“You’d find it easier to be bad than good if you had red hair,” said Anne reproachfully. “People who haven’t red hair don’t know what trouble is.” ~ Anne to Marilla in Anne of Green Gables

“Blondes are noticed but redheads are never forgotten.” ~ Anon

The story of redhead extinction has gone around the Internet before, most recently in 2005, with news articles again citing the Oxford Hair Foundation as a source. These articles work on the mistaken assumption that recessive genes — like the one for red hair — can “die out.”

Recessive genes can become rare but don’t disappear completely unless everyone carrying that gene dies or fails to reproduce. So while red hair may remain rare, enough people carry the gene that, barring global catastrophe, redheads should continue to appear for some time. ~ HowStuffWorks.com

Redheads are rare with somewhere between 1 to 2% of the world population sharing that trait. I have a few friends with red hair and even fewer from my family. To me, a redhead is an exotic human and something that we can see for generations to come.

Photo from Domai.com.