Every week, we’re asking our Instagram and Facebook communities to send us your questions in a new series called: ASK A REDHEAD. This gives you a chance to ask our team of redheads whatever questions you may have. We will answer one question weekly right here on HowtobeaRedhead.com, and will feature the answer in our Sunday lifestyle newsletter and on social media.
From beauty and fashion to lifestyle, redheads are in a unique boat, and we want to help make this community a place where you can turn to for all of your redhead needs.
This week’s question comes from Instagram and reads: “How do you feel about having children without the possibility of them having red hair?”
For many families, a conversation happens during pregnancy about what the baby will look like. Many expecting parents hope their children will inherit specific traits from them or their partner. For redheads, there’s always the question if the baby will have red hair. Unlike other hair colors, red hair is much harder to predict. The red hair gene is recessive which means that more often than not another hair color gene will be stronger.
A redhead child can be born to two redhead parents, one redhead parent, and one non-redhead parent, and even two non-redhead parents, as long as both parents carry the redhead gene. A redheaded child cannot be born to parents if one or both do not carry the gene; carrying the redhead gene doesn’t mean you have red hair. It’s unknown exactly how many people carry the redhead gene, but it has been estimated that in Scotland (where up to 13% of the population has red hair) around 40% carry the gene.
For most parents, hair color is just one factor, but for many redhead parents, it’s something they wait on with bated breath. Having a child is exciting, and the idea of being able to share the redhead experience is something many redhead mothers and fathers look forward to.
On the contrary, you will find some redheads do not wish for their children to have red hair. This is often due to bullying, teasing, and other hardships experienced by the parent at a young age. Having red hair is a beautiful thing (and obviously something we’re very passionate about here at H2BAR), but it can also come with a host of issues including increased skin cancer risk, altered sensitivity to pain, increased risk of Parkinson’s disease and increased risk of endometriosis.
We asked Stephanie, H2BAR’s co-founder, her thoughts on this topic because she is a natural redhead with two non-redhead children. Here’s what she had to say: “My son, Beau (3) and Isla (almost 1), weren’t born with red hair. My brunette husband’s maternal grandmother was a redhead, so we always wondered if our kids would be redheads. Who knows if they have the gene and will pass if it down if they choose to have kids later in life – we’ll have to see!”
When it comes down to it, Stephanie and many parents, just want their children to be happy and healthy — their hair color isn’t as important as it may seem. She also noted that her young daughter looks more and more strawberry blonde as she gets older, so she may get a little redhead after all. This reminds us of a popular H2BAR Instagram post which proves not all redheads are born with flaming red hair:
Want your redhead question answered? Find us @howtobearedhead on Instagram and Facebook and look for the Ask a Redhead question box.
RELATED:
READ: What Is The MC1R Gene, AKA: The Redhead Gene
Rock it like a Redhead!
