red hair

Red hair is most commonly found at the northern and western fringes of Europe;{{cite web |last1=Moffat |first1=Alistair |date=June 30, 2017 |title=Celts' red hair could be attributed to the cloudy weather |url=http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/could-irelands-cloudy-weather-be-the-reason-for-the-stereotypical-red-hair-178077221-237789031.html |access-date=31 December 2014 |website=Irish Central}} it is centred around populations in the British Isles and is particularly associated with the Celtic nations.

Scotland has the highest number of red-haired people per capita in the world, with the percentage of those with red hair at around 13%, followed by Ireland and Wales.{{cite book |last1=Moffat |first1=Alistair |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zdm8BQAAQBAJ&q=13+per+cent |title=The Scots: A Genetic Journey |last2=Wilson |first2=James |date=2011-05-01 |publisher=Birlinn |pages=205–206 |isbn=9780857900203 |access-date=6 June 2016}} The highest concentration of red head carriers in the world found in Edinburgh, making it the red head capital of the world.{{Cite web |last=Mcardle |first=Helen |date=26 April 2014 |title=Auld Reekie is world capital for ginger hair |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13157439.auld-reekie-is-world-capital-for-ginger-hair/ |website=The Herald}} In Scotland, around 6% of the population has red hair.{{cite news|last=Cramb |first=Auslan |title=Edinburgh is surprise capital of redheaded Britain and Ireland |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/10264427/Edinburgh-is-surprise-capital-of-redheaded-Britain-and-Ireland.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/10264427/Edinburgh-is-surprise-capital-of-redheaded-Britain-and-Ireland.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=21 April 2017|work=The Telegraph |date=24 August 2013}}{{cbignore}}{{contradictory inline|date=March 2025}} In 1907, the largest ever study of hair colour in Scotland, which analysed over 500,000 people, found the percentage of Scots with red hair to be 5.3%.{{cite journal |last1=Gray |first1=John |title=Memoir on the Pigmentation Survey of Scotland |journal=The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland|volume=37|pages=375–401|jstor=2843323|year=1907|doi=10.2307/2843323|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1955339 | issn=0307-3114}} A 1956 study of hair colour among British Army recruits also found high levels of red hair in Wales and in the Scottish border counties of England.{{refn|group=fn|Defined in the study as the counties of Cumberland, Durham, Northumberland, and Westmorland}}{{cite journal |author=Sunderland E |title=Hair-color variation in the United Kingdom |journal=Annals of Human Genetics |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=312–33 | date=May 1956 |pmid=13314401 |doi=10.1111/j.1469-1809.1955.tb01286.x|s2cid=31340197 }}

File:Saint Sava, Bogorodica Ljeviška.jpg, Serbian prince and Orthodox monk, was a redhead.{{cite journal |journal=North American Society for Serbian Studies |title=Serbian Studies |volume=10-11 |pages=78–90 | date=1997}}]]

{{Annotated image |float=right |width=170 |height=190 |image=4 Gift Bringers of Otto III.jpg|caption=Depiction of an early Slav, 990 AD |annotations= |image-top=-10 |image-left=-40 |image-width=631}}

Byzantine writers Jordanes and Procopius described the early Slavic peoples as having ruddy hair and skin tone.{{cite book |last=Dolukhanov |first=Pavel |date=2013 |title=The Early Slavs: Eastern Europe from the Initial Settlement to the Kievan Rus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TIkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA137 |page=137 |location= |publisher=Routledge |isbn= 978-0-582-23618-9 }}{{cite book |last=Barford |first=Paul M |date=2001 |title=The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Z9ItAtbJ5AC&q=The+Early+Slavs:+Culture+and+Society+in+Early+Medieval+Eastern+Europe |page=59 |location= |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0-8014-3977-3 }} Later by the 10th century, Southern Slavic populations would have darker hair and skin tone, as the Slavs assimilated the indigenous inhabitants of the Balkans, including Greek and Illyrian peoples.{{cite book |last=Stanaszek |first=Łukasz Maurycy |author-link= |date=2001 |title=Fenotyp dawnych Słowian (VI-X w.) |edition= |url=https://www.bazhum.muzhp.pl/media/files/Swiatowit_rocznik_poswiecony_archeologii_przeddziejowej_i_badaniom_pierwotnej_kultury_polskiej_i_slowianskiej/Swiatowit_rocznik_poswiecony_archeologii_przeddziejowej_i_badaniom_pierwotnej_kultury_polskiej_i_slowianskiej-r2001-t3_(44)-nB/Swiatowit_rocznik_poswiecony_archeologii_przeddziejowej_i_badaniom_pierwotnej_kultury_polskiej_i_slowianskiej-r2001-t3_(44)-nB-s205-212/Swiatowit_rocznik_poswiecony_archeologii_przeddziejowej_i_badaniom_pierwotnej_kultury_polskiej_i_slowianskiej-r2001-t3_(44)-nB-s205-212.pdf |access-date=}}

In the late 18th century, ethnographers considered the Udmurt people of the Volga Region in Russia to be "the most red-headed men in the world".{{cite book |author=Fernández-Armesto, Felipe |title=The Times guide to the peoples of Europe |publisher=Times Books |location=London |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-7230-0624-4 }} The Volga region still has one of the highest percentages of red-headed people.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QrgnCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT85|title=Red: A History of the Redhead |first=Jacky Colliss |last=Harvey |date=9 June 2015 |publisher=Hachette Books |via=Google Books |isbn=9781603764032}}

Red hair is also found amongst the Ashkenazi Jewish populations.{{cite book |author=Abel, Ernest L. |title=Jewish genetic disorders: a layman's guide |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, N.C |year=2001 |page=[https://archive.org/details/jewishgeneticdis00erne/page/229 229] |isbn=978-0-7864-0941-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/jewishgeneticdis00erne/page/229 }} In 1903, 5.6% of Polish Jews had red hair.Elkind. Evrei Trudi Antropologitshes-kavo Amdilla, xxi., Moscow, 1903 Other studies have found that 3.69% of Jewish women overall were found to have red hair, but around 10.9% of all Jewish men have red beards.Maurice Fishberg (1911). Jews, race & environment. 99. Transaction Publishers. {{ISBN|978-1-4128-0574-2}} The stereotype that red hair is Jewish remains in parts of Eastern Europe and Russia.Jewish hearts: a study of dynamic ethnicity in the United States and the Soviet Union, SUNY Press, 2001, Betty N. Hoffman, page 106

In Italy, red hair is found at a frequency of 0.57% of the total population, without variation in frequency across the different regions of the country.Consanguinity, Inbreeding, and Genetic Drift in Italy, Princeton University Press, 15 Feb 2013, Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Antonio Moroni, Gianna Zei, page 270 In Sardinia, red hair is found at a frequency of 0.24% of the population. In Italy, red hair was associated with Italian Jews, and Judas was traditionally depicted as red-haired in Italian and Spanish art.Judas's Red Hair and The Jews, Journal of Jewish Art (9), 31–46, 1982, Melinnkoff R.M In European culture, before the 20th century, red hair was often seen as a stereotypically Jewish trait: during the Spanish Inquisition, all those with red hair were identified as Jewish.The Jewish Persona in the European Imagination: A Case of Russian Literature, By Leonid Livak, (Stanford University Press 2010).

The Berber populations of Morocco{{cite journal |author=Stirling, John |title=The Races of Morocco |journal=Journal of the Anthropological Society of London |volume=8 |pages=clxix–clxxiii |year=1870–1871 |doi=10.2307/3025183 |jstor=3025183 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/1449721}} and northern Algeria have occasional redheads. Red hair frequency is especially significant among the Riffians from Morocco and Kabyles from Algeria,{{cite book |last=Coon |first=Carleton Stevens |title=The Races of Europe |year=1939 |publisher=The Macmillan Company |location=New York |pages=480–482 |author-link=Carleton S. Coon |access-date=16 June 2013 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/racesofeurope031695mbp#page/n609/mode/2up |chapter=The Mediterranean World |oclc=575541610 }}"Their pigmentation is characteristically brunet, but definite blonds occur. Black and dark brown hair run to 85 percent (85%) of the whole, while reds number 4 percent (4%)", Carleton S. Coon, The Races of Europe (1939), Greenwood Press, 1972, p. 478"There are, however, a noticeable number of Kabyles with red hair, blue eyes and fair skin", Area Handbook for Algeria, American University, 1965, p. 91 respectively.

