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Redheads Have “Genetic Superpowers”

An open letter to the boy who teased me in high school
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I’ve been telling people I’m magic for years, and now science has finally caught up.

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A new book called The Big Redhead Book, by fellow ginger Erin La Rosa, lists some pretty impressive facts about rangas – including that we have superpowers.

Research shows that redheads need less vitamin D than people with other (read: inferior) hair colours. We also have a higher threshold to pain, thanks to the gene mutation that produces the red hue. A 2003 study out of McGill University found that redheaded women can tolerate up to 25 percent more pain.

The downside? We’re harder to sedate; the University of Louisville proved that it takes 20 percent more general anaesthesia to put a redhead under for surgery.

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Bow down.

Here are some other inspiring facts from La Rosa’s book about the “unicorns of the human world”…

Amazing Fact #1

Redheads feel hot and cold temperatures more severely than anyone else. So, we really are hotter than you. Like, literally.

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Amazing Fact #2

We’re more popular in ads. A 2014 study found that 30 percent of prime time TV commercials prominently featured a redhead. At one point, CBS featured a ranga every 106 seconds. Not bad considering we make up just two percent of the world’s population.

Amazing Fact #3

Red is the hardest colour to fake. Because our hue is so intense, it fades faster and requires more frequent dye jobs. So you can’t actually fake it ’til you make it – soz.

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BRB – sending this list to the boy who called me ‘Fanta Pants’ in high school…

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