<p>Redheads can put their colouring down to the weather, new research has claimed.<br />Experts believe that Scotland's gloomy climate has seen a deliberate genetic adaptation to help exploit rare sunny days and boost Vitamin D production.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Alastair Moffat, managing director of the Scotland's DNA project, said the country's dull weather was responsible for a larger number of flame-haired men and women being born, the Daily Mail reported.<br /><br />Only about 1-2 per cent of the world's population has red hair but in Scotland the figure is much higher, with about 13 per cent, or 650,000 people, with flaming locks.<br /><br />Researchers are investigating how many people carry the red-hair gene and their findings will be used to make a 'ginger' map of the British Isles.<br /><br />Moffat said he wanted to map the number of possible carriers of the gene in Scotland in a bid to try to explain why so many Scots have red hair.<br /><br />"I think it's to do with sunshine. We all need Vitamin D from sunshine but Scotland is cloudy. We have an Atlantic climate and we need light skin to get as much vitamin D from the sun as possible," Moffat said.<br /><br />A person who does not have red hair can still produce red-haired children if their partner is a carrier of the gene. Red hair appears in people with two copies of a recessive gene on chromosome 16, which causes a mutation.<br /><br />Despite concerns that red hair could be dying out, experts say that it is likely to continue for many more generations.<br /><br />According to the Centre for Equality Policy Research think tank, redheads suffer more discrimination per head of population than ethnic minorities do. Only disabled people suffer more.<br /><br />"Red hair still gives out deep cultural signals," Barbara McNulty, lecturer in psychology at the University of the Western Isles, and herself a redhead, said.<br /><br />"Women, for example, are wild and quick-tempered, while ginger-haired men are unattractive and geeky," McNulty added.</p>
<p>Redheads can put their colouring down to the weather, new research has claimed.<br />Experts believe that Scotland's gloomy climate has seen a deliberate genetic adaptation to help exploit rare sunny days and boost Vitamin D production.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Alastair Moffat, managing director of the Scotland's DNA project, said the country's dull weather was responsible for a larger number of flame-haired men and women being born, the Daily Mail reported.<br /><br />Only about 1-2 per cent of the world's population has red hair but in Scotland the figure is much higher, with about 13 per cent, or 650,000 people, with flaming locks.<br /><br />Researchers are investigating how many people carry the red-hair gene and their findings will be used to make a 'ginger' map of the British Isles.<br /><br />Moffat said he wanted to map the number of possible carriers of the gene in Scotland in a bid to try to explain why so many Scots have red hair.<br /><br />"I think it's to do with sunshine. We all need Vitamin D from sunshine but Scotland is cloudy. We have an Atlantic climate and we need light skin to get as much vitamin D from the sun as possible," Moffat said.<br /><br />A person who does not have red hair can still produce red-haired children if their partner is a carrier of the gene. Red hair appears in people with two copies of a recessive gene on chromosome 16, which causes a mutation.<br /><br />Despite concerns that red hair could be dying out, experts say that it is likely to continue for many more generations.<br /><br />According to the Centre for Equality Policy Research think tank, redheads suffer more discrimination per head of population than ethnic minorities do. Only disabled people suffer more.<br /><br />"Red hair still gives out deep cultural signals," Barbara McNulty, lecturer in psychology at the University of the Western Isles, and herself a redhead, said.<br /><br />"Women, for example, are wild and quick-tempered, while ginger-haired men are unattractive and geeky," McNulty added.</p>