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A specific gene, MC1R, plays a role that determines if you’ll have red hair or not. Have you ever wondered where the pop culture reference to blond and blue-eyed Vikings comes from? You’d be surprised to learn that historical sources point out that there were more Vikings with red hair than you think. In fact, there’s a debate about the origins of the red hair gene and its correlation to the Norsemen.
An Overview of Red Hair’s History
However, not everyone carrying both of these versions end up having red hair. Someone happens to inherit two variations of the gene that controls which pigment is in your hair and how much is produced. Those variations mean that the person can’t produce dark pigment, and therefore they have red hair. The primary gene responsible for producing red hair is known as MC1R (melanocortin 1 receptor).
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Scotland leads with around 13% and Ireland falls behind at just 10% globally, making the number one and two respectively in the whole world. According to sources, red hair and beards are a genetic trait that is specific to Nordic tribes. It’s even thought that some Norsemen would dye their red hair and beards to look blond using lye soap. These portrayals were reflections of inbuilt classical preconceptions of redheads.
Modern
The gene that plays the biggest role in whether a person inherits red hair is the melanocortin 1 receptor gene, better known as MC1R. In most people, MC1R stimulates the production of eumelanin, but mutations in the gene can cause this production to be reduced. Lastly, if both parents are carriers of the gene variant but don’t have red hair, the child has about a 1 in 4 chance of having truly red hair. The true pattern of inheritance of hair color is somewhat more complicated, though, as there are many genes involved. The gene for red hair is recessive, so a person needs two copies of that gene for it to show up or be expressed.
While the monkeys readily accepted the food from the blue and green shirts, they universally rejected food brought by the red shirts. These pioneers of red hair then began to spread to the Balkans and central and Western Europe in the Bronze Age as they migrated once again, this time in search of metal. The majority of the migrants remained in these regions, although some spread further west to the Atlantic seaboard, and fewer still moved eastwards into Siberia and some as far south as India. However, these latter migrations were scant- which explains the rarity of red hair in these areas. If one parent is redheaded and the other isn’t, the chances their child will have red hair is about 50 percent, though the shade of red may vary greatly.
As it’s believed that Scandinavia had the most redheads during the Viking Age, it can be supposed that most redheads were Vikings during that era. This perception holds to be true when you look at the prevalence of red haired people in where Vikings used to be found around what’s present-day Norway and parts of Scotland. Red beards that matched the red hair were far more common than believed to be. The ginger gene that’s responsible for the mutated appearance of red hair affects all hair cells and follicles. This results in red beards as well even if, as mentioned, some sources suggest that Viking women and men dyed their hair and beards. Yet, there’s more evidence that suggests that these Nordic tribes – especially those in West Scandinavia – were likely to have had red hair genes instead.
Receive a message as soon as we add a new hereditary trait or condition to the iGene Passport. Depite all this, the US has the largest number of redheads living there in the world (up to 18 million compared to 650,000 redheads living in Scotland). Red hair is said to be most common close to the Northern European coasts and islands of the Atlantic Ocean, like British Isles, and in particular among Celtic people.
Most redheads have a gene mutation in the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R). When MC1R is inactivated, the body produces more pheomelanin, which is responsible for reddish skin and hair tones, than eumelanin, which is responsible for shades of brown and black. In people with an activated MC1R, eumelanin can balance pheomelanin, but in redheads, the gene variant prevents that. Your hair color and eye color come down to what genes you inherit from your parents. If one person has both red hair and blue eyes, there’s a good chance one or both of their parents do, too, but not always. If you produce a lot of the melanin type eumelanin, you probably have black or brown hair.
In sunnier countries pale skin (and red hair with it) is less favourable, as pale skin increases the risk of sunburn. Whether you have one or both MC1R gene copies inactivated can also determine the shade of red hair you have, from strawberry blonde to deep auburn to bright red. In some extreme cases, people have been harassed (others have behaved threateningly towards them) for having red hair. Once again collaborative research is helping to provide answers to some of life's important questions.
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The likelihood of this happening is quite rare, especially if neither of your parents has red hair or blue eyes. Sometimes, however, the genetic stars align, and individuals are born with the rare combination of red hair and blue eyes. It is estimated that the most significant genetic mutations that lead to red hair colour (in Europe) are between 30,000 and 80,000 years old. We see these mutations the most in countries where pale skin is more common and where there is less sunlight.
And, if you have low levels of eumelanin plus high levels of a red/yellow pigment called pheomelanin, you may have red hair. There are many kinds of red hair, some fairer, or mixed with blond ('strawberry blond'), some darker, like auburn hair, which is brown hair with a reddish tint. This is because some people only carry one or a few of the several possible MC1R mutations. The lightness of the hair ultimately depends on other mutations regulating the general pigmentation of both the skin and hair. Red hair is a captivating phenomenon that has been the source of fascination for hundreds of years. Through exploring the genetics, history, mythology, and cultural significance of red hair, we can gain insight into why this unique hair color continues to be so captivating.
The natural boundary probably has a lot to do with the sun and climate in general, since the 45th parallel is exactly halfway between the Equator and the North Pole. It is believed that mutations in the MC1R gene first appeared between 40,000 – 50,000 years ago, likely due to a single ancestral individual who carried the mutation. Since then, it has been passed down through generations and has become a common trait among many red-haired individuals. Mad Men’s resident red bombshell Christina Hendricks made the hair colour popular all over again thanks to her timeless beauty. A common belief about redheads is that they have fiery tempers and sharp tongues.
What set Erik the Red apart was that he was the first person to settle in this part of the world. The type of melanin pigments you get (and display to the world) is decided by these receptors. The presence or absence of the color pigment is not an arbitrary occurrence.
The skin of these new redhead people was well adapted to absorbing the much-needed UV light. It was, however, a little too sensitive to the sun- which is why redheads often sunburn and are more prone to skin cancer. While they may display the dominant genes, they still have — and can pass to their kids — the recessive genes. For example, two brown-haired, brown-eyed parents can have a child with blonde hair and blue eyes. At equal latitude, the frequency of red hair correlates amazingly well with the percentage of R1b lineages.
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