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Red hair, also known as ginger hair, is a human hair color found in 2–6% of people of northern Europe or Northwestern European ancestry and lesser frequency in other populations. It is most common in individuals homozygous for a recessive allele on chromosome 16 that produces an altered version of the MC1R protein.
Red hair varies in hue from a deep burgundy or bright copper, or auburn hair, to burnt orange or red-orange to Venetian blonde. Characterized by high levels of the reddish pigment pheomelanin and relatively low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin, it is typically associated with Light skin, lighter eye color, , and sensitivity to ultraviolet light.
Cultural reactions to red hair have been varied. The term "redhead" has been in use since at least 1510, while the term "ginger" is sometimes used, especially in Britain and Ireland, to describe a person with red hair.
The origin of red hair can be traced to Central Asia, caused by a mutation in the MC1R gene.Jacky Collis Harvey; A History of the Redhead; 2018; Running Press; USA
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. The highest concentration of red head carriers in the world is found in Edinburgh, making it the red head capital of the world. 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%.
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". The Volga region still has one of the highest percentages of red-headed people. (2025). 9781603764032, Workman Publishing Company. ISBN 9781603764032
Red hair is also found amongst the Ashkenazi Jewish populations. 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. The stereotype that red hair is Jewish remains in parts of Eastern Europe and Russia. (2025). 9780791449455, SUNY Press. ISBN 9780791449455
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.
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. 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. In the Book of Wei, Chinese author Wei Shou notes that Liu Yuan was over 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, p.373. University of California Press 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". 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.
The Kipchaks people were a Turkic peoples 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.
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.
In certain Biblical accounts, Hebrews and Israelites 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.
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 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. "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,; Duffy et al. 29; Smith et al. 30: Parmer et al. 31; Bastiaens et al. 33,; Kennedy et al. 35; Flannagan et al 39, and reviewed by Sturm, 37)." 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 Sun tanning. Because of the natural tanning reaction to the sun's ultraviolet light and high amounts of pheomelanin in the skin, 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 gene. Even if both parents do not have red hair themselves, both can be Genetic carrier 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.
In species other than primates, red hair has different genetic origins and mechanisms.
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.
Estimates on the original occurrence of the currently active gene for red hair vary from 20,000 to 100,000 years ago.
A DNA study of Neanderthal genomes determined that the MC1R gene resulting in red hair in modern humans was not present in Neanderthal, and "if variants contributing to red hair were present in Neanderthals, they were probably not at high frequency."
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.
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 such as melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma. (2025). 9781841841892, Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781841841892 (2025). 9780071370509, McGraw Hill Professional. ISBN 9780071370509
Researchers have found that people with red hair require greater amounts of anesthetic. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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. One study, however, reports a link between red hair and a higher rate of bruising.
There have also been rare reports of scalp or beard hair spontaneously turning partially red, with no identified pathological cause.
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. Henna – history Plant Cultures: Exploring plants and people. 18 November 2004
Many painters have exhibited a fascination with red hair. The hair color "Titian hair" 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, and Gustav Klimt.
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.
A book of photographs of red haired people was published in 2020, Gingers by Kieran Dodds (2020).
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.
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.
Since 2014, a red-hair event is held in Israel, at Kibbutz Gezer (Carrot), for the local Israeli red hair community, including both Ashkenazi and Mizrahi Jews red-heads. 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. 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.
A festival to celebrate the red-haired people is held annually in Izhevsk (Russia), the capital of Udmurtia, since 2004.
MC1R Magazine is a publication for red-haired people worldwide, based in Hamburg, Germany.
In the Iliad, Achilles' hair is described as (ξανθῆς]]), usually translated as blonde, or golden (1999). 9780977626908, Penguin. ISBN 9780977626908 but sometimes as red or tawny. (1999). 9780451527370, Penguin. ISBN 9780451527370 (1999). 9780674995796, Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674995796 His son Neoptolemus also bears the name Pyrrhus, a possible reference to his own red hair. (2025). 9780415260411, Psychology Press. ISBN 9780415260411
The Norse mythology Thor is usually described as having red hair. (2025). 9780472086610, University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472086610
The Hebrew word usually translated "ruddy" or "reddish-brown" ( admoni אדמוני, from the root ADM אדם, see also Adam and Edom) was used to describe both Esau and David.
Judas Iscariot is also represented with red hair in Spanish culture and in the works of William Shakespeare, reinforcing the negative stereotype.
During the early stages of modern medicine, red hair was thought to be a sign of a temperament. 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 ," 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 of a red colour (which might have been some excuse for an appetite a little irregular) but black as a sloe". 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. (2025). 9780822385592, Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822385592
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:
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." In British English, the word "ginger" is sometimes used to describe red-headed people (at times in an insulting manner), with terms such as "gingerphobia" Gingerphobia: Carrot-tops see red BBC News, 22 February 2000 and "gingerism" used by the British media. It is roughly the color of dried, powdered Ginger. 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 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". In 2007, a UK woman won an award from a tribunal after being sexually harassed and receiving abuse because of her red hair; 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Comedian Tim Minchin, himself a redhead, also covered the topic in his song "Prejudice".
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 bullying as having red hair. 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.
In Australian slang, redheads are often nicknamed "Blue" or "Bluey". More recently, they have been referred to as "rangas" (a word derived from the red-haired ape, the orangutan), sometimes with derogatory connotations. 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.
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.
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.
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". Alexander responded to the insult by stating that he was "proud to be ginger". Harman was subsequently forced to apologise for the comment, after facing criticism for prejudice against a minority group.
In September 2011, Cryos International, one of the world's largest , announced that it would no longer accept donations from red-haired men due to low demand from women seeking artificial insemination.
The Chinese characters for ang mo are the same as those in the historical Japanese term Kōmō (紅毛), which was used during the Edo period (1603–1868) as an epithet for Dutch or Northern European people. It primarily referred to Netherlands traders who were the only Europeans allowed to trade with Japan during Sakoku, its 200-year period of isolation.See, for example, ; ; ; ; ;
The historic fortress Fort Santo Domingo in Tamsui District, Taiwan was nicknamed in Taiwanese Hokkien ang mo]] fort.
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