Redheaded Human

I...am ginger. Well I'm often called that, I would say I'm auburn, but let’s not split hairs about that, whether they be auburn, electric copper or strawberry blonde. But us 'gingers' have come under a lot of teasing to date. Names like carrot-top, ginger-ninja, ginger-nut...I could go on with a pretty long list there, but post isn’t intended to be a 'ways to diss a ginger' post. But the thing is I actually like my hair, so I've decided to look at the whole 'issue', if that's the word, of being ginger.

So why the abuse? I mean look at the team G, we've got Rupert Grimpet, Ed Sheran, Prince Harry (who as we know isn’t too self conscious about showing it all off) , Nicole Kidman, Florence (unsure about the machine), Tim Minchin, Allison Hanningan, the little mermaid…loads of cool celebrities sporting red locks. So what's the fuss about?

With approximately 1-2% of the human population  being natural redheads, we are in the minority.  Scotland has the highest proportion of redheads with 13% of the population having red hair (ouch aye we do!), and 40% carrying the gene for red hair. 

And what is it that gives us such a red mane? It is two copies of a recessive gene on chromosome 16 which cause a mutation in the MC1R protein to result in a person having what is scientifically known as, a ‘tinge of the ginge’. Some of you may have heard that gingers will die out in 100 years - I am happy to say this is a hoax – the whole thing originated from research and articles from a manufacturer of hair dye - funny that eh?

Things on the ginger topic have more recently become more serious, with some saying red hair is the last physical trait people can mock - would you go into an office and make a joke about someone’s ethnicity, religion or sexuality? No, this would be crossing a boundary and those of us with a brain would know this is very offensive. So why is it widely accepted to mock the trait of hair colour? 

Now, although I can see the principle in this argument, I think that may be taking it all a bit too seriously. Unfortunately the mean kids at school will always find something to tease others about - you could argue if it wasn't their hair they would tease them about their height, weight, what they wore, etc. It's just that unfortunately red hair is an easy target. 

Hand in hand with red hair comes fair skin and UV sensitivity, with us redheads being more susceptible to skin cancers - so get out the factor 50 people! There is also evidence that redheads require more anesthesia than non-redheads - in 2002 a study was published that showed redheads needed 20% more anesthesia compared to non-redheads -this is because of the mutation we have in the MCR1 protein I mentioned earlier that gives us red hair. 

As well as this, researchers have found a link between this gene and increased sensitivity to pain in studies of mice. So you could sum this up that we're more likely to get cancer, harder to knock out (with anesthesia I hasten to add, please don't punch us…) and are more susceptible to pain...not the best associations! Saying that, nothing is so simple and there are other studies which say redheads are less sensitive to pain, so this is an area needing more study for the moment.

But it's not all doom and gloom. At the end of the day, us redheads are rare and rather special. In the Netherlands they have Redheadday every year, which is a huge celebration in the form of a two day festival, which had thousands attending in recent years. And we all know someone who has dyed their hair red - the natural red hair some are embarrassed about, others are giving  themselves synthetically  to join our clan! 

Red hair means different things to different people, but for me, I'm happy in team G.