A history of red hair

[UM-Bot]

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/images/newsitems/redhairgirl.jpg

Leonard Farra: The Guanches were the people living in the Canary Islands before the Spanish conquest in the 15th century. Although it's believed that they were related to the North African Berbers, we should bear in mind that they were of mixed race. Some, who were a brownish shade, were of the Mediterranean Race and as others were tall, white, fair or red-haired, nobody has questioned why red-haired mummies have been discovered in caves. It's not known when the Guanches arrived in the Canary Islands but, in common with people throughout the Early World, they claimed to be the survivors of a great flood which destroyed their former homeland.

View: Full Article

[timincal]

Most people do not know that the majority of the European royalty during the middle ages were all redheads. The Prophet Muhamad was a redhead.

Julius Caesar was a redhead. Caesar actually means redhead! Lenin was a redhead. So was Winston Churchill and the Romanov's in Russia. Cleopatra and Alexander the Great were also redheads.

Edited February 1, 2014 by timincal

[Neognosis]

I don't think the above information is really reliable.

I looked up the origin of the name "caeser" and found this:

Although the etymology of the name of Julius Caesar is not known with certainty, many scholars believe that it was simply a use of the Latin expression caesar meaning hairy.^[1] The Julii Caesares were a specific branch of the gens Julia. The first known bearer of the name was one Sextus Julius Caesar, praetor in 208 BC, who might have been conspicuous for having a fine head of hair (alternatively, given the Roman sense of humour and Julius Caesar's own receding hairline, it could be that the family branch was conspicuous for going bald).^[2]

It doesn't say anything about red hair.

Secondly, I believe that mummies are found with red hair in regions where the population was thought to have black or brow hair because of the way that the pigments in human hair degrade over time. They weren't red haired during their lifetimes...

Potential change to hair color can be explained more scientifically by examining the chemistry of melanin which is responsible for hair color in life. All hair contains a mixture in varying concentration of both black-brown eumelanin and red-yellow phaeomelanin pigments, which are susceptible to differential chemical change under certain extreme burial conditions (for example wet reducing conditions, or dry oxidising conditions). Importantly, phaeomelanin is much more stable to environmental conditions than eumelanin, hence the reactions occurring in the burial environment favor the preservation of phaeomelanin, revealing and enhancing the red/ yellow color of hairs containing this pigment. Color changes occur slowly under dry oxidising conditions, such as in the burials in sand at Hierakonpolis. Whether the conditions within the wood and plaster coffin contributed to accelerated color change, or whether this individual naturally had more phaeomelanin pigmentation in his hair is hard to say without further analysis.

http://interactive.archaeology.org/hierakonpolis/field/hair.html

[Neognosis]

More on why "caesar" does NOT mean red-haired:

Meaning of "Caesar"

The original meaning of the name is unknown. The four most common derivations of the cognomen "Caesar" are given by the writer of the Historia Augusta:^[8]

• from caesaries, 'hair', because the founder of this branch of the family was born with a full head of hair. (Ironic, if true, because Julius Caesar himself was balding in later life.) This is the etymology favored by Festus.
  
• from caesius, an eye color variously translated today as 'grey', 'blue-grey', and even 'blue'. (Julius Caesar himself had black eyes.^[9])
  
• from caesum, 'cut out', because the first Caesar was cut from his mother's womb (see Caesarean section). This is the etymology favored by Pliny the Elder.^[10] (Julius Caesar himself could not have been so delivered, because this dangerous operation was normally done only upon a dead woman, and his mother was known to have lived for many years after his birth.^[11])
  
• from caesai, a "Moorish" (maybe Punic) word for "elephant" because the first Caesar had killed such a beast in battle. This is the etymology favored by Gaius Julius Caesar himself.^{[citation needed]}
  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_the_name_of_Julius_Caesar

[qxcontinuum]

Amazing article. Who were exactly the tall white red haired people before the flood. The stories told by native indians are identical to those written in the Bible. So what exactly happened 8000 years ago? Obviously due to the complexity of their ancient ruins and construction they were an advance race perhaps even descendants of the aliens who had fathered this planet.

Edited February 1, 2014 by qxcontinuum

[Likely Guy]

Hey. I'm tall, very white and red haired, and no we didn't father this planet.

[fred_mc]

We know that some Neanderthals were redheads. We also know that some of our DNA comes from Neanderthals, that homo sapiens have mated with Neanderthals. Perhaps our genes for red hair come from Neanderthals. Perhaps people from the British isles have more Neanderthal DNA, that would explain not only why red hair is more common there than at other places, but also why people from the British Isles are considered uglier than most other people ;-).

Edited February 2, 2014 by fred_mc

[Awake2Chaos]

Amazing article. Who were exactly the tall white red haired people before the flood. The stories told by native indians are identical to those written in the Bible. So what exactly happened 8000 years ago? Obviously due to the complexity of their ancient ruins and construction they were an advance race perhaps even descendants of the aliens who had fathered this planet.

^^this reminded me of this>>>> http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_tuathadedanaan04.htm

[Cherrypress]

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/images/newsitems/redhairgirl.jpg

Leonard Farra: The Guanches were the people living in the Canary Islands before the Spanish conquest in the 15th century. Although it's believed that they were related to the North African Berbers, we should bear in mind that they were of mixed race. Some, who were a brownish shade, were of the Mediterranean Race and as others were tall, white, fair or red-haired, nobody has questioned why red-haired mummies have been discovered in caves. It's not known when the Guanches arrived in the Canary Islands but, in common with people throughout the Early World, they claimed to be the survivors of a great flood which destroyed their former homeland.

View: Full Article

Weren't the Guanches notoriously blonde haired????

[timincal]

As I said before Caesar was a redhead.

If one were to actually take as much time as I have to reaseach it they would find through out recorded history all powerful leaders were redheaded.

If you were to start looking at the European nobility of both the Holy Roman and Byzantine Empires one would see paintings of them and they all are shown with having redheadish hair.

Back in ancient times people all had 3 common names and one way to distinguish people with 3 common names was using an attribute or occupation they had Caesar meant in the ancient language redhead.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Was_caesar_a_redhead

I do not post hearsay or speculation.

[Skep B]

As I said before Caesar was a redhead.

If one were to actually take as much time as I have to reaseach it they would find through out recorded history all powerful leaders were redheaded.

That is an oddly specific study to dive headlong into