Having red hair can be seen in one of two ways — as a huge blessing, or as a curse.
Throughout history, unfortunately, having red hair hasn't always had the best connotations. Women used to be burned at the stake for sporting this color, because folks believed it had demonic associations.
However, in modern days, most of us have come to see that red hair is incredibly beautiful and somewhat rare, and it very obviously has nothing to do with anyone's relationship to witchcraft. It's simply a result of a person's genetic makeup, and it's often the envy of others who wish they boasted such a bold and fiery look.
There are some things about being a redhead that I never knew, including these 10 incredible tidbits. I had no idea that redheads are so special, scientifically speaking, or that their history is so rich and complicated.
Do you have any redheads in your life that you love to death, even if you are jealous of their gorgeous locks?
Please SHARE with the redheaded folks you know!
Thumbnail sources: Pixabay, Wikimedia Commons
1. Babies With Red Hair Used To Give Their Parents A Reputation
In a ridiculous piece of historical trivia, red-haired babies in the Middle Ages were thought to be conceived during "unclean" sex, or during menstruation.
2. Redheads Have Fewer Hairs Than The Rest
On average, folks with red locks have fewer hairs, but that's because theirs is typically thicker than other colors. Brunettes have an average of 140,000 strands of hair, blondes come in at 110,000 strands, while redheads only have about 90,000.
3. Red Hair Hardly Ever Grays
Red hair doesn't really go gray. It just fades over time, and cycles through different shades of coppery tones, getting lighter and lighter with age. Sometimes it will even fade to a beautiful silvery white.
4. Ancient Greeks Thought Redheads Turned Into Vampires
Ancient Greeks didn't believe in vampires in the way that we know them, but they did have their own, earlier versions of similar spooky monsters of the night. There were many redheads in ancient Greece, and they were referred to as Thracians and considered barbarians, thirsty for war.
There were many legends and myths made up about them by those who opposed their presence in Greece, such as their turning into vampire-like creatures after death.
5. Redheads Are Often Left-Handed
Recessive genes usually come in pairs, so there are quite a number of redheaded people who also got the left-handed gene.
6. Redheads Can Produce Their Own Vitamin D
It's true that redheads have a harder time absorbing vitamin D from the sun, but they can actually produce it from inside their bodies in low sunlight.
7. Redheads Often Fear The Dentist
Redheads have been found to be more resistant to anesthesia like Novocain than others, making going to the dentist for procedures even more scary. When having to go totally under, they need more anesthesia to completely knock them out than most, too, so it's probably not just the dentist they avoid.
8. Adam Is Suspected To Have Been A Redhead
Many signs point to Adam, as in Adam and Eve, being a redhead. There are several reasons to think so, like that "Adom" in Hebrew means red, and that Adam was from "red earth."
9. Proportionally, Redheads Lay Claim To A Huge Amount Of Famous People
Although currently the world's population is only two percent redheaded, there's an extraordinary number of highly influential figures in history that had red hair. Cleopatra, Aphrodite, Queen Elizabeth I, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Jefferson, Vincent van Gogh, Mark Twain, James Joyce, Winston Churchill, and of course Lucille Ball are just a small handful of the very well-known redheads in history.
And although Marilyn Monroe is known for being a blonde bombshell, she was actually a natural redhead too.
10. Redheaded Men May Be Less Likely To Get Prostate Cancer
A study showed that the same gene that causes red hair may also prevent men from getting prostate cancer, as the gene causes cells to divide differently. Sounds like very good news if you're a redheaded man!
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