File:Uyghur-redhead.jpg child in Kashgar, China's Xinjiang region, with auburn hair]]

In Asia, red hair can be found among some peoples of Afghan,{{Cite book|last1=Wahab|first1=Shaista |url=|title=A Brief History of Afghanistan |last2=Youngerman |first2=Barry |date=2007|publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-1-4381-0819-3|language=en|quote=northeast of Kabul, however, the local population includes many people with blond or red hair and blue or...}}{{Cite book|last1=Studies|first1=American University (Washington, D.C.) Foreign Area |url=|title=Area Handbook for Afghanistan|last2=Smith|first2=Harvey Henry |date=1969|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |language=en|quote=They are generally of medium, slender physique, with dark, sometimes red, hair}} Arab, Iranian, East Indians, Mongolian, Turkic, Miao, and Hmong descent.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}}

Several preserved samples of human hair have been obtained from an Iron Age cemetery in Khakassia, South Siberia. Many of the hair samples appear red in color, and one skull from the cemetery had a preserved red moustache.{{cite journal |last1=Shishlina |first1=N. |last2=Pankova |first2=S. |last3=Sevastyanov |first3=V. |last4=Kuznetsova |first4=O. |last5=Demidenko |first5=Yu. |year=2016 |title=Pastoralists and mobility in the Oglakhty cemetery of southern Siberia: new evidence from stable isotopes |journal=Antiquity |publisher=Cambridge |volume=90 |issue=351 |pages=679–694 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2016.92 |doi-access=free}}

File:Mustafa Amini-Olyroos.jpg, Australian footballer of Afghan and Nicaraguan descent]]

Ancient human remains described as having red or auburn hair have been discovered in various parts of Asia, including the Tarim mummies of Xinjiang, China.{{cite book |last1=Woog |first1=Adam |title=Mummies |date=2009 |publisher=Capstone}} In Chinese sources, ancient Kyrgyz people were described as fair-skinned, green- or blue-eyed and red-haired people with a mixture of European and East Asian features.{{cite book |author=Rachel Lung |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qsNoHtgkGPkC&pg=PA108 |title=Interpreters in Early Imperial China |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |year=2011 |isbn=978-9027224446 |page=108 |access-date=15 June 2012}} In the Book of Wei, Chinese author Wei Shou notes that Liu Yuan was over {{Convert|6|ft|m}} tall and had red strands of hair in his long beard.Helfen-Maenchen, Otto, The World of the Huns: Studies of Their History and Culture, pp.373. University of California Press {{ISBN|0520015967}} The ethnic Miao people of China are recorded with red hair. According to F.M Savina of the Paris Foreign Missionary Society, the appearance of the Miao was "pale yellow in complexion, almost white, their hair is often light or dark brown, sometimes even red or corn-silk blond, and a few even have pale blue eyes".{{cite book |last1=Hattaway |first1=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=05xjDwAAQBAJ&q=F.M+savina+yellow&pg=PT28 |title=Guizhou: The Precious Province |date=19 July 2018 |publisher=Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge(SPCK) |isbn=9780281079896 |location=London |language=en}}In appearance the Miao are pale yellow in complexion, almost white, their hair is often light or dark brown, sometimes even red or corn-silk blond, and a few even have pale blue eyes”- F.M, Savina A phenotype study of Hmong people show they are sometimes born with red hair.{{Cite book |last1=Chao Romero |first1=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RmW4DwAAQBAJ&q=Hmong+red+hair&pg=PA84 |title=Mixed Race Student Politics: A Rising "Third Wave" Movement at UCLA |last2=Ong |first2=James |last3=Guillermo-Wann |first3=Chelsea |last4=Logia |first4=Jenifer |date=October 3, 2019 |publisher=UCLA Asian American Studies Center |isbn=978-0934052528 |location=Los Angeles, CA |language=en}}

The Kipchak people were a Turkic ethnic group from Central Asia who served in the Golden Horde military forces after being conquered by the Mongols. In the Chinese historical document Kang mu, the Kipchak people are described as red haired and blue-eyed.{{cite book |last1=Bretschneider |first1=Emil |title=Medieval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources |date=2000 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=0415244862 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lnCLnrzUJCsC&pg=PA72}}{{cite journal| author=Halperin, C. |year=2000 |title=The Kipchak connection: The Ilkhans, the Mamluks and Ayn Jalut. |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |volume=63 |issue=2 |pages=229–245 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X00007205|s2cid=162439703 }}

File:Lae.jpg. Melanesians have a significant incidence of mixed-fair hair, caused by a genetic mutation different from European blond and red hair.Kenny, E, et al., "Melanesian Blond Hair Is Caused by an Amino Acid Change in TYRP1", Science, 4 May 2012, Vol. 336 no. 6081 p. 554.]]

Reddish-brown (auburn) hair is also found among some Polynesians, and is especially common in some tribes and family groups. In Polynesian culture, reddish hair has traditionally been seen as a sign of descent from high-ranking ancestors and a mark of rulership.{{cite web |title=Journal of the Polynesian Society: Front Matter P 1-6 |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_31_1922/Volume_31,_No._121/Maori_somatology._Racial_averages,_by_Te_Rangi_Hiroa_%28P._H._Buck%29,_p_37-44/p1 |work=auckland.ac.nz}}{{cite journal |last=Bolton |first=Kerry R. |date=2010 |title=Enigma of the Ngati Hotu |url=http://www.antrocom.net/upload/sub/antrocom/060210/08-Antrocom.pdf |url-status=dead |journal=Antrocom Online Journal of Anthropology |volume=6 |pages=221–226 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110904045510/http://www.antrocom.net/upload/sub/antrocom/060210/08-Antrocom.pdf |archive-date=4 September 2011 |access-date=2011-06-12 |number=2}} Emigration from Europe has increased the population of red haired humans in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Several accounts by Greek writers mention redheaded people. A fragment by the poet Xenophanes describes the Thracians as blue-eyed and red-haired."Men make gods in their own image; those of the Ethiopians are black and snub-nosed, those of the Thracians have blue eyes and red hair." [https://books.google.com/books?id=LxxJXTviacgC&dq=Xenophanes+thracians&pg=PA90 Xenophanes of Colophon: Fragments, Xenophanes, J. H. Lesher, University of Toronto Press, 2001], {{ISBN|0-8020-8508-3}}, p. 90. The ancient Budini and Sarmatians are also reported by some classical Greek authors to be blue-eyed and red-haired.{{cite book|last1=Ridgeway|first1=William|title=The Early Age of Greece, Volume 1|date=2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781107434585|page=401|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pIdxBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA401}}{{cite book|last1=Baumgarten|first1=Siegmund Jakob|last2=Beer|first2=Ferdinand Wilhelm|last3=Semler|first3=Johann Salomo|title=A Supplement to the English Universal History: Lately Published in London: Containing ... Remarks and Annotations on the Universal History, Designed as an Improvement and Illustration of that Work ...|date=1760|publisher=E. Dilly|page=30|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2UUQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA30|language=en}} It was once believed that Sarmatians owed their name to their red hair, but this claim was later debunked.{{cite journal |last1=Tokhtas'ev |first1=Sergej |title=Тохтасьев С. Р. Sauromatae - Syrmatae - Sarmatae, ХСб 14 2005 |journal=Херсонесский сборник |date=2005 |pages=291–306 |url=https://www.academia.edu/7169847 |access-date=9 November 2023}}

In Asia, red or auburn hair has been found among the ancient Tocharians, who occupied the Tarim Basin in what is now the northwesternmost province of China. Tarim mummies have been found with red hair dating to the 2nd millennium BC.{{cite episode | title = Mysterious Mummies of China | episode-link = List of NOVA episodes#Season 25: 1997.E2.80.931998 | url = https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2502chinamum.html | series = NOVA | series-link = Nova (American TV series) | airdate = 20 January 1998 | season = 25}}

In certain Biblical accounts, Hebrew and Israelite individuals were described as having ruddy hair. For example, Esau and David (Gen. 25:25; 1 Sam. 16:12, 17:42.), are described as "admoni", meaning red or ruddy.{{cite news |author= |date=7 April 2015 |title=Ginger Jews |website=Judaism and Science |publisher= |url=https://www.judaismandscience.com/ginger-jews/ |access-date=22 June 2022 |quote=}}

The pigment pheomelanin gives red hair its distinctive color. Red hair has far more of the pigment pheomelanin than it has of the dark pigment eumelanin.

