Girls are divided into blondes, brunettes and redheads. Judging by the guys' conversations, other criteria are secondary. Men's preferences have always been distributed in exactly this order: white, black and red-haired. But it seems that the situation is beginning to change. This year, red is practically the new blonde. Now it’s hard to say who was the trend setter – the sultry Barbadian beauty Rihanna or the sexiest girl on the planet according to Esquire magazine, Christina Hendricks. But the trend is obvious: the once bright heads of Hollywood - Scarlett Johansson, Drew Barrymore are now shining in all shades of fiery. Catwalk stars follow them. Red-haired models headlined Mulberry's entire campaign last year. Not only flighty blondes dye their hair red, but also confident brown-haired women like Emma Stone. And Khloe Kardashian's curls blend in color with the red carpet. Experts believe that girls tend to change their hair color to radical red in two cases: when they want to stand out from the crowd and when they need a good shake. The redhead immediately attracts attention. And not only because it is extremely rare in nature.
Shades of red have the longest wavelength of all the colors in the spectrum. “People tend to look at redheads longer than, say, brunettes, simply because those are the laws of physics,” says color expert Dewey Sadka, author of The Dewey Color System. The cost of a hairdresser quickly pays off. “Getting people to pay attention to you is the first step toward your success,” says evolutionary anthropologist Dr. Jerome Barkow, who wrote the book Darwin, Sex and Status. Red-haired people, as a rule, have a choleric temperament and are easily excitable. Obviously, this is due to some genetic reasons. But the temperament of those who became red-haired not by the will of nature, but by the call of the soul, also changes. Shy brown-haired women, together with red curls, gain self-confidence, drive and festivity. “When I was 17 years old, I was fair-haired, without bangs. I had crazy long hair, I was very thin. The young people did not pay attention to me. And in order to draw their attention to me, I cut my bangs, chose the brightest red dye in the store and dyed it. The effect was immediate. In fact, cars stopped, turned around, men ran out and threw business cards at me!” – Anastasia Stotskaya, the reddest of the Russian pop divas, admits.
TURN UP THE HEAT The easiest way to start a new life is to dye your hair. This is a less radical way to change something about yourself compared to a tattoo or piercing. It is difficult to imagine a red-haired girl as a sad and depressed person. Psychologist Jean Tvenge, co-author of the book The Narcissism Epidemic, says that girls with fiery hair seem to others to have certain unique traits: recklessness, independence and the ability to rise above circumstances. By choosing red hair color instead of the previous one, we openly declare to the world our uniqueness and strength. “It's difficult to determine why people tend to attribute special qualities to redheads,” says Todd Disoutel, an anthropologist and professor at New York University. – Perhaps this is due to the history of wars and the change of royal dynasties. The red-haired Celtic warriors were famous for their special fearlessness and habit of defeating the enemy in open battle.” The Vikings and Teutons who conquered half of Europe were red-haired. The legendary German king Frederick Barbarossa, revered by his contemporaries for his valor and charisma, received his nickname because of his bright red beard. Queen Elizabeth, who changed the history of England, was also famous for her copper curls. “Red adds energy and self-confidence to us, which is why girls often dye their hair red in those periods of life when they need inspiration. For example, after a breakup with a partner,” continues Professor Twenge. Note to men: German researchers were able to establish that women who suddenly decide to change their natural hair color to red are thereby signaling their readiness to change partners. “Perhaps the special treatment of red-haired people is nothing more than a stereotype,” Professor Barkow joins the discussion, “and the magical effect of red hair dye is explained by the fact that we believe in the power of this color. It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you believe that redheads are sexy, bold and attractive, is it any wonder that men are magnetically drawn to red-haired beasts?” SHAMELESS REDhead “Redheads are on the rise because brunettes and blondes have been dominant for years,” says Jerome Barkow. And he’s right: total red in hair color fashion is a throwback after hundreds of years of discrimination against redheads.
