Fun Friday Facts About Left-Handers

In honor of my red-headed hubby - whom I love with all my heart - today's Fun Friday Facts revolves around red-heads:

--Red hair is seen on the heads of only 4% of the population. However, the highest percentage of natural redheads in the world is in Scotland (13%), followed closely by Ireland with 10%. In the US, between 2% - 4% of the population are natural redheads.

--A 2002 study found that red-heads are harder to sedate than any other people requiring 20% more anesthesia. Inadequate doses cause people to wake up during surgery and have increased recall of procedures. (Yikes!)

--Adults have about 120,000 hairs on their head; redheads have fewer, blondes have more, brunettes have the most. (My hubby can vouch for this!)

--Red-headedness is, genetically speaking, a recessive trait. It may appear after several generations of darker hair. (So don't think you're out of the woods because you have dark hair.)

--Red-heads don't turn grey. Red hair turned sandy, then white. (Lucky red-heads!)

--Red hair is a genetic mutation. (Sounds like something from a Sci-Fi movie.)

--The Egyptians regarded red-heads as so unlucky that they had a ceremony in which they burned red-headed maidens alive to wipe out the tint. (Glad hubby's not Egyptian - or a maiden, for that matter!)

--An Irish judge in 2001 fined a man for disorderly conduct stating, “I am a firm believer that hair coloring has an effect on temper and your coloring suggests you have a temper.” (Maybe the judge was drunk? Maybe I should do Fun Facts about the Irish?)

--Adolph Hitler reportedly banned the marriages of two red-heads as he feared their children would be “deviant offspring”. (Already knew Hitler was crazy, just more facts to back this up.)

--“I'll beat you like a redheaded stepchild”. This phrase was born out of the American south and implies the status of illegitimate offspring with a white master. (I had no idea where this saying originated! I'll be more careful when using this phrase in the future.)

--In German culture, from 1483-1784, thousands of red-heads were suspected witches and were tortured and murdered, usually by burning at the stake or by drowning.

--Harvard dermatologist, Madhu Pathak, calls redheads “three-time losers” because their red pigment is an inadequate filter of sunlight and their skin is more susceptible to sunburn, skin cancer and wrinkling with age.

--Redheads generally are more numerous in northern latitudes.