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View Full Version : Redheads don't go gray and other "weird" facts



Nae
February 1st, 2013, 03:29 PM
I came across this interesting article about redheads today and thought I would share. http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/weird-facts-about-redheads

I was surprised when I read that redheads don't go gray, they just slowly turn blonde and then white. Although my red haired aunt is in her late 50s and her haircolor is still the same fabulous color it was when I was a kid. (I know she doesn't dye for religious reasons.) I guess I never realized.

Madora
February 1st, 2013, 03:40 PM
My mom, who had gorgeous deep auburn hair, did go grey, slightly..but her overall hair color faded in time and she ended up with a sort of pale brown color, with just a little grey at the temples. My maternal grandmother, who had fiery red gold hair, ended up totally grey, interspersed with plenty of white.

Wavelength
February 1st, 2013, 03:52 PM
Huh, I don't know what to think about that, but it's true that my red-haired grandmother eventually went snow-white.

I had heard about some of the other things they mention in the article, like the anesthesia. I inherited a little of that trait from my grandmother, actually, as anesthesia works... oddly on me. Either I wake up early (I've woken up during surgical procedures before), or I recover from the anesthesia very quickly once the procedure's over, and I don't usually have any aftereffects.

When I had my wisdom teeth out (which was a longer-than-usual procedure since I had to have all four out at once, two were impacted and had to be cut out of my jaw, and I was nearly 40 years old to boot), I kind of shocked the nurse by calmly getting up off the table and walking out the door to the waiting room. She was expecting I'd have to use a wheelchair, but not only was I capable of walking, I was completely coherent. In fact, as my husband was driving me home, we ran into some unexpected traffic issues on the way home due to an accident around a construction site, and I was able to direct him how to get home by an alternate route. It was a good thing too, as I knew that area of the city better than he did and he's not sure he could have found the way home himself.

He was kind of envious that I was so lucid, since after a similar operation on his wisdom teeth, he'd been zoned out and babbling nonsense and could hardly sit up. He doesn't have much memory of this, but his family told him in gleeful detail afterward. ;)

Oldfashioned
February 1st, 2013, 04:04 PM
I was knocked out to get my tonsils out and I didn't wake up early or anything but I was completely coherent when I did wake up. Auburn hair runs in my family and I've got it too :) Though I'm a henna head now! :joy:

Wavelength
February 1st, 2013, 04:24 PM
I was knocked out to get my tonsils out and I didn't wake up early or anything but I was completely coherent when I did wake up. Auburn hair runs in my family and I've got it too :) Though I'm a henna head now! :joy:

I didn't wake up for my tonsils, but I woke up when I had my appendix out. I was only four years old at the time and I remember waking on the table and seeing the surgeons. Fortunately they noticed right away and put me back under before I could feel anything. I also woke up on the table when I was having knee surgery in my 20s. The head surgeon even joked with me about that later, so I know I wasn't just dreaming it. :)

patienceneeded
February 1st, 2013, 04:30 PM
My grandmother had the most beautiful natural auburn hair when she was younger. Her hair did turn blonde as she aged through her 40's-60's. Her hair color shifted to a snowy-white shade in her late 60's. SHe use to complain about the "god-damn blonde hair" that aging redheads were cursed with. I still miss her.

neko_kawaii
February 1st, 2013, 04:35 PM
My red haired mother is going brown with a few silvers.

lunalocks
February 1st, 2013, 04:46 PM
One thing not mentioned, redheads are bleeders - meaning they are flagged when they go into the hospital for childbirth. Greater chance of needing a transfusion.

browneyedsusan
February 1st, 2013, 04:50 PM
I read the same article, but since it was Yahoo, I took it with a grain of salt. I was strawberry blonde until my 20's, then it gradually faded to light brown; so I don't think I qualify as a natural redhead? (I do remember befuddling a teacher who tried to classify the class by haircolor, and I stood with the blondes instead of the redheads, and she moved me!) FWIW: I started to gray in my 30's and have a fair bit of gray on my temples. (I'm really not certain how my gray is distributed, because I've been coloring that drab brown for years!) My mother is a brunette. At 70. She has about 3 gray strands on one side. (Her mother, my grandma never colored, and had about 10 gray strands when she passed away at 90.) My dad, also 70, is completely gray.

ghost
February 1st, 2013, 05:28 PM
Weird, I'm not a redhead (naturally a blonette with some red tones, strawberry when I was a kid) but I share two of the traits: being a bleeder, and waking up while under anesthesia. I woke up while having my wisdom teeth out, luckily not able to feel anything ,and remembered the doctor telling me she was putting me under so I wouldn't have to hear the sounds of my impacted teeth getting dug out. I decided to go back to sleep under my own power :p
We used to have redheads in the family (no pure reds since my grandmother on my dad's side though, all her kids were brown or blonette), maybe I got some of the weird traits without the pretty red hair :s

Nae
February 1st, 2013, 06:27 PM
I am kinda terrified about waking up during surgery. I guess I should be glad that I inherited the dark hair instead of the pretty red that runs in the family although I completely admit to being a bit jealous of many of my cousins.

blondecat
February 1st, 2013, 10:32 PM
I can't wait to 'tease' my adult DD with this.

