According to new Scottish research, roaring red hair can be attributed to the type of climate you live in, which might explain why there are so many redheads in Ireland.
Is it true that gingers have red hair because of our weather?
Well, if you believe what the researchers from the ScotlandsDNA project have to say then yes, it’s because of the weather. According to them, the lack of sunshine in the likes of Ireland and Scotland means that there are a lot more gingers knocking about (like Doctor Who’s Karen Gillan, pictured above).
Redheads usually have light skin and this helps them to absorb Vitamin D, even when it’s not that sunny. So it’s not a surprise that 10 per cent of the Irish population are red headed (13 per cent for Scotland) while only 1-2 per cent of the world’s population are gingers.
Wow, that’s a lot. So what exactly makes a redhead ginger?
It gets a bit scientific from here but we’ll try our best to explain. Okay, so your hair colour is decided by the mixing of two different pigments, like the way you’d mix two different colours in painting to make a new colour; the first pigment is black melanin with the second being red/yellow melanin.
Now, certain receptors on the pathway for pigmentation (where your hair colour gets decided) can be disrupted depending on your genes. In redheads, the protein MC1R is disrupted and black melanin is suppressed while red/yellow melanin is made. So that’s pretty much where red headedness comes from. It’s basically the same for people with jet-black hair, except their red/yellow melanin levels are greatly reduced.
So who’s doing research on the link between gingers and the weather? Sounds like they had a bit of time on their hands…
The research comes from a group called ScotlandsDNA project. They’re trying to make a ‘ginger map’ of the British Isles to determine where exactly the most redheads reside. They hope this information will shed some light on why Scotland has so many redheads compared to the rest of the UK, but their findings will be somewhat relatable to Ireland too – sure we’re only a stone’s throw away from each other. They’re also bringing out a £25 ‘do it yourself kit’, which will test to see if you carry the redhead gene.
Why bother with all this research? I heard the redhead gene was dying out?
Well, contrary to popular belief the redhead gene is alive and strong and just because you don’t have red hair doesn’t mean your children won’t either. The MC1R protein can also skip a few generations, so if your grand parents were redheads, your kids could be too.
Ah I won’t care. It’s what’s on the inside that counts… right?
Well, not if you believe Barbara McNulty, a lecturer in psychology at the University of the Western Isles (herself a redhead), who said that the perception of ginger was:
“[Red headed] Women, for example, are wild and quick-tempered, while ginger-haired men are unattractive and geeky.”
Seems a bit harsh.