The genetics of red hair appear to be associated with the melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R), which is found on chromosome 16. In 1995, Valverde, et al. identified alleles on MC1R associated with red hair. The number of alleles linked to red hair has since been expanded by other authors, and these variants are now identified as the RHC (red hair colour) alleles. Eighty percent of redheads have an MC1R gene variant within the RHC.{{cite book |last1=Bader |first1=Scott |title=A Guide to Forensic DNA Profiling |date=21 March 2016 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-118-75152-7 |page=393 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f-hRCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA393-IA90 |language=en}} "Valverde et al [27] was the first to identify MC1R associations pheomelanogenic red hair color (RHC), and subsequently, several other authors have extended these results to identify what are today called the RHC phenotype alleles (all SNPs, Box, et al. [28, 32]; Duffy et al. [29]; Smith et al. [30]: Parmer et al. [31]; Bastiaens et al. [33, 34]; Kennedy et al. [35]; Flannagan et al [39], and reviewed by Sturm, [37])."{{cite journal |vauthors=Valverde P, Healy E, Jackson I, Rees JL, Thody AJ |title=Variants of the melanocyte-stimulating hormone receptor gene are associated with red hair and fair skin in humans |journal=Nature Genetics |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=328–30 |year=1995 |pmid=7581459 |doi=10.1038/ng1195-328|s2cid=7980311 }} Red hair is also associated with fair skin color because the MC1R mutation also results in low concentrations of eumelanin throughout the body. The lower melanin concentration in skin confers the advantage that a sufficient concentration of important vitamin D can be produced under low light conditions. However, when UV-radiation is strong (as in regions close to the equator) the lower concentration of melanin leads to several medical disadvantages, such as a higher risk of skin cancer. The MC1R variant gene that gives people red hair generally results in skin that is difficult or impossible to tan. Because of the natural tanning reaction to the sun's ultraviolet light and high amounts of pheomelanin in the skin, freckles are a common, but not universal, feature of red-haired people.

Red hair can originate from several changes on the MC1R-gene. If one of these changes is present on both chromosomes, then the respective individual is likely to have red hair. This type of inheritance is described as an autosomal recessive. Even if both parents do not have red hair themselves, both can be carriers for the gene and have a redheaded child.

Genetic studies of dizygotic (fraternal) twins indicate that the MC1R gene is not solely responsible for the red hair phenotype; unidentified modifier genes exist, making variance in the MC1R gene necessary, but not sufficient, for red hair production.{{cite journal |vauthors=Box NF, Wyeth JR, etal |title= Characterization of melanocyte stimulating hormone receptor variant alleles in twins with red hair.|journal= Human Molecular Genetics |volume=6 |issue=11 |pages=1891–97 |date=October 1997 |pmid=9302268 |doi=10.1093/hmg/6.11.1891|doi-access=free }}

The alleles Arg151Cys, Arg160Trp, Asp294His, and Arg142His on MC1R are shown to be recessives for the red hair phenotype.{{cite journal |author = Harding, Rosalind M. |pmid = 10733465 |title = Evidence for Variable Selective Pressures at MC1R |journal = American Journal of Human Genetics |date=April 2000 |volume = 66 |issue = 4 |pages = 1351–61 |doi = 10.1086/302863 |pmc = 1288200 |display-authors=etal}} The gene HCL2 on chromosome 4 may also be related to red hair.{{cite web |url=https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/4842|title=HGNC Symbol Report:HCL2|website=Gene.ucl.ac.uk |access-date=19 August 2017}}{{cite journal |doi = 10.1111/j.1399-0004.1987.tb03339.x |author = H. Eiberg & J. Mohr |title = Major locus for red hair color linked to MNS blood groups on chromosome 4 |journal = Clinical Genetics |volume = 32 |issue = 2 |pages = 125–28 |date=August 1987 |pmid = 3477350|s2cid = 28734686 }} There are at least 8 genetic differences associated with red hair color.{{Cite web | url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181210101930.htm | title=Hair color gene study sheds new light on roots of redheads' locks}}{{Cite journal |last1=Morgan |first1=Michael D. |last2=Pairo-Castineira |first2=Erola |last3=Rawlik |first3=Konrad |last4=Canela-Xandri |first4=Oriol |last5=Rees |first5=Jonathan |last6=Sims |first6=David |last7=Tenesa |first7=Albert |last8=Jackson |first8=Ian J. |date=2018-12-10|title=Genome-wide study of hair colour in UK Biobank explains most of the SNP heritability |journal=Nature Communications |language=en |volume=9|issue=1|pages=5271|doi=10.1038/s41467-018-07691-z|pmid=30531825 |pmc=6288091 |bibcode=2018NatCo...9.5271M |issn=2041-1723}}

In species other than primates, red hair has different genetic origins and mechanisms.

The genes responsible for red hair can express themselves to different extents in different people. One consequence of this is that a number of people

{{quantify|date=March 2024}} have both dark hair and red beards. This may reflect the presence of a single copy of the MC1R gene, leading to differential expression in the beard versus the scalp hair. However, some red-bearded people lack MC1R genes.{{cite web |last1=Plackett |first1=Benjamin |title=Why do some men have red beards, but not red hair? |url=https://www.livescience.com/why-men-red-beards.html |website=livescience.com |language=en |date=14 March 2020}}{{cite journal |last1=Flanagan |first1=Niamh |last2=Healy |first2=Eugene |last3=Ray |first3=Amanda |last4=Philips |first4=Sion |last5=Todd |first5=Carole |last6=Jackson |first6=Ian J. |last7=Birch-Machin |first7=Mark A. |last8=Rees |first8=Jonathan L. |title=Pleiotropic effects of the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene on human pigmentation |journal=Human Molecular Genetics |date=12 October 2000 |volume=9 |issue=17 |pages=2531–2537 |doi=10.1093/hmg/9.17.2531|pmid=11030758 |doi-access=free |hdl=20.500.11820/ed3cb955-ec0f-4b4a-844e-cd806ca785ce |hdl-access=free }}

Red hair is the rarest natural hair color in humans. The non-tanning skin associated with red hair may have been advantageous in far-northern climates where sunlight is scarce. Studies by Bodmer and Cavalli-Sforza (1976) hypothesized that lighter skin pigmentation prevents rickets in colder climates by encouraging higher levels of vitamin D production and also allows the individual to retain heat better than someone with darker skin.{{Cite book |last1=Bodmer |first1=W. F |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1849056 |title=Genetics, evolution, and man |last2=Cavalli-Sforza |first2=L. L |date=1976 |publisher=W.H. Freeman |isbn=978-0-7167-0573-4 |location=San Francisco |language=English |oclc=1849056}} In 2000, Harding et al. concluded that red hair is not the result of positive selection but of a lack of negative selection. In Africa, for example, red hair is selected against because high levels of sun harm pale skin. However, in Northern Europe this does not happen, so redheads can become more common through genetic drift.

Estimates on the original occurrence of the currently active gene for red hair vary from 20,000 to 100,000 years ago.{{cite web |url=http://www.arts.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=/connected/2002/10/04/ecfhair04.xml&sSheet=/connected/2002/10/04/ixconn.html |title=Nicole's hair secrets |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |date=2 October 2002 |archive-date=2 February 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070202155643/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fconnected%2F2002%2F10%2F04%2Fecfhair04.xml&sSheet=%2Fconnected%2F2002%2F10%2F04%2Fixconn.html |url-status=dead}}{{cite journal |title=Red hair genes 100,000 years old |journal=Oxford Blueprint |volume=1 |issue=11 |date=31 May 2001 |url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/blueprint/2000-01/3105/11.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=9 July 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010709074454/http://www.ox.ac.uk/blueprint/2000-01/3105/11.shtml}}

A DNA study has concluded that some Neanderthals also had red hair, although the mutation responsible for this differs from that which causes red hair in modern humans.{{cite journal |title=Ancient DNA Reveals Neandertals With Red Hair, Fair Complexions |journal=Science |date=26 October 2007 |first=Elizabeth |last=Culotta |volume=318 |issue=5850 |pages=546–547 |doi=10.1126/science.318.5850.546 |pmid=17962526|s2cid=42196381}}

{{anchor|Extinction}}

{{See also|Disappearing blonde gene}}

A 2007 report in The Courier-Mail, which cited the National Geographic magazine and unnamed "geneticists", said that red hair is likely to die out in the near future.[http://www.news.com.au/national/gingers-extinct-in-100-years-say-scientists/story-e6frfkp9-1111114243424 Gingers extinct in 100 years] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140327080306/http://www.news.com.au/national/gingers-extinct-in-100-years-say-scientists/story-e6frfkp9-1111114243424 |date=27 March 2014 }}. News.com.au. Retrieved 28 June 2009. Other blogs and news sources ran similar stories that attributed the research to the magazine or the "Oxford Hair Foundation". However, a HowStuffWorks article says that the foundation was funded by hair-dye maker Procter & Gamble, and that other experts had dismissed the research as either lacking in evidence or simply bogus. The National Geographic article in fact states, "while redheads may decline, the potential for red isn't going away".[http://science.howstuffworks.com/redhead-extinction.htm Redhead extinction]. HowStuffWorks. Retrieved 28 June 2009.

