AmiPros
Amerikanische  Übersetzungen von/by Sherey M. Gould
 

... that we comprise 2% or 4% or 5% of the world's population, does any precise figure really matter?

The color of hair is determined solely by the amount of pigment and air spaces in the cortex and medulla.

.... if that's all that's behind it, then why all the misunderstandings perpetrated and uniqueness/ separateness accorded us down through the ages?

.... if that's all that's behind it, then why does every single search for redheads or red hair bring up 150,000+ hits
of which only 2% or 4% or 5% have anything even remotely to do with something other than naked girls?

There's definitely more behind it and I have found two people who have expressed it quite eloquently (both males, I might add!).....

Meanwhile, while most people seem to be of the opinion:

           I think it's safe to estimate that
           red hair came from the Irish islands

         Red hair seems in particular to be a trademark of the Irish.

There is word of red hair among the Vikings, but considering the amount of territory that they covered and the fact the red really ISN'T prevalent anywhere else, I would think that is evidence of Vikings taking home some cute Irish
girls as souvenirs, rather then of red hair originating from their tribes.
Many countries have redheads now because they were once conquered by  Vikings (Northern Italy, for example).

According to this, in all of recorded history red-haired people have never been mentioned as a tribe except by the Romans. Modern historians with the help of anthropologists endeavors has placed red-hair as a unique characteristic belonging to the Picts and the Picts were characteristic to what is in modern history now known as Scotland.

There are those who go that one giant leap beyond:

Every redhead is a Prince or a Princess of Atlantis.

According to a legend of Prince Idon of Mu after he discovered Atlantis, any time someone is looking at a redhead, they are seeing the image of that first sunset in Atlantis.

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Who can do the math?

...  if roughly 50% of the world's population is female...

...  if, say, 2% of the world's population has red hair....

... and if another 2% the world's population qualifies for membership in Mensa...

What percentage of the world´s population would be comprised by redhead female Mensans (and stretching to 6 feet as well!!)...    ??

Some other collected facts

from the Globe and Mail, Wednesday, 1 September, 1993

Redheads are deemed to be the emotional slaves of our colouring as no other group, writes redheaded Nicola Tyrer in the Daily Telegraph; short temper and sexual fieriness are attributed to them.

In France, to be redheaded is thought to be a fate so dire that some women have formed a Proud to be Red association.

In Denmark, it is an honour to have a redheaded child.

In Corsica, if you pass one in the street, you spit and turn around.

In Poland, if you pass three red-heads you'll win the state lottery,
claims Sylvia Stevez, the Parisian founder of Association Francaise des Rousses.

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.

There are two kinds of redhead, says Mary Spillane, managing director of British image consultants Colour Me Beautiful. Theres the autumn type with hazel eyes, and the Celtic type with translucent skin, light eyes and the carrot top -- the leprechaun redness that people have trouble with.

Redheads have always been  thought untrustworthy. As a 17th-century Frenchman observed, Judas, it is said, was red-haired.

Superstitions its lucky to rub your hand on a redheads head; bees sting redheads more readily. The Egyptians regarded the colour as so unlucky that they had a ceremony in which they burned red-headed maidens alive to wipe out the tint, says author Claudie De Lys.

Percentages of redheads in different countries range from single digits to a fraction of one percent -- a recent estimate for France is 0.03 % of its population. (A 1977 estimate for North America is 4%.) Redheads generally are more numerous in northern latitudes, but also turn up among Hungarians, Egyptians, Israelis and certain Nigerian tribes.