous studies had shown that redheads inherit two versions of the MC1R gene that leads to red hair – one from their mum and one from their dad. Although almost everyone with red hair has two copies of the red-haired version of MC1R, not everyone carrying two red-haired versions is a redhead.
Having red hair and blue eyes is the rarest hair/eye color combination possible. The odds of a person having both of those recessive traits is around 0.17%. Instead, most redheads have brown, hazel or green eyes, according to Medical Daily.
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.
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.
Redheads Look Older Than They Are
That wasn't because redheads had more wrinkles, which you might guess since they're more prone to sun damage. The researcher showed the MC1R gene variant correlated to thinning lips, sagging skin along the jawline, and other visible signs of aging.
As mentioned above, the amount of melanin you produce is influenced by your genes, and as a result, hair color can be considered a genetically determined characteristic or trait. Red hair runs in families, but non-redhead parents can also have a red haired child.
The intriguing results are that blond women were more frequently approached by men, whereas blond males did not receive more acceptances to their requests. However, in both conditions, red hair was associated with significantly less attractiveness.
In the past five years, researchers have found that the genetic mutation responsible for redhead's ruby tresses and snow-white skin also makes them more sensitive to hot and cold -- and it could also make them a whole lot harder to numb up.
Redheads feel hot and cold temperatures more severely than anyone else. In 2005, the University of Louisville discovered this hidden gift and hypothesized that the redhead gene, MC1R, may cause the human temperature-detecting gene to become overactivated, making readheads more sensitive to thermal extremes.
The rarest hair and eye color combination is red hair with blue eyes, occurring in less than 1% of the global population.
In Asia, red hair can be found among some peoples of Afghan, Arab, Iranian, East Indians, Mongolian, Turkic, Miao, and Hmong descent. Several preserved samples of human hair have been obtained from an Iron Age cemetery in Khakassia, South Siberia.
Green irises (the rarest eye color) have less melanin than brown eyes but more than blue eyes, for instance. “Brown is on one end, blue on the other, and hazel and green are in between,” Dr. Patel says.
Lifespan: up to 20 years in captivity, 5-10 years in the wild. Special Adaptations: Males have an elaborate courtship dance where they throw back their heads, almost touching their tail!
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.
Susceptible to sunburn — and melanoma
While it makes redheads more susceptible to sunburn, that very sensitivity to ultraviolet rays also allows their bodies to produce more vitamin D, which is essential to bone development and good health.
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.
Our parents can mark the enamel characteristics and these can be decisive for the coloring of our teeth. For example, the thinner the outer enamel layer of the teeth, the more yellow our teeth will be. Interestingly, this is a case that usually affects redheads.
This can be tricky, since most natural redheads have either very light copper brows and lashes or barely-there blondish-white ones.