I hope I make the cut...
The vast majority of people who look at me think I'm a blonde, since my hair is not AS red as "redhead" is considered. But it IS that brassy yellow that red hair tends to lighten to in the summer. And when it grows out of my head, every 10th strand is metallic red/copper. And if I try to bleach it, it lightens to pumpkin ORANGE. I also have blue-white transparent thin skin that sunburns in under 5-10 minutes, have extremely sensitive skin that reacts to the smallest of stimuli, but still have a high pain tolerance, and I bleed like a hemophiliac. My father, his brother, and their father are all natural redheads. EVERYONE else in both my mom and dad's families are brunettes. So I think I'm a redhead.
This is a post I made in my own LJ a while ago:there has been some discussion about whether I'm a blonde or a redhead
I maintain that I am a redhead based on the following:
- my skin is so pale it is translucent, which makes my blue veins highly visible and also any high levels of bloodflow coming to the surface of my skin
- I am particularly susceptible to fast and severe sunburn (in 5-10 minutes)
- I have very sensitive skin (sensitive to allergens and irritations, etc)
- I have freckles and moles (really dark freckles)
- I am more sensitive/susceptible to thermal pain (burns)
- I require greater amounts of anaesthesia than the average person (just ask my dentist and the hospital who put me under to yank all 4 of my wisdom teeth)
- I have a greater than average pain tolerance (again, ask my dentist)
- my body hair is so pale blonde that it is nearly invisible
- my eyes range from light blue to turquoise to navy, and are extremely light-sensitive
- my dad, his brother, and their father all have red hair that was BRIGHT red in youth and has darkened to auburn as they aged
- my mother's father had bright blonde hair, and my mother's mother has black hair (blonde + black usually = red)
- my family origins are in Europe (particularly England and Scotland and Germany/Poland)
- as a child, my hair was WHITE-blonde, as a teenager my hair was YELLOW-blonde, now it is darkening and 1 out of every 10 strands is metallic RED
- every time I try to bleach my hair, it ends up ORANGE (blue is the first pigment to lift out of hair, then red, and lastly yellow)
- when dyed improperly, red hair tends to go dark green (I'm not 100% sure about this, does anyone care to confirm or refute?)
which is supported by the following:
biochemistry & genetics of redheadshigher pain tolerancebut more sensitive and require more anaestheticredheads more susceptible to skin cancerthere are redheads in my dad's side of the family redhead geneticsless medically-sound evidencestarts out light, but gets technicalmakeup for redheadsskin type I
interesting fact: less than 2% of the planet's population are redheads
