Fact or Fiction: Redhead Extinction

Long natural red hair with beautiful curls on a gray turtleneck top
Photo: Stockfour/Shutterstock
In August of 2007, news outlets all over the world released a story that was shocking in its implications: Redheads are dying out and could become extinct by the year 2060. Or 2100, depending on where you heard or read the story.
 
According to the Oxford Hair Foundation, this claim is due to factors of genetics and migration. The gene responsible for red hair is a recessive trait, easily dominated by the genes for other hair colors.
 
The Oxford Hair Foundation was cited in several newspapers and radio news stories as an independent institute in England, but is clearly listed as a partnership between Oxford Dermatology and the Proctor & Gamble Corporation’s Hair Research division. This obviously eliminates their "independent status" as P&G is a for-profit corporation. P&G makes numerous hair care products, including hair color. In fact, the Oxford Hair Foundation website redirects to the Procter & Gamble Research website.
 
Further research reveals that this story is on its second time around. The story emerged in 2005, again citing the Oxford Hair Foundation, and making the same claims about red hair becoming extinct. At this point, the story (which was mentioned in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle) was addressed by David Pearce of the University Of Rochester Medical Center. Pearce stated that while red hair has certainly made it onto the endangered list, there are approximately 4% of nearly 6.4 billion people carrying the gene for red hair, which is too great a number to be wiped out completely in the next 50-90 years.
 
It was also pointed out by an Australian researcher of hair and skin genetics at the University of Queensland on the Australian Broadcasting Company that the Oxford Hair Foundation didn’t provide sufficient scientific evidence to prove its findings, and was quoted on ABC Canberra that "there’s no shortage of redheads".
 
Redhead woman wearing a yellow sweater
Photo: Stockfour/Getty Images via Canva
The facts of red-headedness are thus: Red hair is caused by a mutation in the MC1R gene. The gene for red hair was discovered in the late 1990s. The mutation is also a recessive trait, so it takes both parents passing on the mutated version of MC1R to produce a red-haired child. This also means that as a recessive trait, red hair can skip a generation (or more) and reappear when two parents – no matter what their hair color – carry the mutated gene.
 
And of course, so that blondes don't feel left out, similar claims have been made regarding people with blonde hair. These stories sometimes claimed to have the World Health Organization as their source, but the WHO (a division of the United Nations) has never done any studies regarding the potential extinction of blondes (or redheads for that matter).
 
In fact, Snopes.com, a website specializing in debunking urban legends and internet myths published an article overturning the blonde-extinction story. The website’s researchers also found similar newspaper stories about disappearing blondes in 1961, 1906, 1890 and 1865, with claims that the extinction would occur in as few as 50 and as much as 600 years. Interestingly enough, some of the articles cited "scientific evidence" for the claims, while others stated simply that it was due to the fact that men found dark-haired women more desirable.
 
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See also:
 
Tips for redheads
 
Celebrity redheads
 
Genes and hair colors
 
Why blondes have a higher hair density than redheads
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