Red hair
[1] Red hair varies in hue from a deep burgundy or bright copper, or auburn, to burnt orange or red-orange to strawberry blond.
[4][5] Red hair is most commonly found at the northern and western fringes of Europe;[6] it is centred around populations in the British Isles and is particularly associated with the Celtic nations.
[fn 1][11] Byzantine writers Jordanes and Procopius described the early Slavic peoples as having ruddy hair and skin tone.
[13][14] Later by the 10th century, Southern Slavic populations would have darker hair and skin tone, as the Slavs assimilated the indigenous inhabitants of the Balkans, including Greek and Illyrian peoples.
In Asia, red hair can be found among some peoples of Afghan,[29][30] Arab, Iranian, East Indians, Mongolian, Turkic, Miao, and Hmong descent.
[citation needed] Several preserved samples of human hair have been obtained from an Iron Age cemetery in Khakassia, South Siberia.
[31] 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.
[36] The Kipchak people were a Turkic ethnic group from Central Asia who served in the Golden Horde military forces after being conquered by the Mongols.
[40][41] Emigration from Europe has increased the population of red haired humans in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
[45] 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.
[48][2] Red hair is also associated with fair skin color because the MC1R mutation also results in low concentrations of eumelanin throughout the body.
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.
Because of the natural tanning reaction to the sun's ultraviolet light and high amounts of pheomelanin in the skin, freckles are a common, but not universal, feature of red-haired people.
However, a HowStuffWorks article says that the foundation was funded by hair-dye maker Procter & Gamble, and that other experts had dismissed the research as either lacking in evidence or simply bogus.
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.
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.
[89] Since 2014, a red-hair event is held in Israel, at Kibbutz Gezer (Carrot), for the local Israeli red hair community,[90] including both Ashkenazi and Mizrahi red-heads.
[103] The Hebrew word usually translated "ruddy" or "reddish-brown" (admoni אדמוני, from the root ADM אדם, see also Adam and Edom)[104][105][106] was used to describe both Esau and David.
[citation needed] Judas Iscariot is also represented with red hair in Spanish culture[107][108] and in the works of William Shakespeare,[109] reinforcing the negative stereotype.
[114] Theophilus Presbyter describes how the blood of a red-haired young man is necessary to create gold from copper, in a mixture with the ashes of a basilisk.
It is significant that in ancient Egypt, as Manetho tells us, human sacrifices were offered at the grave of Osiris, and the victims were red-haired men who were burned, their ashes being scattered far and wide by winnowing-fans.
[24] In medieval Italy and Spain, red hair was associated with the heretical nature of Jews and their rejection of Jesus, and thus Judas Iscariot was commonly depicted as red-haired in Italian and Spanish art.
"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 hate crimes against redheads.
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.
(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.
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.
[137] 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".
[140] In September 2011, Cryos International, one of the world's largest sperm banks, 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.
[146] The historic fortress Fort Santo Domingo in Tamsui, Taiwan was nicknamed in Taiwanese Hokkien Chinese: 紅毛城; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Âng-mn̂g-siâⁿ; lit.
