Ginger Health: Are Redheads More Likely To Be Left-Handed?

We’ve been wondering, ‘Are redheads more likely to be left-handed?’ We thought we’d find out.

Not much scientific research has been done on this subject, but here are the facts to start us off.

Red hair comes from a recessive gene called MC1R, which means that both parents must be carriers of the MC1R gene to be in with a chance of having a ginger baby. Only 1-2% of the world’s population gets to boast this natural gingerness (lucky things).

Left-handedness is also a recessive trait, with an estimated 10-25% of people being left-handed. This is because right-handedness is a dominant gene, just like brown hair colour is dominant and is always stronger than a recessive gene.

With that in mind, it is said that recessive traits often come in pairs, which could be why a lot of redheads are also left-handed.

So we want to know what proportion of redheads are left-handed? That’s where you come in, lovely ginger pals.

Join our poll and answer whether you’re left or right-handed, so we can get one step closer to understanding the weird and wonderful world of redhead genetics.