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Will rare redheads be extinct by 2100?
Seattle Times ^ | 5/9/05 | Robin Flannigan

Posted on 05/24/2005 2:21:35 PM PDT by pissant

She was just walking down the street with her sister, in her old neighborhood, when an elderly woman stopped her car in front of her and called out, "I love your hair! It's so beautiful!"

Caitlin Tydings was about 8 then, and caught off guard. Now a high-school senior, she has since grown accustomed to strangers commenting on her strawberry-blond locks.

If predictions by the Oxford Hair Foundation come to pass, the number of natural redheads everywhere will continue to dwindle until there are none left by the year 2100.

The reason, according to scientists at the independent institute in England, which studies all sorts of hair problems, is that just 4 percent of the world's population carries the red-hair gene. The gene is recessive and therefore diluted when carriers produce children with people who have the dominant brown-hair gene.

Dr. John Gray's explanation of his foundation's findings: "The way things are going, red hair will either be extremely rare or extinct by the end of the century."

Red hair certainly has made the endangered list. But with 4 percent of 6.4 billion people carrying the gene, says University of Rochester Medical Center's David Pearce, it is too large a figure to be wiped out completely in the next 95 years.

"I think someone may want to check their calculator," he says. The red-hair gene "will dilute out and become rare, but there are a variety of other factors that can change hair color that are not really understood well right now."

The gene responsible for red hair was only discovered in the late 1990s. People have a good chance of being born with red hair if they have a mutation of that gene.

Red hair is found in all ethnic backgrounds but is most commonly

(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: 2100; freckles; genetics; gingergene; gingers; helixmakemineadouble; redhair; redheads
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To: patton; teenyelliott

Obviously not. Or she would be fixing my supper instead of freeping. In a teddy!


61 posted on 05/24/2005 3:04:29 PM PDT by pissant (headache gone!)
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To: pissant
Here is to redheads are staying strong.
62 posted on 05/24/2005 3:05:15 PM PDT by Mr. Blonde (You know, Happy Time Harry, just being around you kinda makes me want to die.)
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To: BerthaDee

That's why I did not ping you or Teeny. If it's not bawdy, I try not to bother ya


63 posted on 05/24/2005 3:06:20 PM PDT by pissant (headache gone!)
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To: Mr. Blonde

Dyed, I'm guessing


64 posted on 05/24/2005 3:06:49 PM PDT by pissant (headache gone!)
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To: pissant; teenyelliott
What're you saying, pissy? Teeny and I are saloon girls?

I suppose we are.

65 posted on 05/24/2005 3:08:04 PM PDT by Finger Monkey (H.R. 25, Fair Tax Act - A consumption tax which replaces the income tax, SS tax, death tax, etc.)
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To: Dysart
Redheads 'Are Neanderthals'
66 posted on 05/24/2005 3:08:49 PM PDT by blam
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To: pissant

Hers has been red in all the pictures I have seen, but you may be right.


67 posted on 05/24/2005 3:09:28 PM PDT by Mr. Blonde (You know, Happy Time Harry, just being around you kinda makes me want to die.)
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To: pissant
I disagree!

I will not contest.

We have a family of beauiful red haired girls at church and they are a glorious sight!

68 posted on 05/24/2005 3:09:33 PM PDT by iconoclast (Conservative, not partisan.)
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To: mmercier

The last one I knew was a petite green eyed Irish redhead. I was madly, passionately, desperately, helplessly in love.
She was also a bartender at my favorite watering hole, and I didn’t want to ruin a beautiful relationship. I suffered in silence.


69 posted on 05/24/2005 3:10:57 PM PDT by R. Scott (Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your Intelligence to buy a drink.)
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To: R. Scott

best comment on the thread. LOL.


70 posted on 05/24/2005 3:13:30 PM PDT by patton ("Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write.")
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To: patton
not . . .nice.
71 posted on 05/24/2005 3:15:46 PM PDT by teenyelliott (Soylent green should be made outta liberals...)
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To: teenyelliott

No, it wasn't.... ;)


72 posted on 05/24/2005 3:17:26 PM PDT by patton ("Fool," said my Muse to me, "look in thy heart, and write.")
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To: BerthaDee

Saloon girls? Which saloon?


73 posted on 05/24/2005 3:18:25 PM PDT by pissant (headache gone!)
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To: Mr. Blonde

Don't know who she is, so I can't really say. It looks like Revlon tho.


74 posted on 05/24/2005 3:19:03 PM PDT by pissant (headache gone!)
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To: iconoclast

Just keep them thoughts pure! ;o)


75 posted on 05/24/2005 3:19:27 PM PDT by pissant (headache gone!)
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To: pissant

Not literally, you dope.


76 posted on 05/24/2005 3:19:48 PM PDT by Finger Monkey (H.R. 25, Fair Tax Act - A consumption tax which replaces the income tax, SS tax, death tax, etc.)
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To: BerthaDee

Ya had me fooled!


77 posted on 05/24/2005 3:20:18 PM PDT by pissant (headache gone!)
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To: pissant

It is Alyson Hannigan of the American Pie series.


78 posted on 05/24/2005 3:24:54 PM PDT by Mr. Blonde (You know, Happy Time Harry, just being around you kinda makes me want to die.)
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To: pissant
Does auburn count as red? I like auburn but not really that red red.
79 posted on 05/24/2005 3:25:49 PM PDT by k2blader ("A kingdom of conscience ... That is what lies at the end of Crusade.")
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To: Peanut Gallery

ping


80 posted on 05/24/2005 3:28:05 PM PDT by Professional Engineer (Memo to republican party - YOU'RE FIRED.)
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