On Being Red…

There is a lot of mystique and assumptions about red-heads. Assumptions that have little foundation in science but loads of anecdotal evidence, but for once it seems that one of the red-talking points does have some scientific evidence to back it up:

Redheads 'have more sex than blondes or brunettes'

The study by Hamburg Sex Researcher Professor Dr Werner Habermehl looked at the sex lives of hundreds of German women and compared them with their hair colour. He said: "The sex lives of women with red hair were clearly more active than those with other hair colour, with more partners and having sex more often than the average. The research shows that the fiery redhead certainly lives up to her reputation."

On behalf of red-heads everywhere I say, “Well, duh.” ;)

Part of that is the perception of the group as well, I don’t now how many times I have heard older men say, “You have to have at least one redhead before you die…” as if it’s like climbing Mount Everest, driving a Ferrari or drinking Germain-Robin while smoking the finest Havana cigar.

(Which, according to many men on Fark, if you add the essence of all those experiences up and mix in a dash of LSD, equates a relationship with a female red head. There also seemed to be a popular consensus that red heads were smarter than your average bear as well.)

While the proliferation of quality dye jobs has masked the true red-head community (up until the late 1990’s, you could spot a dyed-red from a mile away), the fact is any red-head walking into a bar automatically gets more attention than blondes or brunettes of equal beauty. But part of it is also the lack of inhibition associated with the color which I think affects us on multiple levels. Redheads do not feel as constrained by social custom, ergo they can “cut-loose” more easily than other women in both public and private. They do tend to be more direct and blunt and tend to do or say what they really feel, hence the temperamental reputation. Do we have worse tempers than other hair colors? That I don’t know. Few women express anger outwards as redheads are not only allowed, but practically expected to do. Most women turn anger on inwards themselves or become resentful and manipulative, expressing anger passive-aggressively. Red heads are more likely to explode. I don’t know if they become more angry than other women, but they are more likely to express it.

I love being Red. We so rule. :D

And does this lack of inhibition come encoded in the hair’s genetic make-up, or is it a social expectation: We expect a red-head child to act up, ergo when he or she does, they get away with it more than children of other colorings?

Anyway, here are some more interesting facts about red heads…

While jokes about “red-headed step-children” abound on this side of the pond, red heads in the U.S. don’t seem to suffer the same negative associations that their “ginger” cousins do in the U.K. where red hair was viewed as being well…evil. Associated with witchcraft and the devil (as well as an uninhibited libido, which was viewed a bad thing in women until recently). It’s much more of an open prejudice there, though that has fallen off in more recent generations and many a "Ginger Defense League" website has popped up promoting Red-Hair Pride.

Red heads require more anesthesia than others tending to be more sensitive to pain. This may be linked to the melanin deficiency they suffer (one of their melanin receptors doesn’t work) which of course, results in a greater sensitivity to UV rays (ie. “burning like a lobster”). They also bleed more profusely than people of other colorings, especially during childbirth. This has led some scientist to theorize red hair may be a genetic “whoops” on Mother Nature’s part. Red Hair is the rarest of hair colors and there is a lot of speculation as to where it came from. It seems to have first developed in Europe only 40,000 years ago, fairly recent in human history, but predating the Celts. Scotland actually enjoys the highest concentration of red-heads at 13% with 40% of the population carrying the gene. Ireland comes in a close second with 10% of the population being red haired. This does not neccessarily indicate origin but could be an expression of what they call the "Founder Effect" which results the greater frequency of recessive traits expressed in isolated populations making them genetically unique.

Most primates, including people, practice Positive Assortive Mating meaning “like mates with like”. As much as we idealize the blonde in western culture, the fact is statistically people are more likely to have children with mates with similar features to their own. Blondes marry blondes and brunettes marry brunettes (through the way women dye their hair now a days, one has to wonder if men realize they are getting a brunette when they marry). Except red-heads. Statistically, red-heads tend to prefer mates of different coloring than their own. So if it is a genetic “whoops”, this may be a genetic self-correcting mechanism.

That’s is, if it a nature over nurture thing.

Completely non-scientific personal experience, I have found most red headed women seem to prefer men of dark coloring. It’s that whole saturnine thing. When we see January White-Sale Pale in the mirror every morning, people of tan skin, brown-black hair and dark-brown eyes tend to show up more readily on our radar. They're exotic to us. I will say there have been red headed men who have piqued my interest, but they are rare compared to the brunettes. Four (1, 2 (who would be a ten times more attractive if he didn't take himself so seriously), 3, and one BF) in my lifetime compared to all the other men I have been interested in which considering how few red-heads there are in the population, doesn’t really support the notion of redheads avoiding each other. If you look at the pencentages, that is actually more than the population average. Perhaps it’s less a matter of preference than it is availability.