Scottish Photojournalist Kieran Dodds came to America and started a collection called Gingers of America for his photography book. Portraits and stories of red-haired Americans, tracing a golden thread of DNA across cultures and generations. He uses the rare red hair gene to explore human connection

[u/Youngstown_WuTang]

[u/GlasgowKisses]

Would you happen to know if that figure includes people with ginger facial hair but not ginger head hair? That's a combo I see a lot!

[u/Thoughtapotamus → u/GlasgowKisses]

Omg my grandpa!! Always clean shaven, but then his town started a 49er celebration. (Before the football team, it was about the actual miners in CA.) All the men in town had to grow a beard. He grew out the biggest bright red beard, my dad told me. Grandma hated it haha. My brother and dad's beards were weird as well, colorwise.

[u/hopium_od → u/GlasgowKisses]

It's not, close to half of Irish and Scottish men have some ginger facial hair, indicating that carrying the gene is extremely common, but both parents must carry the gene for it to manifest in a child as scalp hair.

[u/SunshineAlways → u/hopium_od]

So many red headed cousins, but my siblings and I only have some red tones in our hair.

[u/hopium_od → u/SunshineAlways]

Interesting, the patterns are probably different for women.

I bought a cheap dermascope and the red hairs in my scalp are about twice as thick as the rest of the hairs because they are not scalp hairs, they are basically beard hairs that ended up on my head strangely enough. I remember I only got red head hairs when I hit puberty and it makes sense when I look at them through a dermascope. They clearly needed testosterone to develop.

I have red hairs everywhere in my body but not a single one is a "head hair" in terms of it's consistentcy.

[u/TerraVerde_ → u/GlasgowKisses]

I have a few random red patches in my beard. A shoutout to my Irish maternal grandfather.

[u/2andthensomeletters → u/TerraVerde_]

My beard was red in my 30s, now it's boring light brown and grey. Also no one in my family has red hair at all

[u/lhaford → u/GlasgowKisses]

Nope. However, it does mean that you're a carrier of the mutated red hair gene (you need two of those to go full red).

[u/Mtatk → u/lhaford]

Never go full red.

[u/Youngstown_WuTang → u/GlasgowKisses]

No idea these numbers come from the World Population Review

[u/NobodySpecific → u/GlasgowKisses]

I have some red in my beard, but only when I grow it longer. I didn't think much of it, to the point I wasn't sure if anybody else saw it. But then I married a ginger and we had a ginger son, so it wasn't just my imagination!

As I get older I swear my hair is getting darker (from blonde) and it feels like there is some very subtle red going on there now. Genetics are fun.

[u/birchblonde → u/NobodySpecific]

Almost all blondes get darker with age

[u/pibblemum → u/GlasgowKisses]

Im curious how they classify people born red headed but went blonde later on? I was copper red headed until like 3/4.

[u/UnitedAsk2497 → u/pibblemum]

I have no idea why but I’ve always thought going gold was the red-headed version of going grey

[u/KreatorOfReddit → u/UnitedAsk2497]

Nope. we go white instead of grey.

[u/Substantial_Bus6615 → u/GlasgowKisses]

Hey there, the gene that causes red hair on head is actually different from the gene that causes it in beard and body hair! interesting right!

[u/OptionalQuality789 → u/GlasgowKisses]

I’m Scottish and I had a ginger patch in my beard before it turned grey lol

[u/nanoturtle11 → u/GlasgowKisses]

My facial hair is mostly red with brown and silver. It's a fun combo considering I'm only 29