We are becoming extinct!!!!

[Slinky Sarah]

Apparently in 100 years all red heads will have died out
Accordning to LK today, there has been a site set up so fellow red heads can go search for another red head to make babies to stop red heads from dying out!!!!
quote from ljtoday: 'the world would be a much duller place without red heads!!!'

Personally i used to hate my ginger hair but know my OH loves it!
TBH id love our little one to have red hair too (if a girl), but OH has blonde hair and the rest of his family are quite dark so who knows but there is loads in my family hehe

Just wondered what your thoughts were on this lol

 

[glitzyglamgirl]

My little sister is a redhead (with freckles and green eyes...so adorable!) even though there are none in my family, my mum has dark hair and her dad (diff dad) has blonde hair, and ive read before that a red head can result from a blonde hair parent and a dark hair parent.

I hope it doesn't die out as its such a beautiful colour!

 

[Dinski]

I'm not a redhead but I think natural red hair is absolutely gorgeous and with pale skin is stunning! How boring it will be if everyone has brown hair...

 

[Squiglet]

my grandmother had really red hair... my mother was born with brown, she hated it and always wanted it red, so has dyed it red since she was 14... Someone told her that the red can skip a generation, but when I was born I inherited my dad's Nordic blood and was born with blonde hair... my mum loved it, but she would often say how much she wished I'd had red hair... I'm very thankful I didn't as red heads get picked on at school..

When I got pregnant with Tia my mother went on and on about how the red hair had missed 2 generations, so my daughter was bound to get it... and sure enough she was born with little ginger hairs on her head... my mum rejoiced until three days later it all fell out and went blonde...

Tbh I hate red hair.. and apparently my grandmother did too... I think I would have gotten along with my grandmother

 

[meg_bellamy]

I have auburn hair, hazel eyes and pale skin... I love it! I have heard that more often than not red hair does skip a generation... neither of my parents has red hair, I know that my grandfather on my dad's side had red hair, but I'm not sure about my mum's side of the family. My sister has red hair too, although hers is more strawberry blonde.

 

[leckershell]

I'm hoping that Ryan has auburny hair rather than straight out red or brown. Nat has sort of red hair, and mines a sort of dirty blonde, so there's a possibililty.

 

[*Star*]

yep. my sister has auburn hair!

well, she did until she dyed it dark brown!

it skipped a generation here too, my dad's mum had reddish hair!

and i have mine highlighted with red tints to hide the greys (yeah thanks mum ) but i'm gonna get it dyed a reddish colour instead this next time!

 

[kellie80]

I'm a red head too with blue eyes and pale skin. I love my colouring now but I hated it as a kid. None of my kids have any red in their hair at all, I was hoping one of the girls would. My OH has dark brown hair , Jess and Nathan have dark brown hair and Aimee has blonde.

 

[Sherlock]

Its all in the genes.

Hubby is a red head as are his mother and both aunts. His father must also carry the correct gene even though he himself is not a red head. To have a red head child, as hubby explained it, both parents must carry the gene.

However, if one parent does not, as in my situation, we won't have a red haired baby, but because hubby has the gene, baby will also, which will mean if s/he has a child with a redhead or someone with the gene, they could produce a red head and defo will carry the gene.

Apparently the gene is in only a small percentage of the overall population, mostly in northeren Europe (Ireland, Scotland...) so the pool is small to start with. Of course, people spread out over the world, but the pool of people is still sparse. Its been understood for a fair while now that red heads will fade out within the next few generations if things carry on as they are.

 

[PinkPunch]

Sherlock, how would I know if I carried the gene? My mum is strawberry blonde and used to have a slight ginger tinge to it and hubby is ginger - chances are, I carry it right?

 

[jenni32]

Love red hair! Had strawberry hair as a kid, spent an absoloute fortune dying it red ever since

 

[Sherlock]

Sherlock, how would I know if I carried the gene? My mum is strawberry blonde and used to have a slight ginger tinge to it and hubby is ginger - chances are, I carry it right?

I'm not sure if strawberry blonde really counts as red head.

The whole gene thing is a bit baffling as its about working ones and ones that don't work etc. Read more about it here and also this bit of blurb goes into it all

A gene is written in a language that has only four letters A, C, G, and T. And all the words are only 3 letters long. It has always been amazing to me that all of the complexity around us can come from such a simple code! For a gene to work properly, the words need to form the right instructions. If one of the 3 letter words doesn't make sense anymore, then you may get the wrong instructions and end up with a protein that doesn't work.

And if that gene is MC1R, then you can get red hair (as long as both copies have the wrong instructions). So how does this help explain how a trait can skip a generation?

Well, to have red hair, both copies of the MC1R gene need not to work*. If only one copy is broken, then the working copy can still change most or all of the red pigment to brown. In other words, people with one working MC1R gene do not have red hair. But they'll pass the other broken copy down to their kids half the time (they are carriers).

