Facts About Redheads!

"Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead." Lucille Ball

• Less than four percent of the world population has naturally red hair.
• The gene for red hair was discovered in 1995. Professor Jonathan Rees Of Edinburgh University identified the gene for red hair, the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), found on the 16th chromosome.
• Red hair is a genetic mutation.
• The highest percentage of redheads is in Scotland (13%), Ireland follows (10%). In the US, 2% are redheads.
  
• A study in 2002 found that redheads are harder to sedate than other people, requiring 20% more anesthesia.
• The first redheaded British monarch was a woman, Boudicca, a Celtic warrior who led her people, the Icenti, against the Romans in the C.E. 60's.
• Belief that redheads are witches is a folk belief in Germanic culture. From 1483-1784 thousands of suspected witches were nearly always stripped and searched for “marks of the devil”. These included any “abnormality” such as freckles, moles, warts, and birthmarks. Red hair was certainly considered an abnormality. Considering the freckle factor for redheads this was a deadly and shocking horror. Somewhere around 45,000 women were tortured and murdered usually by burning at the stake or by drowning.
• In Denmark it is an honor to have a redheaded child.
• In Poland, if you pass three red-heads you'll win the state lottery
• Redheads tend to bleed more, due to slightly different clotting factors, which again is a genetic factor.*
• Common Redhead stereotypes are: bad temper, sexual fire, untrustworthy, being smart and eccentric.
• In France Redheaded women are treated with high respect.
• "A majority of men believe Redheads have better love lives than blondes or brunettes do." - Harris Interactive Survey
• Redheads are said to turn more heads than even blondes, since red is the rarest hair color.