Is red hair exclusive to the scots/irish?

rott_oktob

Answer
red hair is commonly associated with people of British or Irish descent, although red hair is found in many other parts of the world.

Scotland is the country with the highest content of red haired people which includes approximately 13% of their population.

It is estimated that 2 to 5 percent of the population of the United States has red hair.

It occurs more frequently (between 2% and 6% of the population) in northern and western Europeans and at lower frequencies throughout other parts of Europe, Asia and Africa.

Approximately 1% to 2% of the total human population have red hair.

If i have red hair does that mean i have some Irish or Scottish blood?

Aricela

As far as i know im Mexican, Spanish , and Native American. I have natural red and blondish highlights and my eyes are a lighter brown than the rest of my family, and have a tiny bit of green in them. My skin is a little tan because i live in AZ but light compared to other Hispanics. Do you think i have some Irish or Scottish blood?

Answer
No.
Red hair appears in 1%-2% of the population; 2%-6% in the case of northwest European people, which includes Denmark, Sweden, Norway,...

Red hair is probably a product of genetic drift, so it's mostly a random mutation that does not have any adaptative advantages but causes no special harm to the bearer of the genes, so it survives.
There are cases of red hair in Africa as well, though in this case red hair IS a genetic disadvantage, which explains the much lower incidence of these genes in the black population (that comes from Africa).

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Is red hair,freckled complexions linked to Keltic speech and if yes why is it so?

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Kananns

Since only 1% of the world population might be red-haired. It's only in Northwestern Europe where red hair is commonest, especially in British Isles. Estimates for red hair in ethnic European populations( This doesn't include non-European immigrant populations who began arriving in Europe since the 1600's). It goes from highest to lowest. Scotland(13%),Wales(11%),Ireland(10%),England(6%),Norway,Iceland(5%),Belgium(4%),Sweden,Denmark,Germany,Netherlands,France,Switzerland(3%), Finland,Austria(2%),Spain,Italy,Slovenia,Hungary,the Czech Republic,Poland,Latvia,Estonia(1%). In France it's among the Bretons(Kelts) that red hair, ruddy and freckled complexion are commonest. In Spain it's in Galicia an old Keltic enclave, in Belgium its Wallonia(Belgae tribes). Irish, Scotch,Welsh are Kelts. Few exceptions are the tiny minority of Udmurts in Russia are also very red-headed. According to the BritishDNA project, 40% of Britons are carriers of red hair gene and 46% of the Irish. To me it seems it is, but why? Can you refute this? I don't believe in that Palaeolithic connection nonsense. If it was, then the whole Europe should've been equally red-haired. Why do you think?

Answer
Well, since the ancient peoples of the British isles were never actually called 'celts' (and there is more than one celtic language) it is probably wrong to tie in to anything specifically celtic (whicxh is a term for culture and language).The term celtic was only first used there in the 1700's; neither the Romans or the people who lived in ancient Britain/Ireland ever called themselves celts. They are mainly descended from people of the preceding bronze ages through to the mesolithic, with ties to the Atlantic coast (areas where redism is generally more frequent.)
Genes have nothing to do with language (else most Americans,Canadians etc would be turning 'English') and hence the idea of a hair colour associated with language would certainly be far less plausible than dispersal in the paleolithic/mesolithic. Older genes DO tend to be found on the western side of Europe, gradually pushed there by migrations pushing in from the east in the neolithic. That there are more paleolithic/mesolithic genes there is also obvious in that most people in northern Europe are tolerant of lactose--unlike people in the Mediterranean which took a larger neolithic 'hit.'
The red gene has been found in very ancient skeletons and is thought to have been more common in pre-neolithic times.

What did the Irish and the Celts really look like?

Gavin J

I know the stereotype of the red hair, fair skin ,and freckles of the Irish. But, rumor has it that that is from the Scandanavian people who settled into Ireland many years ago. I watched a program that said the native Celtic tribes of Ireland had black hair and grey eyes. My father is 100% from the British Isles and he has black hair and hazel eyes, along with his siblings. Anybody know the phenotype of the Irish or any physical defining qualities?