Red hair is caused by a relatively rare recessive allele, the expression of which can skip generations. It is not likely to disappear at any time in the foreseeable future.

File:Redhead close up.jpg

Melanin in the skin aids UV tolerance through sun tanning, but fair-skinned persons lack the levels of melanin needed to prevent UV-induced DNA-damage. Studies have shown that red hair alleles in MC1R increase freckling and decrease tanning ability.{{cite journal |vauthors=Flanagan N, Healy E, Ray A, etal |title=Pleiotropic effects of the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene on human pigmentation |journal=Hum. Mol. Genet. |volume=9 |issue=17 |pages=2531–7 | date=October 2000 |pmid=11030758 |doi=10.1093/hmg/9.17.2531|doi-access=free |hdl=20.500.11820/ed3cb955-ec0f-4b4a-844e-cd806ca785ce |hdl-access=free }} It has been found that Europeans who are heterozygous for red hair exhibit increased sensitivity to UV radiation.{{cite journal |author=Rees JL |title=The genetics of sun sensitivity in humans |journal=Am. J. Hum. Genet. |volume=75 |issue=5 |pages=739–51 | date=November 2004 |pmid=15372380 |pmc=1182105 |doi=10.1086/425285 }}

Red hair and its relationship to UV sensitivity are of interest to many melanoma researchers. Sunshine can both be good and bad for a person's health and the different alleles on MC1R represent these adaptations. It also has been shown that individuals with pale skin are highly susceptible to a variety of skin cancers such as melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma.Rees JL (2002a) Molecular phototypes. In: Ortonne J-P, Ballotti

R (eds) Mechanisms of suntanning. Martin Dunitz, London, pp 333–339Rees JL (2002b) Skin cancer (including nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome). In: Vogelstein B, Kinzler K (eds) The genetic basis of human cancer, 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 529–548

{{Anchor|Bleeding and bruising|Pain Tolerance}}

Two studies have demonstrated that people with red hair have different sensitivity to pain to people with other hair colors. One study found that women with red hair are slightly more sensitive to thermal pain (associated with naturally occurring low vitamin K levels) and that lidocaine was significantly less effective in reducing pain.{{cite journal |vauthors=Liem EB, Joiner TV, Tsueda K, Sessler DI |title=Increased sensitivity to thermal pain and reduced subcutaneous lidocaine efficacy in redheads |journal=Anesthesiology |volume=102 |issue=3 |pages=509–14 |year=2005 |pmid=15731586|doi=10.1097/00000542-200503000-00006 |pmc=1692342}} Another study concluded that redheads are less sensitive to pain from multiple modalities, including noxious stimuli such as electrically induced pain.{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/magazine/11ideas_section3-22.html?_r=1 |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150529180723/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/magazine/stoic-redheads.html |archive-date=29 May 2015 |title=Stoic Redheads |work=The New York Times |date=11 December 2005 |first=Amy |last=Sullivan |author-link=Amy Sullivan |access-date=22 May 2010}}{{cbignore}}{{cite news |url=https://healthland.time.com/2009/08/12/do-redheads-really-feel-more-pain-the-jurys-still-out/ |title=Do redheads really feel more pain? The jury's still out |work=Wellness Blog on TIME.com |date=12 August 2009 | access-date=22 May 2010}}

Researchers have found that people with red hair require greater amounts of anesthetic.{{cite journal |vauthors=Liem EB, Lin CM, Suleman MI, etal |title=Anesthetic requirement is increased in redheads |journal=Anesthesiology |volume=101 |issue=2 |pages=279–83 | date=August 2004 |pmid=15277908 |pmc=1362956 |doi=10.1097/00000542-200408000-00006}} Another study showed women with gene variants associated with red hair had a greater analgesic response to the painkiller pentazocine than do either women of other hair colors or men of any hair color.{{cite journal |vauthors=Mogil JS, Wilson SG, Chesler EJ, etal |title=The melanocortin-1 receptor gene mediates female-specific mechanisms of analgesia in mice and humans |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=100 |issue=8 |pages=4867–72 | date=April 2003 |pmid=12663858 |pmc=153647 |doi=10.1073/pnas.0730053100|bibcode=2003PNAS..100.4867M |doi-access=free }} A follow-up study by the same group showed that men and women with red hair had a greater analgesic response to morphine-6-glucuronide.{{cite journal |vauthors=Mogil JS, Ritchie J, Smith SB, etal |title=Melanocortin-1 receptor gene variants affect pain and mu-opioid analgesia in mice and humans |journal=Journal of Medical Genetics |volume=42 |issue=7 |pages=583–7 | date=July 2005 |pmid=15994880 |pmc=1736101 |doi=10.1136/jmg.2004.027698}} However, a later study of 468 healthy adult patients found no significant difference in recovery times, pain scores, or quality of recovery in those with red hair compared with dark hair in either men or women.{{cite journal |last1=Myles |first1=P. S. |last2=Buchanan |first2=F. F. |last3=Bain |first3=C. R. |title=The Effect of Hair Colour on Anaesthetic Requirements and Recovery Time after Surgery |journal=Anaesthesia and Intensive Care |date=1 July 2012 |volume=40 |issue=4 |pages=683–689 |doi=10.1177/0310057X1204000415 |pmid=22813497 |doi-access=free }}

The unexpected relationship of hair color to pain tolerance appears to exist because redheads have a mutation in a hormone receptor that can apparently respond to at least two types of hormones: the pigmentation-driving melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH), and the pain-relieving endorphins (both derive from the same precursor molecule, POMC, and are structurally similar). Specifically, redheads have a mutated melanocortin-1 receptor (MC1R) gene that produces an altered receptor for MSH.{{cite journal |vauthors=Liem EB, Lin CM, Suleman MI, etal |title=Anesthetic requirement is increased in redheads |journal=Anesthesiology |volume=101 |issue=2 |pages=279–83 |year=2004 |pmid=15277908|doi=10.1097/00000542-200408000-00006 |pmc=1362956}} Melanocytes, the cells that produce pigment in skin and hair, use the MC1R to recognize and respond to MSH from the anterior pituitary gland. Melanocyte-stimulating hormones normally stimulates melanocytes to make black eumelanin, but if the melanocytes have a mutated receptor, they will make reddish pheomelanin instead. MC1R also occurs in the brain, where it is one of a large set of POMC-related receptors that are apparently involved not only in responding to MSH, but also in responses to endorphins and possibly other POMC-derived hormones. Though the details are not clearly understood, it appears that there is some crosstalk between the POMC hormones that may explain the link between red hair and pain tolerance.

There is little or no evidence to support the belief that people with red hair have a higher chance than people with other hair colors to hemorrhage or suffer other bleeding complications.{{cite journal |vauthors=Kumar VV, Kumar NV, Isaacson G |title=Superstition and post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage |journal=The Laryngoscope |volume=114 |issue=11 |pages=2031–3 | date=November 2004 |pmid=15510037 |doi=10.1097/01.mlg.0000147942.82626.1c|s2cid=24987835 }}{{cite journal | doi = 10.1213/01.ANE.0000180769.51576.CD |vauthors=Liem Edwin B, etal | year = 2006 | title = Women with Red Hair Report a Slightly Increased Rate of Bruising but Have Normal Coagulation Tests | url = http://www.anesthesia-analgesia.org/cgi/content/abstract/102/1/313 | journal = Anesthesia & Analgesia | volume = 102 | issue = 1| pages = 313–318 | pmid=16368849 | pmc=1351323}} One study, however, reports a link between red hair and a higher rate of bruising.