So here is how red hair skipped a generation in my family. My mother in law has two copies of the MC1R gene that don't work (which explains her red hair). My father in law has two copies that do work. The only possible result here is kids with one working copy and one broken copy of the MC1R gene. (They got one nonworking copy from mom and a working one from dad.) Out of nine brothers and sisters, only one had a redheaded child. Why? Because that one married a carrier like herself.

Now, what is cool is we can now trace exactly why our son is a redhead. Recently my family figured out all of the letters of our MC1R genes. What we found was that my wife and I both had a single letter difference at letter number 452 in one copy of our gene. This change caused one of the three letter words to change from GCT to CCT. And my son got this nonworking MC1R gene from my wife and myself. So he has two nonworking copies of the MC1R gene which gave him red hair.

It is again amazing that two different letters have such a dramatic effect on my son's hair color. And that because I only have one, I don't have red hair.

So this is one way for a trait to skip a generation. When a redhead marries someone with two functioning copies of the MC1R gene, they have carriers for kids. These kids will not have red hair but can pass it down to their kids. But unless the spouse brings a red hair gene to the party as well, then there won't be any redheads in that generation either. This may be what happened in my wife's family.

Of course, there are other ways for traits to skip generations too. For example, when two carriers have kids, the chances for a redhead are only 1 in 4 anyway. The carriers may not end up with a redhead just because of statistics. Traits do not have to skip generations. Both parents genes affect whether or not a trait will be seen in a child.

Imagine my mother in law had married a redhead herself. Then most likely all of her kids would have had red hair. In other words, red hair would not have skipped a generation.

*Red hair is called a recessive trait you need two copies of a certain version of the gene to end up with red hair.

Taken from here

If your hubby is a red head and you carry the correct gene then there is a good chance one of your children will be a redhead. If you don't carry it, you won't have a redhead (as I understand it) but the child will carry the gene and can produce a redhead with someone else who carries it also.

I once saw a family with 4 kids, neither parent had red hair but all 4 kids did. It was great. Guessing they both carried the right gene and lo got 4 lil redheads. They looked adorable.

 

[lulu]

I had lovely Auburn red hair when I was at primary school, I tend to dye it red these days as its naturally gone darker, people always think its natural though

So I have red hair and green eyes. My OH has very pale skin like a red head but he is more fair, although earlier younger pics of him show a reddish tinge!

Jack was born with jet black hair, and lots of it. He is now mousey fair - still lots of it!!!

 

[mayday]

My baby has a head of hair like a beacon - no mistaking her wherever she goes My hair is red, and ginger runs on my side of the family, but our daughter is the first ginger on OH's side of the family. OH has a ginger beard when he chooses to grow one, but is somewhat follically challenged on the top of his head!

Ginger is the best colour hair to have, but not everyone likes it. There has been more than thread on here asking 'will my baby be ginger,' and when told it is unlikely the thread starter replies 'phew!' Don't know what they are worried about.

Here's mine. She had a monster head of red hair right from day one;

She knows how to travel in style already

 

[Freya]

Mayday how gorgeous is your daughter.

My hair was that colour when I was younger - now it is more like a strawberry blonde. My daughter has brown hair with natural red highlights and my son has strawberry blonde hair. I have had people say 'Oh what a shame - maybe his hair will change colour when he is older'
I love the colour of his hair and would have loved it if it was more red TBH.

BTW - I think a lot of men secretely love women with red hair - it makes you stand out from the crowd and normally in a good way - think nicole kidman, Julia Roberts etc.

 

[nickilubs]

Aw your daughter is gorgeous!!!

I love red hair my daddys a red head and my boyfriends dads a red head too but they are both a very light red/blonde so I dont know if it would count. Me and my boyfriend have very dark hair and fair skinned.

What we cant decide is whether our babys gonna have his gorgeous blue eyes or my dark brown eyes?

 

[Geordie&Bairn]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
HOW HORRIFYING
GOD SAVE THE READHEADS
The world wil be a boring place without fiery redheads. You need a bit of colour in the world nt all Black and blonde

This has to be stopped an millions spent of finding out why this could happen and prevent the loss of my species. 9
( im only half kidding hear)

Iused to hate my hair at school but i grew to love my hair.
Now i get positive comments from people who say i have beautiful hair.
i like being unique, it makes me me and my hair says a lot about my personality.
why follow the crowd and be th same ?

SAVE THE READHEADS SAVE THE REDHEADS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Babylicious]

My little sister is a redhead (with freckles and green eyes...so adorable!) even though there are none in my family, my mum has dark hair and her dad (diff dad) has blonde hair, and ive read before that a red head can result from a blonde hair parent and a dark hair parent.

I hope it doesn't die out as its such a beautiful colour!

ooo harry might be a red head then

 

[Kylie1007]

I'm glad that I wont be alive in 100 yrs then!

 

[Kylie1007]

My baby has a head of hair like a beacon - no mistaking her wherever she goes

My mum said that wherever she went, not only did people stop her because she had a new baby but she had a ginger baby!

I'm glad that Finlay didn't get my hair because of my skin colouring and I burn as soon as I look at the sun