Many cultures have legends that red-haired people are the descendants of demons who once tried to take over the Earth. The exception is the mythology of the Celts. Their red-haired girls are the daughters of fairies. But this is understandable - half of the Irish are red-haired, like Ron Weasley from Harry Potter. Who would slander themselves? The Egyptians, who were mostly dark-haired, caught red-haired ones in order to sacrifice them to the god Amun-Ra in the spring. It was believed that copper-haired people were especially pleasing to the Sun. In addition, the color of their hair resembled the color of ripe wheat and rye, so desired by the farmers of Ancient Egypt. Since the time of Mary Magdalene, bright red hair has been an attribute of professional priestesses of love. But this is not all the troubles of redheads. Lush fiery curls almost certainly indicated that their owner was a witch. During the time of Torquemada, this sign was enough for the Inquisition to become interested in the girl. Especially if the red hair came with multi-colored eyes. And the genes that determine heterochromia (different-colored eyes) and redness often go together. Considering that tens of thousands of “witches” were burned at the stake, half of them only because of bad hair color, it is not surprising that there are practically no true redheads left. It was only during the Renaissance that red-haired girls became the undisputed standard of beauty. Titian and Rubens sang beauties with copper and gold hair on their canvases, and Petrarch sang their praises in verse. Noble Italian women rushed to buy Arabic henna to be on trend. By the way, for henna lovers, it is almost impossible to lighten your hair after it. Therefore, it is still worth starting “red” experiments with professional hair dye. At school, red-haired children become targets of bullying more often than “bespectacled” children or representatives of the “fat trust” category. Which, by the way, the malicious creators of the animated series “South Park” did not fail to take advantage of. In one of the episodes of the ninth season, red-haired children create their own organization, the goal of which is to avenge all the red-haired people on Earth by exterminating the non-redheads. Luckily they didn't succeed
. Naturally red hair, which resulted from a random mutation thousands of years ago, is found in less than two percent of the human population. There are fewer and fewer redheads, and geneticists say they may completely disappear from the face of the earth by 2060. This sore subject was raised at the world meeting of redheads, held in 2009 in the Dutch city of Breda. More than four thousand redheads simultaneously practically eclipsed the sun. Let's hope that they also managed to solve the problem of population decline. Alas, saffron milk caps are vulnerable. When paired with golden hair, they usually end up with snow-white skin that does not tolerate the sun well and is prone to the formation of melanomas. Most chronic diseases, not fatal, but unpleasant, for some reason more actively cling to redheads than, say, to natural blondes. Red hair is thicker than hair of other colors. But their density on the head is low. True, when you look at Lily Cole or Julianne Moore, you somehow can’t believe that they have less hair than most fair-haired fellow citizens.
Natural red women's hair is not only “valuable fur”. They also have technical applications. Red hair, due to its special physical characteristics, is used in hygrometers - measuring instruments for determining air humidity. The maximum concentration of natural redheads is in Scotland, Australia and the USA. In America there is even an organization called the Union of Redheads, in which there are more than 12 million red-haired people. Russian-speaking redheads can find each other on the website redpeople.org. The unofficial capital of redheads in the Russian Federation is the capital of Udmurtia, Izhevsk. Every year in the fall the Red Festival takes place there. After all, the Udmurts are the closest relatives of the Finns. And most Finns are redheads. SOME LIKE HOT “Gentlemen prefer blondes, but marry brunettes.” This truth has not lost its relevance, despite the growth in sales of red hair dye. Gentlemen really avoid red-haired women because they come across as aggressive, bold and self-sufficient. It’s not for nothing that red is associated with an alarm signal. In addition, it is believed that such young ladies have an indomitable sexual appetite. And the fear of bed fiasco ranks first among the most common male phobias. The thesis is scientifically confirmed. Professor Peter Ayton from the University of London showed three photographs of the same woman to 1,500 male participants in the study. In one photograph the woman was presented as a blonde, in another as a brunette and in the third as a redhead. More than half (51 %) of the study participants chose a brunette, finding this image the most attractive. Second place went to blondes. Well, the third, of course, is red. Blondes are losing their position because this image is traditionally combined with fragility and vulnerability. All three qualities are no longer in demand on the marriage market. However, redheads still have an undeniable evolutionary advantage. There is a scientific theory with the tricky name “disassociative mating,” the essence of which is that any individual instinctively strives to merge with an object of the opposite sex, who has unique qualities that are not similar to anyone else. “The children born from such a union will be carriers of new gene variations,” says Tod Disoutel, “and nature is interested in biodiversity.”
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