Answer
As the last poster said,genetically we are not 'celts' (if you accept celts as mid Europeans originating in/around Hallstatt Austria in about 800 bce),though we are culturally celtic. Our closest relatives genetically are the Basques of Spain which just might give you an idea about possible Irish colouring! These people arrived here post-Ice age,about 8000 years ago, and were followed a few thousand years later by farmers from the Near East and some other tribes of the Atlantic seaboard who may have originated in Italy (and ultimately the near east as well.) These folks would probably be dark-haired-they also may be the ones who brought the celtic language.
The fair/red hair may come from Viking invasions, but may also have been in the population anyway (Basque people tend to be fairer than many average Spaniards)-for instance, people said red hair in the Scots comes from Vikings, but it was noted by the Romans long before any vikings entered Scotland!
Of the Irish/Irish descended people I know closely, 7 have blue eyes, 5 very dark brown eyes, 3 hazel green eyes. Hair colour- light brown 1,midbrown-4, dark brown-6, black-2.(some of these are my own family members and we are all dark-the black Irish as they say.)

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Is it uncommon for people of German decent to have red hair?

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melra

I have no Irish background (German/ French/Italian) and yet people say that I must have some Irish to have red hair. A friend also of German decent believes this too. Only I was asked by a classmate if I was German. I asked her how she guessed because most point and say Irish. She answered: I'm Irish.
So how is it some people say I'm Irish yet a person from the very ethnic background that I 'must have' in me can tell the difference?

Answer
Red hair is not uncommon in any of the old Celtic areas of Europe, from Poland in the East to Ireland and Portugal in the West, and every area in between.

My own background is mixed German-Irish, but there are redheads on either side of the family, and myself and two of my siblings are redheads. In the area where I grew up in Southwestern Germany there were quite a few people with red hair, it is actually more common there than blonde, and more common than in Ireland, where i live now.

You can only have red hair when both of your parents have the gene, and pass it on to you, since it's a recessive gene and only will show if you have it from both parents.

How do black people have red hair and green eyes?

Hello

OK... I know some black people with light skin, red hair, and green eyes!!!!!!!! How is this possible! I mean... It's very rare... does it mean they have irish in them or something?

Answer
Ok... there's something called a dominant genes and recessive genes, which are traits that we carry in our dna

For example, brown hair is a dominant gene, while red hair is a recessive gene. A capital 'B' stands for brown, while a small 'r' represents red. The genes are sort of in pairs...

If someone had 'BB' gene, It would mean they have brown hair. 'rr' means you will have red hair, and if you have 'Br', then you have brown hair because 'B' is the dominant gene.

Each time you give birth, each parent passes on 1/2 of the pair and they come together to give the kid 'xyz' coloured hair...

So the recessive genes are passed through generations, and occasionally, people get two recessive genes (eg, 'rr') and they can have red hair while the parents both have brown hair (but they will have the 'Br' gene). However, the children of the red head might still have different coloured hair because the other parent could have brown/blonde/someothercoloured hair (and this is how red heads are going extinct).

This applies to pretty much many different traits...

Um so that's the science behind it in the simplest terms :) I hope that helps

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What did the Irish and the Celts really look like?

red hair irish image

Gavin J

I know the stereotype of the red hair, fair skin ,and freckles of the Irish. But, rumor has it that that is from the Scandanavian people who settled into Ireland many years ago. I watched a program that said the native Celtic tribes of Ireland had black hair and grey eyes. My father is 100% from the British Isles and he has black hair and hazel eyes, along with his siblings. Anybody know the phenotype of the Irish or any physical defining qualities?

Answer
As the last poster said,genetically we are not 'celts' (if you accept celts as mid Europeans originating in/around Hallstatt Austria in about 800 bce),though we are culturally celtic. Our closest relatives genetically are the Basques of Spain which just might give you an idea about possible Irish colouring! These people arrived here post-Ice age,about 8000 years ago, and were followed a few thousand years later by farmers from the Near East and some other tribes of the Atlantic seaboard who may have originated in Italy (and ultimately the near east as well.) These folks would probably be dark-haired-they also may be the ones who brought the celtic language.
The fair/red hair may come from Viking invasions, but may also have been in the population anyway (Basque people tend to be fairer than many average Spaniards)-for instance, people said red hair in the Scots comes from Vikings, but it was noted by the Romans long before any vikings entered Scotland!
Of the Irish/Irish descended people I know closely, 7 have blue eyes, 5 very dark brown eyes, 3 hazel green eyes. Hair colour- light brown 1,midbrown-4, dark brown-6, black-2.(some of these are my own family members and we are all dark-the black Irish as they say.)

What percent of the population has red hair?

Q. Just wondering cause i have red hair, but it's like a darkish red.

Answer
Mostly the Irish

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