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60 free Red Hair trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This red hair trivia quiz is for anyone who has ever been called ginger, carrot top or Bluey, and for everyone who wonders why. It starts with the science: the recessive gene on chromosome 16, the reddish pigment that does the colouring, why redheads freckle and burn, why two dark-haired parents can have a red-haired child, and the strange finding that redheads respond differently to anaesthetics and painkillers. Then it travels: to Scotland, which has the highest share of redheads on Earth, to the Volga region and the Udmurts once called the most red-headed people in the world, to the Tarim mummies of China, and to the Dutch town whose Redhead Day draws thousands from more than 80 countries. It covers the cultural baggage too, from Judas and Shylock in red wigs to the Elizabethan fashion for red, the painters who loved it, Sherlock Holmes's Red-Headed League, Anne Shirley's temper, and the 2007 hoax that claimed redheads were about to go extinct. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on red hair and the Redhead Day festival, and each question links to the page that establishes it. Fifty-one questions, free, with an explanation after every answer.
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Q 01Roughly what share of people of Northwestern European ancestry have red hair?
2-6%
It is the rarest natural human hair colour and is far scarcer outside Europe.
Q 02Red hair is linked to a recessive allele on which chromosome?
16
The variant alters the MC1R protein; a person usually needs two copies to be red-haired.
Q 03Which pigment gives red hair its colour?
Pheomelanin
Red hair has far more of this reddish pigment than of the dark pigment eumelanin.
Q 04What type of inheritance describes red hair?
Autosomal recessive
Two non-red-haired parents can both carry the gene and produce a redheaded child.
Q 05What percentage of redheads carry an MC1R variant in the RHC group?
Eighty
Twin studies show MC1R variation is necessary but not sufficient; unidentified modifier genes are also involved.
Q 06Which country has the highest proportion of red-haired people in the world?
Scotland
Around 13% are red-haired, followed by Ireland and Wales, though a study of 500,000 people put the figure at 5.3%.
Q 07Which city has the highest concentration of red-hair gene carriers in the world?
Edinburgh
In the country's south-east about 40% of people carry red hair gene variants.
Q 08Which Volga people were called 'the most red-headed men in the world' in the 1700s?
Udmurts
The Volga region still has one of the highest percentages of redheads, and Izhevsk hosts an annual redhead festival.
Q 09What share of the Italian population has red hair?
0.57%
The rate is the same across all regions; in Sardinia it falls to 0.24%.
Q 10The red-haired Tarim mummies of the 2nd millennium BC were found in which country?
China
They are linked to the ancient Tocharians, and Chinese sources also described the early Kyrgyz as red-haired.
Q 11Which Greek poet described the Thracians as blue-eyed and red-haired?
Xenophanes
Classical authors said the same of the Budini and Sarmatians, though the idea that Sarmatians were named for their hair was debunked.
Q 12In Polynesian culture, reddish hair has traditionally been seen as a sign of what?
Descent from high-ranking ancestors
Auburn hair is especially common in some Polynesian tribes and family groups.
Q 13What Hebrew word, meaning ruddy, describes both Esau and David in the Masoretic text?
Admoni
Josephus preferred to call David golden-haired and reserved red hair for the less flattering figure of Esau.
Q 21Which painkiller worked better on women with red-hair gene variants in one study?
Pentazocine
A follow-up found redheads of both sexes responded more strongly to morphine-6-glucuronide, though a later study saw no recovery difference.
Q 22Did Neanderthals carry the same red-hair gene variant as people today?
No, it was absent from their genomes
A genome study concluded that any red-hair variants Neanderthals had were probably not at high frequency.
Q 23Roughly how long ago is the modern red-hair gene variant estimated to have arisen?
20,000-100,000 years
Q 14Which Norse god is usually described as having a reddish beard?
Thor
In ancient Egypt red hair was linked to the god Set, and also to the pharaoh Ramesses II.
Q 15Red hair was associated with which ancient Egyptian deity?
Set
The occultist Montague Summers claimed red-haired men were once sacrificed at the grave of Osiris as representatives of his rival.
Q 16Since when has the term 'redhead' been in use?
At least 1510
The word ginger, used especially in Britain and Ireland, is roughly the colour of dried, powdered ginger root.
Q 17Why do redheads tend to freckle and burn rather than tan?
The MC1R variant lowers eumelanin throughout the body
The upside is that pale skin makes enough vitamin D in low light; the downside is a higher risk of skin cancer under strong sun.
Q 18Where does red hair typically sit on the Fitzpatrick skin scale?
Type I
That is the palest, most sun-sensitive category, though red hair also occurs in darker-skinned people.
Q 19Researchers have found that people with red hair need more of what?
Anaesthetic
One study found the local anaesthetic lidocaine significantly less effective in red-haired women.
Q 20The mutated redhead receptor responds abnormally to what?
Melanocyte-stimulating hormone
MSH normally tells melanocytes to make black eumelanin; with a faulty receptor they make the reddish pigment instead.
Red hair probably spread through genetic drift in northern Europe, where pale skin was not selected against.
Q 24A 2007 report that redheads would soon die out was traced to a foundation funded by whom?
A hair-dye maker
The 'Oxford Hair Foundation' was funded by Procter & Gamble; experts dismissed the research as bogus.
Q 25Severe protein deficiency can turn dark hair red as part of which syndrome?
Kwashiorkor
It is a sign of critical starvation and is common during famines.
Q 26Which English monarch was a redhead, making the colour fashionable for women of her era?
Elizabeth I
Centuries later, celebrities such as Nicole Kidman and Emma Stone can still boost sales of red hair dye.
Q 27The hair colour 'Titian' is named after a painter from which city?
Venice
The Venetian master often painted red-haired women; the Pre-Raphaelites, Modigliani and Gustav Klimt shared the fascination.
Q 28Which Sherlock Holmes story involves a mysterious society for red-haired men?
The Red-Headed League
Conan Doyle published it in 1891.
Q 29Which 1943 Technicolor film paired the redheads Lucille Ball and Red Skelton?
DuBarry Was a Lady
Comic-book redheads include Jean Grey, Red Sonja, Mystique and Poison Ivy.
Q 30In Anne of Green Gables, what is said to match Anne Shirley's hair?
Her temper
Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye notes that redheads are supposed to get mad easily, but his brother Allie never did.