Most red hair is caused by the MC1R gene and is non-pathological. However, in rare cases red hair can be associated with disease or genetic disorders:

• In cases of severe malnutrition, normally dark human hair may turn red or blonde. The condition, part of a syndrome known as kwashiorkor, is a sign of critical starvation caused chiefly by protein deficiency, and is common during periods of famine.
• One variety of albinism (Type 3, a.k.a. rufous albinism), sometimes seen in Africans and inhabitants of New Guinea, results in red hair and red-colored skin.[http://www.pathguy.com/lectures/accdep.htm Pathology Guy: Accumulations and Deposits] Ed Friedlander, M.D., Pathologist. Last updated 24 September 2006
• Red hair is found on people lacking pro-opiomelanocortin.{{cite journal |vauthors=Challis BG, Pritchard LE, Creemers JW, etal |title=A missense mutation disrupting a dibasic prohormone processing site in pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) increases susceptibility to early-onset obesity through a novel molecular mechanism |journal=Hum. Mol. Genet. |volume=11 |issue=17 |pages=1997–2004 | date=August 2002 |pmid=12165561 |doi=10.1093/hmg/11.17.1997|doi-access=free }}
  {{cite journal |doi=10.1111/j.1749-6632.2003.tb03185.x |vauthors=Krude H, Biebermann H, Gruters A |title=Mutations in the human proopiomelanocortin gene |journal=Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. |volume=994 |issue= 1|pages=233–9 | date=June 2003 |pmid=12851321 |bibcode=2003NYASA.994..233K |s2cid=23462921 }}

There have also been rare reports of scalp or beard hair spontaneously turning partially red, with no identified pathological cause.{{cite journal |last1=Prasad |first1=Vijeta |last2=Mohta |first2=Alpana |last3=Srinivasa |first3=Rekha |last4=Ghiya |first4=Bhikamchand |title=Heterochromia of beard hair - A rare case report |journal=Our Dermatology Online |date=2022 |volume=13 |issue=e |page=e14 |url=http://www.odermatol.com/odermatology/2022e/E393.Heterochromia-PrasadV.pdf}}

File:Posthumous painted portrait of Cleopatra VII of Egypt, from Herculaneum, Italy.jpg of Ptolemaic Egypt with red hair and her distinct facial features, wearing a royal diadem and pearl-studded hairpins, from Roman Herculaneum, mid-1st century AD{{citation|last1=Walker|first1=Susan|last2=Higgs|first2=Peter|editor-surname1=Walker|editor-given1=Susan|editor-surname2=Higgs|editor-given2=Peter |title=Cleopatra of Egypt: from History to Myth |location=Princeton, N.J.|chapter=Painting with a portrait of a woman in profile |publisher=Princeton University Press (British Museum Press) |year=2001 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cleopatraofegypt0000unse/page/314 314–315] |isbn=9780691088358 |postscript=. |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/cleopatraofegypt0000unse|url=https://archive.org/details/cleopatraofegypt0000unse/page/314}}Fletcher, Joann (2008). Cleopatra the Great: The Woman Behind the Legend. New York: Harper. {{ISBN|978-0-06-058558-7}}, image plates and captions between pp. 246-247.]]File:Istanbul - Museo archeol. - Tyche e Plutone - sec. II d.C. - Foto G. Dall'Orto 28-5-2006 2.jpg depicting the goddess Tyche holding the infant Plutus in her arms, 2nd century, Istanbul Archaeological Museum]]

In various times and cultures, red hair has been prized, feared, and ridiculed.

File:Alessandro Botticelli Portrait of a Lady (Smeralda Brandini) detail.jpg]]

File:Elizabeth I (Armada Portrait).jpg, {{circa}} 1588]]

File:Accolade by Edmund Blair Leighton.jpg]]

Queen Elizabeth I of England was a redhead, and during the Elizabethan era in England, red hair was fashionable for women. In modern times, red hair is subject to fashion trends; celebrities such as Nicole Kidman, Alyson Hannigan, Marcia Cross, Christina Hendricks, Emma Stone and Geri Halliwell can boost sales of red hair dye.{{Citation needed|date=July 2012}}

Sometimes, red hair darkens as people get older, becoming a more brownish color or losing some of its vividness. This leads some to associate red hair with youthfulness, a quality that is generally considered desirable. In several countries such as India, Iran, Bangladesh and Pakistan, henna and saffron are used on hair to give it a bright red appearance.[http://www.plantcultures.org.uk/plants/henna_history.html Henna – history] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081123124857/http://www.plantcultures.org.uk/plants/henna_history.html |date=23 November 2008 }} Plant Cultures: Exploring plants and people. 18 November 2004

Many painters have exhibited a fascination with red hair. The hair color "Titian" takes its name from the artist Titian, who often painted women with red hair. Early Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli's famous painting The Birth of Venus depicts the mythological goddess Venus as a redhead. Other painters notable for their redheads include the Pre-Raphaelites, Edmund Leighton, Modigliani,{{cite web | url = http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/modigliani/modigliani.redhead-dress.jpg | title = Image Young Redhead in an Evening Dress | access-date = 11 May 2011 | publisher = WebMuseum}} and Gustav Klimt.{{cite web | url = http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/klimt/klimt.danae.jpg | title = Danae | access-date = 11 May 2011 | publisher = WebMuseum}}

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story "The Red-Headed League" (1891) involves a man who is asked to become a member of a mysterious group of red-headed people. The 1943 film DuBarry Was a Lady featured red-heads Lucille Ball and Red Skelton in Technicolor.

Notable comic book characters with red hair include Jean Grey, Red Sonja, Mystique, and Poison Ivy.{{cite web|url=http://womenwriteaboutcomics.com/2014/02/25/one-gingers-top-ten-list-of-kick-ass-red-headed-superheroes-and-villains/|title=One Ginger's Top Ten List of Red Headed Superheroes (and Villains) - Women Write About Comics|date=25 February 2014|website=womenwriteaboutcomics.com}}

A book of photographs of red haired people was published in 2020, Gingers by Kieran Dodds (2020).{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-54929694|title = In pictures: Connecting the world's redheads|work = BBC News|date = 15 November 2020}}

File:Redheadday3.jpg, September 2007]]

There has been an annual Redhead Day festival in the Netherlands that attracts red-haired participants from around the world. The festival was held in Breda, a city in the south east of the Netherlands, prior to 2019, when it moved to Tilburg.{{Cite web|last = Spencer |first = Clare |title = People get red-dy |work = BBC News Magazine |publisher = BBC |date = 9 September 2009 |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8245290.stm|access-date = 10 September 2009}} It attracts participants from over 80 countries. The international event began in 2005, when Dutch painter Bart Rouwenhorst decided he wanted to paint 15 redheads.

The Irish Redhead Convention, held in late August in County Cork since 2011, claims to be a global celebration and attracts people from several continents. The celebrations include crowning the ginger King and Queen, competitions for the best red eyebrows and most freckles per square inch, orchestral concerts and carrot throwing competitions.{{cite news |last = Curtis |first = Dan |title = The Irish Redhead Convention takes place in County Cork |work = BBC News |date = 25 August 2014 |url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28794036 | access-date = 4 September 2014}}

A smaller red-hair day festival is held since 2013 by the UK's Anti-Bullying Alliance in London, with the aim of instilling pride in having red-hair.{{cite web |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ginger-pride-festival-take-place-5973027 |title=Ginger Pride festival will be held in 2016 to celebrate redheads |first=Zahra |last=Mulroy |date=2 July 2015 |website=Mirror.co.uk |access-date=19 August 2017}}

Since 2014, a red-hair event is held in Israel, at Kibbutz Gezer (Carrot), for the local Israeli red hair community,{{cite web|url=http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/08/israel-redhead-convention-ginger-children-kibbutz.html|title=Israel holds first conference for 'gingers'|date=29 August 2014|website=Al-monitor.com |access-date=19 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819232409/http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/08/israel-redhead-convention-ginger-children-kibbutz.html|archive-date=19 August 2017|url-status=dead}} including both Ashkenazi and Mizrahi red-heads.[http://mekomit.co.il/%D7%9B%D7%A0%D7%A1-%D7%94%D7%92%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%92%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%91%D7%A7%D7%99%D7%91%D7%95%D7%A5-%D7%92%D7%96%D7%A8 Fifty shades of orange: A conference on Kibbutz Gezer redheads] By Hagai Matar, Mekomit.co.il, 28 August 2014. However, the number of attendees has to be restricted due to the risk of rocket attacks, leading to anger in the red-hair community.[http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.613111 Finally, a Red Alert This Summer That (Most) Israelis Welcomed] Roy Arad, Haaretz.com, 30 August 2014. The organizers state; "The event is a good thing for many redheads, who had been embarrassed about being redheads before."

The first and only festival for red heads in the United States was launched in 2015. Held in Highwood, Illinois, Redhead Days draws participants from across the United States.{{cite web|url=http://chicagoist.com/2016/06/05/rain_cant_dampen_second_annual_redh.php#photo-1|title=Photos: We Visited The Only Festival For Redheads In The U.S. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161025204922/http://chicagoist.com/2016/06/05/rain_cant_dampen_second_annual_redh.php|archive-date=25 October 2016 |author=Mlinaric, Jessica |publisher=Chicagoist}}

A festival to celebrate the red-haired people is held annually in Izhevsk (Russia), the capital of Udmurtia, since 2004.{{cite web|website=izh.ru|url=http://www.izh.ru/i/info/21088.html|language=ru|title=Рыжий фестиваль|date=2017|publisher=Izhevsk city portal}}

MC1R Magazine is a publication for red-haired people worldwide, based in Hamburg, Germany.{{cite web|title=MC1R Magazine|website=mc1r-magazine.com|url=https://mc1r-magazine.com/}}

File:Mariya Magdalena.jpg is commonly portrayed with long red hair, as in this 1859 painting by Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys.]]

