My youngest granddaughter, Gwynn, is a redhead. My oldest son had red hair and Gwynn’s grandfather on her daddy’s side has red hair, so it runs in the family.
Recently my daughter was studying facts about red-headed people and came across several interesting ones. I decided the topic of hair color facts would make a good trivia puzzle, so no matter what color of hair you have, check out the trivia below. You might find something about your hair you didn’t know!
1. True or false: The highest percentage of natural redheads in the world is in Scotland (13 percent), followed closely by Ireland (with 10 percent). In the US, about 2 percent of the population are natural redheads.
2. The country’s name meaning “land of reds” is in honor of a redheaded Viking named Rurik. What country would this be: Russia; Germany; Scotland; Belgium.
3. Researchers have found that the first blondes (blonde cave girls) thrived soon after the last Ice Age. The blonde hair gene developed for all of the following reasons EXCEPT: The increased ingestion of banana sap; a shortage of food; high death rate among males; high oestregen levels in females.
4. True or false: Scientists believe the scalps of blondes have more hair than scalps with brown, black, or red hair.
5. True or false: Hairs live, on the average, two to seven years. Hair will be replaced at least 12 times during a normal life span.
6. About how much will your hair grow in three months time? 1/2 inch; 1 inch; 1-1/4 inch; 2 inches.
7. In 1964 the Beatles came to the U.S. from their native England. Their music became all the rage. So did their hairstyle. That inverted bowl cut was called what? Rag-top; Pouf-top; pompadour; mop-top.
8. At the turn of the twentieth century, a young African-American woman was unhappy about her thinning hair, so she created a shampoo and ointment specifically designed to soothe the scalp and increase hair growth. She named her company Madame C.J. Walker. What was her real name? Sarah Breedlove; Sarah Hatfield; Sarah Carter; Sarah McLachlan.
9. True or false: Brown (brunette) is the second most common human hair color after black and blonde is the rarest color. Also, blondes have more fun but that brunettes are smarter.
ANSWERS: 1.True. 2. Russia. 3. The ingestion of banana sap. Women who left Africa and settled in Europe began to develop blonde hair “about 11,000 years ago.” Researchers believe that a lack of food and the accelerated death rate of men left women in a quandary to find male support. As a survival mechanism, women’s bodies began to develop higher oestrogen levels, which in turn might have been one enabler of the blonde gene. 4. It’s thought that the average scalp has 100,000 hairs. Redheads have the least at 80,000; brown and black haired persons have about 100,000; and blondes have the most at 120,000. 5. True. 6. Hairs on the scalp grow about 1/100 of an inch per day, or one inch every three months. 7. Mop-top. It was a hair style that created all kinds of clamor in the states! 8. Hair loss was common for many women at this time. Women bathed infrequently due to the lack of indoor plumbing and heating and as a result developed scalp diseases. Sarah traveled door-to-door across America and marketed her hair products under the name Madame C.J. Walker. Not only was Sarah an entrepreneur, she was also a philanthropist. She helped other African-American women to start businesses of their own. Sarah Breedlove became one of the first African-American millionaires in history. 9. True and false. Brunettes are more common than natural blonde, but the color has nothing to do with fun or IQ.