If predictions by the Oxford Hair Foundation come to pass, the number of natural redheads everywhere will continue to dwindle until there are none left by the year 2100.
The reason, according to scientists at the independent institute in England, which studies all sorts of hair problems, is that just 4 percent of the world's population carries the red-hair gene. The gene is recessive and therfore diluted when carriers produce children with people who have the dominant brown-hair gene.
The gene responsible for redhair - known as the melanocortin 1 receptor, or MC1R - was only discovered in the late 1990's. People have a good chance of being born with red hair if they have a mutation of that gene.
Red hair is found in all ethnic backgrounds but is most commonly associated with people of Celtic descent.
From the article, they show a little 5 year old girl with redhair. The below is a quote from her mother.
"As a baby, we'd be in the store and people would always try to touch her head..."
This still happens to me today! Why are people so curious about redhair?
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