MINNEAPOLIS — Did you know redheads get a national day of their own?
Nov. 5 is National Love Your Red Hair Day in the U.S. -- a day encouraging redheads to appreciate their natural beauty.
To celebrate, here's some fun facts about red hair and National Love Your Red Hair Day.
Two sisters started the day
Stephanie and Adrienne Vendetti started National Love Your Red Hair Day in 2015. According to their website, the duo struggled to find cosmetics that worked for them as teens. Stephanie even dyed her hair blonde as a teen to fit in better, but realized she felt better with her natural shade. They started the national day to encourage other redheads to appreciate their locks.
Nov. 5 isn't the only day for redheads to party, though. World Redhead Day is celebrated in May, and there's a summer festival in the Netherlands dedicated to the shade.
Why do men get red hair in their beards, but not on their heads?
Some men who grow a beard for the first time get quite the surprise -- despite having brown or blonde hair, their facial hair is reddish. To solve the mystery, Motherboard contacted the Erfocentrum, the Dutch national information center for genetics and hereditary traits. Researchers said the genes that decide your hair color are complicated.
"The genes that determine hair color are so-called 'incomplete dominant hereditary traits.' This means that there isn't one single gene that's dominant over the rest, but all genes influence each other," specialist Petra Haak-Bloem told the online magazine.
One type of redhead is the rarest of them all
Do you have red hair and blue eyes? Congrats, you're one of a very rare few! Since both of those traits are so rare, the odds of having both are low. According to the University of Melbourne, only about 17% of people worldwide have baby blues. Combined with the 1-2% with red hair, that means the odds of having both traits are around 0.17%. The odds of a person having both of those recessive traits is around 0.17%.
It's not all good news
Sunburns are a frequent occurrence for many redheads. In fact, the same gene variants that produce red hair and freckly, fair skin have been linked to a higher number of mutations that lead to skin cancer. Researchers told Reuters that people with just one copy of a gene associated with red hair are also at a higher risk -- even if they don't actually have red hair. So whether you have flaming locks of auburn hair or not, don't skip the sunscreen!
Redheads aren't as rare on TV
Do you see a lot of redheads in commercials? Apparently, they're pretty common there. A 2014 analysis found that 30 percent of ads during peak TV viewing hours include a redhead. Most of those redheads were women, outnumbering their male counterparts by a more than 2:1 ratio.