Love Your Red Hair Day, Things About Redheads

Today, November 5th, is National Love Your Red Hair Day, a day to celebrate gingers everywhere! #LoveYourRedHairDay.

Here are some fun facts about redheads:

• The mutated MC1R gene causes red hair. If both parents carry the gene (even if they're not redheads), their baby has a 25% chance of being a redhead.
• Red hair never turns gray. It simply fades with from red to blonde to silvery white.
• Redheads are more likely to be left-handed than any other hair color.
• They feel pain more intensely. Redheads may be more sensitive to hot and cold pain, and in surgeries some redheads require 20% more anesthesia than the average patient.
• They produce their own Vitamin D.
• It’s harder to dye red hair. Red hair hold its pigment tighter than any other shade. Unless the red strands are bleached first, they won’t take the color.
• Redheads were considered vampires by the ancient Greeks. Between 1483 and 1784, up to 45,000 women with red hair were killed for alleged witchcraft in Europe.
• Bees are more likely to sting redheads.
• Less than 2% of the world’s population are redheads. Scotland has the highest percentage of natural redheads (13%), followed by Ireland (10%).
• Reportedly, Hitler was against the marriage of redheads because he wanted to prevent “deviant offspring.”
• Redheads have their own annual festival called Roodharigendag (Redhead Day). It takes place on the first weekend of September in Breda, The Netherlands, and is attended by thousands of redheads. (MSN)