Red hair is gorgeous, and it’s comparatively rare, too – except in the Emerald Isle, which features the world’s second largest population of natural redheads (Scotland is number one).
Reminiscent of the beauty of bonfire flames at night, or the turning leaves in autumn, red hair is sometimes accompanied by a dusting of freckles. Often, redheads also have lighter eye colors, such as blue, green, amber, and hazel.
Red hair comes in a variety of shades, from the classic carrot-red, to deepest auburn or strawberry blond; red hair may also be called “ginger” or “titian” hair.
Redheads are more sensitive to nerve-ending pain (also known as thermal pain), and they may actually be harder to “put under” during anesthesia for operations.
It’s also been proven that natural redheads are at a higher risk of developing melanoma, so they need strong UVA/UVB sunscreen lotion when they are out in the sun.
People with red hair often have very delicate complexions, and they usually burn easily in the sun.
Fun Redhead Facts
Being a redhead is special, and, although many people with red hair are not Irish, Scottish, or Welsh (there’s plenty of red hair in Germany and Scandinavia – and some ancient Greeks had this bright hair shade) , the vast majority of those with crimson or burnt-orange locks have a drop or two of Celtic blood in their family backgrounds.
Redheads are also bound to be stereotyped by their hair color, since some people believe that red locks signal a feisty temper, and/or a libidinous, passionate nature.
In past centuries, women paid a terrible price for their stunning red tendrils – for example, during the inquisition in France, in the fourteenth century, women with red hair were burned as witches, and doomed to become the victims of a society that was ruled by rampant, paranoid superstition…
In the ancient myths of Greece, redheaded females were fated to become bloodsucking vampires after their deaths…
In this article, we’ll look at the origins of red hair in Ireland (and other Celtic lands), in order to find out why these fiery tresses have become synonymous with so much myth and lore… and with the Emerald Isle’s own people..
The Origins Of The Irish Redhead
We know just from looking that many Irish people (or people with Gaelic or Celtic ancestry) carry the gene for red hair – however, this gene was not mapped out ’til the mid 1990’s (as melanocortin one receptor MC1R).