In ancient Egypt, red hair was associated with the deity Set, as well as Ramesses II.Brier, Egyptian Mummies (1994), pp. 200–01.{{Cite book |last=Tyldesley |first=Joyce |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hzbRBN6Ugr0C&q=%22red+hair%22 |title=Ramesses: Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh |date=2001-04-26 |publisher=Penguin UK |isbn=978-0-14-194978-9 |language=en}}

In the Iliad, Achilles' hair is described as {{transl|grc|xanthēs}} ({{lang|grc|ξανθῆς}}{{cite web | url = https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0133:book=1 | title = Homer, Iliad, Book 1 | access-date = 2 May 2011 | work = Perseus Digital Library | publisher = Tufts University}}), usually translated as blonde, or golden{{cite book | last1 = Homer | author-link = Homer | title = The Iliad | others = Trans. Ian Johnston, Ian C. Johnston |publisher = Penguin | year = 1999 | pages = 210 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=STzlhnEKIRkC | access-date = 1 May 2011 | isbn = 978-0-9776269-0-8 | quote = As he argued in his mind and heart, he slid his huge sword part way from its sheath. At that moment, Athena came down from heaven. White-armed Hera sent her. She cherished both men, cared for them equally. Athena stood behind Achilles, grabbed him by his golden hair, invisible to all except Achilles.}} but sometimes as red or tawny.{{cite book | last1 = Homer | author-link = Homer | title = The Iliad: the story of Achillês | others = Trans. William Henry Denham Rouse |publisher = Penguin | year = 1999 | pages = 14–15 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BpsIO6rYWY0C | access-date = 1 May 2011 | isbn = 978-0-451-52737-0 | quote = As these thoughts went through his mind, and he began to draw the great sword from the sheath, Athena came down from heaven: Queen Hera sent her, loving and anxious at once. She stood behind him and held him back by his long red hair. No other man saw her but Achilles alone.}}{{cite book | last1 = Homer | author-link = Homer | others = Trans. Augustus Taber Murray, William F. Wyatt | title = Iliad: Books 1–12 | publisher = Harvard University Press | year = 1999 | pages = 27 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=28hfAAAAMAAJ | access-date = 1 May 2011 | isbn = 978-0-674-99579-6}} His son Neoptolemus also bears the name Pyrrhus, a possible reference to his own red hair.{{cite book | last1 = Grant | first1 = Michael | last2 = Hazel | first2 = John | title = Who's who in classical mythology | publisher = Psychology Press | year = 2002 | pages = 359 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=IKRDEAeout8C | access-date = 1 May 2011 | isbn = 978-0-415-26041-1 | quote = The child subsequently born to her was called Pyrrhus ('red-haired'), either because he had red hair or because the disguised Achilles had been known at Lycomedes' court as Pyrrha.}}

The Norse god Thor is usually described as having red hair.{{cite book | last1 = Lacy | first1 = Terry G. | title = Ring of Seasons: Iceland—Its Culture and History | publisher = University of Michigan Press | year = 2000 | pages = 85 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RbCM2C7ohT8C | access-date = 1 May 2011 | isbn = 978-0-472-08661-0 | quote = He had a mass of red hair and a red beard and, when roused, a fearsome voice and a penetrating gaze under beetling red eyebrows.}}

The Hebrew word usually translated "ruddy" or "reddish-brown" (admoni {{lang|he|אדמוני}}, from the root ADM {{lang|he|אדם}}, see also Adam and Edom){{cite web|title=Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible|url=http://www.abibleconcordance.com/40H-0700.htm|website=Abibleconcordance.com|access-date=19 August 2017}}{{cite web|title=Biblos Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible|url=http://biblesuite.com/hebrew/119.htm|website=Biblesuite.com|access-date=19 August 2017}}{{cite web|title=Biblos Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible|url=http://biblesuite.com/hebrew/132.htm|website=Biblesuite.com|access-date=19 August 2017}} was used to describe both Esau and David.

Early artistic representations of Mary Magdalene usually depict her as having long flowing red hair, although a description of her hair color was never mentioned in the Bible, and it is possible the color is an effect caused by pigment degradation in the ancient paint.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

Judas Iscariot is also represented with red hair in Spanish culture{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WX3QAAAAMAAJ |chapter=Red Hair |date= July 1851 |title=The eclectic magazine of foreign literature, science, and art |volume=2|publisher=Leavitt, Trow, & Co. |pages=315–317}}{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/lettersfromspai00whigoog|page= [https://archive.org/details/lettersfromspai00whigoog/page/n273 256]|title=Letters from Spain |first=Joseph Blanco |last=White |publisher=H. Colburn |year=1825}} and in the works of William Shakespeare,{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EWcPAAAAYAAJ |page= 473|title=A glossary: or, Collection of words, phrases, names, and allusions to customs, proverbs, etc., which have been thought to require illustration, in the words of English authors, particularly Shakespeare, and his contemporaries |volume= 1|first1= Robert |last1= Nares|first2=James Orchard |last2=Halliwell-Phillipps |last3=Wright |publisher=J.R. Smith |year=1859 |first3=Thomas}} reinforcing the negative stereotype.

The mainly masculine given name Rory – a name of Goidelic origin, which is an anglicisation of the {{langx|ga|Ruairí}}/Ruaidhrí/Ruaidhrígh/Raidhrígh, {{langx|gd|Ruairidh}} and Manx: Rauree{{cite book |last=Martin-Doyle |first=Katie |title=Treasury of Baby Names |year=1999 |publisher=Worth Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-1-903025-11-6 |page=220 |quote=Anglicised form of the Irish Gaelic names Ruaidhri, Ruari, and the Scottish Gaelic Ruairidh and Ruaraidh}} which is common to the Irish, Highland Scots and their diasporas{{cite book |url=http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/default.aspx? |title=Learn about the family history of your surname |isbn=0-19-280050-7 |last1=Hanks |first1=Patrick |last2=Hodges |first2=Flavia |year=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=8 June 2020 |archive-date=26 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130426121517/http://www.ancestry.com/learn/facts/default.aspx |url-status=dead }} for the given name "Rory". – means "red-haired king", from ruadh ("red-haired" or "rusty") and rígh ("king"). However, present bearers of the name are by no means all red-haired themselves.

{{main|Discrimination against people with red hair}}

A common belief about redheads is that they have fiery tempers and sharp tongues. In Anne of Green Gables, a character says of Anne Shirley, the redheaded heroine, that "her temper matches her hair", while in The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield remarks that "People with red hair are supposed to get mad very easily, but Allie [his dead brother] never did, and he had very red hair."

During the early stages of modern medicine, red hair was thought to be a sign of a sanguine temperament.[http://www.mcmillinmedia.com/eamt/files/brown2/brown7.html The Practical Magnetic Healer] G. M. Brown 1899 In the Indian medicinal practice of Ayurveda, redheads are seen as most likely to have a Pitta temperament.

Another belief is that redheads are highly sexed; for example, Jonathan Swift satirizes redhead stereotypes in part four of Gulliver's Travels, "A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms," when he writes that: "It is observed that the red-haired of both sexes are more libidinous and mischievous than the rest, whom yet they much exceed in strength and activity." Swift goes on to write that "neither was the hair of this brute [a Yahoo] of a red colour (which might have been some excuse for an appetite a little irregular) but black as a sloe".{{cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/829|title=Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World|first=Jonathan|last=Swift|date=1 February 1997|access-date=19 August 2017|publisher=Project Gutenberg}} Such beliefs were given a veneer of scientific credibility in the 19th century by Cesare Lombroso and Guglielmo Ferrero. They concluded that red hair was associated with crimes of lust, and claimed that 48% of "criminal women" were redheads.Nicole Hahn Rafter (ed), Lombroso & Ferraro, Criminal Woman, the Prostitute, and the Normal Woman, Duke University Press, 2004, pp. 123–24.

Theophilus Presbyter describes how the blood of a red-haired young man is necessary to create gold from copper, in a mixture with the ashes of a basilisk.Palo Galloni, Il sacro artefice, Laterza, Bari 1998 (Italian book, chapter 2 about the recipe of Theophilus De auro hyspanico).

