5 Strange Facts About Redheads You Never Knew

Red hair and blue eyes are the rarest combination

The MC1R (or melanocortin 1 receptor) gene determines hair, skin and eye color. If you’re a redhead, your MC1R gene has a mutation—or possibly several. It’s why redheads are so rare. And if you have red hair and blue eyes, the rarest hair and eye color combination, the genetic stars were in alignment. According to evolutionary biology professor Mark Elgar, PhD, of the University of Melbourne, the odds of having both traits are around 0.17%—that’s about 13 million people out of the 7.6 billion on earth.