Photographer Takes 130 Portraits Of Gorgeous Redheads To Help Combat Bullying

You will want to take a look at these photos captured by a photographer hoping to challenge the offensive stereotypes that are sometimes associated with having red hair. Brian Dowling, an entertainment photographer from Berlin, has taken portraits of more than 130 women for the series. Dowling who is originally from Mississippi has been photographing red headed women for the last three years from 20 different countries. He wanted the photos to be real reflections of the models so that people could end their stereotypes of redheads.

Red hair is one of the rarest hair colors of hair in the world. The hair color occurs naturally in between one and two percent of the human population. The hair color occurs more often with between two to six percent in people of either northern or western European ancestry and less frequently in other populations around the world. Red hair is most common in people who have two copies of the recessive allele on chromosome 16 which produces an altered version of the MC1R protein. Red hair varies in a variety of hues from deep burgundy or a bright copper color being reddish-brown or auburn to burnt orange or red-orange and strawberry blond. Red hair color is characterized by high levels of the reddish pigment pheomelanin and relatively low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. Red hair is also associated with fair skin color, lighter eye colors such as gray, blue, green, or hazel and freckles. Red haired people are often also sensitive to ultraviolet light. Cultural reactions to red hair go from ridicule to admiration with several stereotypes existing with regards to redheads. One stereo type of redheads is that they are often portrayed as fiery-tempered. The term redhead has been used since at least 1510. Red hair is the rarest of natural hair color in humans. The non-tanning skin that is associated with red hair may have been something advantageous in far-northern climates where sunlight was scarce. In studies done by Bodmer and Cavalli-Sforza in 1976, they hypothesized that lighter skin pigmentation prevents rickets in colder climates by encouraging higher levels of Vitamin D production and also by allowing the individual to retain heat better than someone who has darker skin. There have also been two studies that have demonstrated that people with red hair may have different sensitivity to pain compared to that of people with other hair colors. One study showed that people with red hair were more sensitive to thermal pain which is associated with naturally occurring low vitamin K levels, while another study showed that redheads were less sensitive to pain from multiple modalities.

There have been several accounts by Greek writers with mention of redheaded people. One part of a poem by the poet Xenophanes describes the Thracians as blue-eyed and red-haired. In Asia, red hair has also been found amongst the ancient Tocharians, who occupied the Tarim Basin in what is now the most northwestern province of China. Caucasian Tarim mummies have also been found with red hair dating all the way back to the second millennium BC. Reddish-brown or auburn hair is also found amongst some Polynesian people and is especially common in some of the tribes and family groups. In Polynesian culture reddish hair has traditionally been seen as a high-ranking sign of descent from ancestors and a mark of rulership. Some of the names that people with red hair might get called include carrot top, ginger nut, and ginge.

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