According to Montague Summers, red hair and green eyes were thought to be the sign of a witch, werewolf or vampire during the Middle Ages:

{{blockquote|Those whose hair is red, of a certain peculiar shade, are unmistakably vampires. It is significant that in ancient Egypt, as Manetho tells us, human sacrifices were offered at the grave of Osiris, and the victims were red-haired men who were burned, their ashes being scattered far and wide by winnowing-fans. It is held by some authorities that this was done to fertilize the fields and produce a bounteous harvest, red-hair symbolizing the golden wealth of the corn. But these men were called Typhonians, and were representatives not of Osiris but of his evil rival Typhon, whose hair was red.}}

During the Spanish Inquisition, people of red hair were identified as Jewish and isolated for persecution. In medieval Italy and Spain, red hair was associated with the heretical nature of Jews and their rejection of Jesus, and thus Judas Iscariot was commonly depicted as red-haired in Italian and Spanish art. Writers from Shakespeare to Dickens would identify Jewish characters by giving them red hair, such as the villainous Jewish characters Shylock and Fagin.Shakespeare and the Mediterranean: the selected proceedings of the International Shakespeare Association World Congress, Valencia, 2001, Theatres and Performances, (University of Delaware Press, 2004), page 40 The antisemitic association persisted into modern times in Soviet Russia. The medieval prejudice against red-hair may have derived from the ancient biblical tradition, in relation to biblical figures such as Esau and King David. The ancient historian Josephus would mistranslate the Hebrew Torah to describe the more positive figure of King David as 'golden haired', in contrast to the negative figure of Esau, even though the original Hebrew Torah implies that both King David and Esau had 'fiery red hair'.Interpretation of Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity: Studies in Language and Tradition, Craig A. Evans, Bloomsbury Publishing, 13 December 2004, page 177-178

In his 1885 book I Say No, Wilkie Collins wrote "The prejudice against habitual silence, among the lower order of the people, is almost as inveterate as the prejudice against red hair."

In his 1895 memoir and history The Gurneys of Earlham, Augustus John Cuthbert Hare described an incident of harassment:

"The second son, John, was born in 1750. As a boy he had bright red hair, and it is amusingly recorded that one day in the streets of Norwich a number of boys followed him, pointing to his red locks and saying, "Look at that boy; he's got a bonfire on the top of his head," and that John Gurney was so disgusted that he went to a barber's, had his head shaved, and went home in a wig. He grew up, however, a remarkably attractive-looking young man."{{cite book|last1=Hare|first1=Augustus John Cuthbert|title=The Gurneys of Earlham.|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/gurneysofearlham01hareiala|date=1895|chapter="The Home of Earlham"}}

File:Frederick I (HRE).jpg, Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 to 1190, from the Historia Welforum]]

In British English, the word "ginger" is sometimes used to describe red-headed people (at times in an insulting manner),{{cite news|url = http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/jody-brettkelly/redheads-we-love_b_1634531.html|title = Redheads We Love!|work = The Huffington Post|access-date = 5 July 2012|date = 2012-06-29}} with terms such as "gingerphobia"[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1999/02/99/e-cyclopedia/686977.stm Gingerphobia: Carrot-tops see red] BBC News, 22 February 2000 and "gingerism"{{cite news | last=BBC News | title=Is Gingerism as Bad as Racism? | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6725653.stm | access-date=5 July 2007 | date=6 June 2007}} used by the British media. It is roughly the color of dried, powdered ginger root.{{Cite web |title=Oxford English Dictionary s.v. "ginger" II.5b |url=https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/78372 |access-date=2023-06-28 |website=Oxford English Dictionary}} In Britain, redheads are also sometimes referred to disparagingly as "carrot tops" and "carrot heads" (the comedian "Carrot Top" uses this stage name). "Gingerism" has been compared to racism, although this is widely disputed, and bodies such as the UK Commission for Racial Equality do not monitor cases of discrimination and hate crimes against redheads.

Nonetheless, individuals and families in Britain are targeted for harassment and violence because of their hair colour. In 2003, a 20-year-old was stabbed in the back for "being ginger".{{cite news | last=BBC News | title=Man stabbed over "ginger hair" | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/3233392.stm | access-date=5 July 2007 | date=24 November 2003}} In 2007, a UK woman won an award from a tribunal after being sexually harassed and receiving abuse because of her red hair;{{cite news|title=Woman wins ginger jibes tribunal|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6238332.stm|access-date=21 April 2017|work=BBC News|date=25 June 2007}} in the same year, a family in Newcastle upon Tyne, was forced to move twice after being targeted for abuse and hate crimes on account of their red hair.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/6714735.stm Red-haired family forced to move] BBC News, 2 June 2007 In May 2009, a schoolboy committed suicide after being bullied for having red hair.[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5312394/Schoolboy-bullied-over-ginger-hair-hanged-himself.html Schoolboy bullied over ginger hair hanged himself] Daily Telegraph, 12 May 2009 In 2013, a fourteen-year-old boy in Lincoln had his right arm broken and his head stamped on by three men who attacked him "just because he had red hair"; the three men were subsequently jailed for a combined total of ten years and one month for the attack.{{cite news |title='Red hair revenge' attack on Lincoln boy sees men jailed |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-22164688 |work=BBC News |date=16 April 2013 |access-date=11 November 2013}}

This prejudice has been satirised on a number of TV shows. English comedian Catherine Tate (herself a redhead) appeared as a red-haired character in a running sketch of her series The Catherine Tate Show. The sketch saw fictional character Sandra Kemp, who was forced to seek solace in a refuge for ginger people because she had been ostracised from society.[http://gingerism.com/2008/12/catherine-tate-ginger-refuge.html Catherine Tate: Ginger Refuge video] Gingerism.com, 18 December 2008 The British comedy Bo' Selecta! (starring redhead Leigh Francis) featured a spoof documentary which involved a caricature of Mick Hucknall presenting a show in which celebrities (played by themselves) dyed their hair red for a day and went about daily life being insulted by people; Hucknall, who says that he has repeatedly faced prejudice or been described as ugly on account of his hair colour, argues that Gingerism should be described as a form of racism.{{cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/04/1057179152947.html |title=Taking the Mick |first=Richard |last=Jinman |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=4 July 2003 |access-date=21 April 2017 }} Comedian Tim Minchin, himself a redhead, also covered the topic in his song "Prejudice".{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVN_0qvuhhw| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/KVN_0qvuhhw| archive-date=2021-10-30|title=Prejudice by Tim Minchin|last=Tim Minchin|date=4 March 2010|access-date=19 August 2017|publisher=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}

The pejorative use of the word "ginger" and related discrimination was used to illustrate a point about racism and prejudice in the "Ginger Kids", "Le Petit Tourette", "It's a Jersey Thing" and "Fatbeard" episodes of South Park.

Film and television programmes often portray school bullies as having red hair.{{cite web | last=Daily Bruin | title=The stigma of TV's redheads | date=3 April 2006 | url = http://dailybruin.com/2006/04/02/ithe-stigma-of-tvs-redheadsi/ | access-date=24 June 2015}} However, children with red hair are often themselves targeted by bullies; "Somebody with ginger hair will stand out from the crowd," says anti-bullying expert Louise Burfitt-Dons.{{cite news|url=https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3378972|title=Carrot-Tops: Being Red Not So Easy|date=13 August 2007|work=ABC News|access-date=29 August 2013}}

In Australian slang, redheads are often nicknamed "Blue" or "Bluey".{{cite web|url=http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-slang|title=Australian slang – a story of Australian English|website=Australia.gov.au|access-date=2017-08-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819100138/http://www.australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/austn-slang|archive-date=19 August 2017|url-status=dead}} More recently, they have been referred to as "rangas" (a word derived from the red-haired ape, the orangutan), sometimes with derogatory connotations.{{cite web|title=Word of the month |url=http://andc.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/WOTM%20-%20Nov.%202012.pdf|work=Oxford Australia Word of the Month|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=November 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170214223735/http://andc.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/WOTM%20-%20Nov.%202012.pdf|archive-date=14 February 2017}} The word "rufus" (a variant of rufous, a reddish-brown color) has been used in both Australian and British slang to refer to red-headed people.{{NSW GNR|id=TRjLBKtLKW|title=Rufus River|access-date=10 February 2013}}

In November 2008, social networking website Facebook received criticism after a "Kick a Ginger" group, which aimed to establish a "National Kick a Ginger Day" on 20 November, acquired almost 5,000 members. A 14-year-old boy from Vancouver who ran the Facebook group was subjected to an investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for possible hate crimes.{{cite news |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/canada/3498766/Facebook-Kick-a-Ginger-campaign-prompts-attacks-on-redheads.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/canada/3498766/Facebook-Kick-a-Ginger-campaign-prompts-attacks-on-redheads.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Facebook 'Kick a Ginger' campaign prompts attacks on redheads|last=Moore|first=Matthew |date=22 November 2008 |work=The Daily Telegraph |access-date=28 December 2009 |location=London}}{{cbignore}}

In December 2009 British supermarket chain Tesco withdrew a Christmas card which had the image of a child with red hair sitting on the lap of Father Christmas, and the words: "Santa loves all kids. Even ginger ones" after customers complained the card was offensive.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/8411894.stm "Tesco apologises over 'ginger jibe' card"]. BBC News. 14 December 2009. Retrieved 28 December 2009.