She's a natural red. Im a natural blonde.
She loves to tease me and tell blonde joke

ha.

Masara
February 3rd, 2013, 12:14 AM
I sort of knew this. Half of my mum's family has red hair and their hair has just lightened gradually with age. My mum has a mix of colours (brown and red) and as she got older her hair looked a lot lighter and redder simply because the brown was greying out and the red was becoming more visible.

rowie
February 3rd, 2013, 12:23 AM
My partner was a carrot top when he was a toddler. The older he got the darker his hair changed, now his hair is turning more brown. His dad also was the same, and at 70 his hair turned salt and pepper. Hmmmmm

AnqeIicDemise
February 3rd, 2013, 01:55 AM
I have reddish tones and in CA with all the sun bleaching one could consider me a really, really dark auburn head. -le sigh- How I envied Anne with her fiery locks that faded to a dark brown with age. I wanted the opposite-- let my brown go redder!

Anyhow, yeah, I'm the same with anesthesia. To get my root canal to work my dentist had me stoned out of my mind on vicodin for two days before to make sure I had something in my blood stream to make the novacaine work. (My mouth is too small for me to go under as the mask gets in the way. :( ) The last time I went in for a filling the other doc wound up using four shots of novacaine to get me to not feel things as acutely. I woke up during my appendoctomy and I woke up really soon after surgery was done.

Except I wasn't very lucid. I was still kind of groggy but lucid enough to remember yelling out I needed my father with me, NOT my mother and yelling at mom to get Daddy. According to Mom I didn't go back to sleep until I saw my dad come in. I kind of cringe at that. I'm sure I hurt her feelings.

spirals
February 3rd, 2013, 02:13 AM
Hmmm--novocaine works pretty well on me, as does g.a., yet having vicodin in my system would do nothing. (I'm somewhat opiate-resistant.)

AnqeIicDemise
February 3rd, 2013, 02:23 AM
I think it was the combination that worked for me, this time. Usually I'm laying there complaining that I feel *everything* and not in a muted way.

jojo
February 3rd, 2013, 02:41 AM
My uncle was a true Irish red head, he went paler red and eventually pure white. Grey hair doesn't really exist in anybody its an illussion of white hair next to coloured hair, so for e.g. a very dark haired person will appear more silver than a lighter haired person. Hair loses its pigment as we get older, so basically its white hair not grey!

Addy
February 3rd, 2013, 03:56 AM
My sister was a red head. I am a mousey brown brunette. I started going grey in my teens and when she died at 36 last year, she didn't have a grey hair on her head. I just turned 35.

MonaMayfair
February 3rd, 2013, 07:15 AM
It's true about the anesthetics anyway. I was born with red hair, and my mom and almost all her family are redheads, so I have the gene. Dentists have to give me twice the amount of anesthetic of everyone else, they can't believe it when I say I can still feel the drill or whatever, as other patients wouldn't feel a thing.
Painkillers hardly ever work on me.

I don't understand about the gray/white thing. If I say someone's going gray, I MEAN white, isn't that normal?

Maybe
February 3rd, 2013, 07:36 AM
My mom had bright orange red hair and is now snow white. While it was graying her hair looked strawberry blond.

My sister is strawberry blond and has almost no grey hair at 38. I am brunette and started going gray in streaks at 15.

DMARTINEZ
February 4th, 2013, 10:45 PM
Yep! This is me. Take a look at my siggy pic and thats what my strawberry blonde/red hair has turned to! I like being a "blonde" now! LOL ;)


Deb

WaitingSoLong
February 5th, 2013, 06:30 AM
FYI the anesthesia you get at dentists (even for wisdom teeth when you are put out) is not the same as what you get for surgery.

Also, a lot of the waking up after or during surgery effects has to do with the cocktail of other drugs they give you and not just the actual anesthesia (propofol). If you refuse the extra narcotics, most people will wake up alert. This is what I do every time. That groggy...can't walk stuff is usually from narcotics.

YMMV.