red hair

Woman with red hair Actor Rupert Grint with red hair Woman with red hair Red hair, also known as ginger hair, is a human hair color found in 2–6% of people of Northwestern European ancestry, typically those of Celtic ancestry, and smaller amounts in other populations. It is most common in individuals homozygous for a recessive allele on chromosome 16 that produces an altered version of the MC1R protein.

Red hair varies in hue from a deep burgundy or bright copper, or auburn, to burnt orange or red-orange to strawberry blond. Characterized by high levels of the reddish pigment pheomelanin and relatively low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin, it is typically associated with type I of the Fitzpatrick scale, freckles, and sensitivity to ultraviolet light, although it is also frequent in darker skinned individuals of different races.