In October 2010, Harriet Harman, the former Equality Minister in the British government under Labour, faced accusations of prejudice after she described the red-haired Treasury secretary Danny Alexander as a "ginger rodent".{{cite news|last=Milton|first=Nicholas|title=I too have ginger hair. Abusing us is not acceptable prejudice|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/10/ginger-hair-edward-watson-gingerism|access-date=21 April 2017|work=The Guardian|date=10 May 2016}} Alexander responded to the insult by stating that he was "proud to be ginger".[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-11658228 "Harriet Harman says 'ginger rodent' comment was wrong"]. BBC News. 30 October 2010. Harman was subsequently forced to apologise for the comment, after facing criticism for prejudice against a minority group.{{cite news |url= https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/10/31/harman-sorry-for-ginger-rodent-jibe-115875-22677443/ |title= Harriet Harman apologises for 'ginger rodent' jibe at Danny Alexander |work=Daily Mirror |location= London |first=Vincent |last= Moss |date=31 October 2010}}

In September 2011, Cryos International, one of the world's largest sperm banks, announced that it would no longer accept donations from red-haired men due to low demand from women seeking artificial insemination.{{cite news| url=https://www.thestar.com/living/article/1056533--sperm-bank-can-t-find-takers-for-red-haired-genes?bn=1 | location=Toronto | work=The Star | title=Sperm bank can't find takers for red-haired genes | date=20 September 2011}}

{{anchor|Chinese slur}}

The term ang mo ({{zh|s=红毛|p=hóng máo|poj=âng-mo͘}}) in Hokkien (Min Nan) Chinese, meaning "red-haired",{{cite book|author=Walter Henry Medhurst|author-link=Walter Henry Medhurst|title=A Dictionary of the Hok-Këèn Dialect of the Chinese Language, according to the Reading and Colloquial Idioms; containing about 12,000 Characters … Accompanied by a Short Historical and Statistical Account of Hok-Këèn; a Treatise on the Orthography of the … Dialect, etc.|location=Macao|publisher=Printed at the Honorable East India Company's Press by G.J. Steyn and Brother|year=1832|page=481, col. 1|quote={{lang|zh|紅毛}} âng mô, red haired, generally applied to the English people.}} is used in Malaysia and Singapore, although it refers to all white people, never exclusively people with red hair. The epithet is sometimes rendered as ang mo kui ({{lang|zh|红毛鬼}}) meaning "red-haired devil", similar to the Cantonese term gweilo ("foreign devil"). Thus it is viewed as racist and derogatory by some people.See, for instance, {{cite news |title=Soh Chin |author=g Soh Chin|newspaper=The Straits Times (Life!) |location= Singapore |date=30 October 2004 |page=4|quote=[M]any of my Singaporean friends felt the term 'ang moh' was definitely racist. Said one, with surprising finality: 'The original term was "ang moh gui" which means "red hair devil" in Hokkien. That's definitely racist.' However, the 'gui' bit has long been dropped from the term, defanging it considerably. … Both 'ang moh gui' and 'gwailo' – Cantonese for 'ghost (white) guy' – originated from the initial Chinese suspicion of foreigners way back in those days when the country saw itself as the Middle Kingdom.}}; {{cite news |author=Ashley, Sean |title=Stop calling me ang moh [letter] |newspaper=The Straits Times |date=5 November 2004|page=5|quote=As an 'ang moh' who has lived here for over six years, I hope more people will realise just how offensive the term is. |location= Singapore}} Others, however, maintain it is acceptable.For instance, {{cite news |title=ang moh |author=Hubble, Garry |newspaper=The Straits Times |location= Singapore |date=5 November 2004|page=5 |quote=To have my Chinese Singaporean friends call me 'ang moh' is more humorous than anything else. As no insult is intended, none is taken.}} Despite this ambiguity, it is a widely used term. It appears, for instance, in Singaporean newspapers such as The Straits Times,{{cite news |author=Sargent, Michael D. |title=Lessons for this gweilo and ang moh |url=http://www.zalacliphairextensions.com.au/blog/lessons-for-this-gweilo-and-ang-moh/ |newspaper=The Straits Times |location=Singapore |date=21 October 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325163730/http://www.zalacliphairextensions.com.au/blog/lessons-for-this-gweilo-and-ang-moh/ |archive-date=25 March 2014}}; {{cite news |author=Ee Wen Wei, Jamie |title=Meet Bukit Panjang's 'ang moh leader' |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070515111426/http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_175635.html |url=http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_175635.html |archive-date=2007-05-15 |newspaper=The Straits Times |location=Singapore |date=11 November 2007 }} and in television programmes and films.

The Chinese characters for ang mo are the same as those in the historical Japanese term Kōmō ({{lang|ja|紅毛}}), which was used during the Edo period (1603–1868) as an epithet for Dutch or Northern European people. It primarily referred to Dutch traders who were the only Europeans allowed to trade with Japan during Sakoku, its 200-year period of isolation.See, for example, {{cite journal|doi=10.2307/2383172 |author=Ranzaburo Otori|title=The Acceptance of Western Medicine in Japan |journal=Monumenta Nipponica|year=1964|volume=19|issue=3/4|pages=254–274|jstor=2383172}}; {{cite book |author=P[eng] Y[oke] Ho|author2=F. P[eter] Lisowski|chapter=A Brief History of Medicine in Japan|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dtxgS4TkxrUC&pg=PA73|title=Concepts of Chinese Science and Traditional Healing Arts: A Historical Review |location=Singapore |publisher=World Scientific|isbn=978-981-02-1495-1|id=(hbk.). |year=1993|pages=65–78 at 73|quote=The culture which entered Japan through the Dutch language was called Kōmō culture – Kōmō means red hair.}}; {{cite book |author=Winkel, Margarita |chapter=Academic Traditions, Urban Dynamics and Colonial Threat: The Rise of Ethnography in Early Modern Japan|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mezulNhciCgC&pg=PA53|editor=van Bremen, Jan |editor2=Akitoshi Shimizu |title=Anthropology and Colonialism in Asia and Oceania |location=Richmond, Surrey |publisher=Curzon |year=1999|pages=40–64 at 53|isbn=978-0-7007-0604-4|quote=His [Morishima Chūryō's] book on the Dutch, 'Red-hair miscellany' (Kōmō zatsuwa), also appeared in 1787. … 'Red-hair miscellany' is the first book which contains a relatively extensive description of the daily life of the Dutch residents in the confinements of Deshima, the man made island allotted to them in the Bay of Nagasaki.}}; {{cite journal |author= Veldman, Jan E. |title=A Historical Vignette: Red-Hair Medicine |journal=ORL |year=2002|volume=64|issue=2|pmid=12021510|pages=157–165 |doi=10.1159/000057797|s2cid=7541789 }}; {{cite journal|author=Thomas M. van Gulik|author2=Yuji Nimura |title=Dutch Surgery in Japan |journal=World Journal of Surgery| date=January 2005 |volume=29|pmid=15599736|issue=1|pages=10–17 at 10 |doi=10.1007/s00268-004-7549-3|s2cid=25659653|quote=Several Dutch surgical schools were founded through which Dutch surgery, known in Japan as 'surgery of the red-haired' was propagated.}}; {{cite news |author=Michael Dunn |title=Japanning for southern barbarians: Some of the first items traded with the West were decorated with maki-e lacquer|url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fa20081120a1.html|archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/5qjK1lxHM?url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fa20081120a1.html |archive-date=24 June 2010|newspaper=Japan Times|date=20 November 2008|quote=Dutch taste dictated a new style of export lacquer known as 'komo shikki' ('red hair' – a common term for Northern Europeans), in which elaborate gold-lacquer decoration replaced the complex inlays of Nanban ware.|url-status=dead}}

The historic fortress Fort Santo Domingo in Tamsui, Taiwan was nicknamed in Taiwanese Hokkien {{zh|t=紅毛城|poj=Âng-mn̂g-siâⁿ|l=Red-hair (ang mo) fort}}.{{R:nan:tdj|poj=âng-mn̂g-siâⁿ|hj=紅毛城|v=1|p=94|n=918}}

• Blond hair
• Black hair
• Brown hair
• Erythrism – in non-human animals
• How to be a Redhead
• List of people with red hair

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{{reflist}}

• {{Cite book |last=Cass |first=Cort |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bp-DmMgkNoEC |title=The Redhead Handbook |date=2003 |publisher=Blue Mountain Arts, Inc. |isbn=978-1-58786-011-9}}

{{Commons|Red hair}}

{{Wiktionary|redhead}}

{{Hair colors}}

Category:Stereotypes

Category:Hair color