My red hair was the bane of my existence throughout my entire childhood. Classmates would tease me about my “orange” hair (it’s exactly the color of a penny, really; not new or old but in-between), and strangers would rub it for “good luck.” One particularly awful moment occurred when Ronald McDonald singled me out during a parade—I was four or five—and shouted, “Look, red hair, like me!” He blew me a kiss and mortified me, a very shy and easily-embarrassed kid.

Today I find it funny about all the different quirks, facts, and legends that surround redheads. I love my hair color now and wouldn’t change it for the world, and every time a stranger comments that it’s lucky, or that it makes me strong, or whatever, I have to grin and wonder where the heck they heard such a thing.

So I decided to look up a bunch of different theories, facts, and folklore surrounding red hair. Some of it’s funny, some of it’s just plain ridiculous; enjoy!

Red hair is an actual genetic mutation; we can say we’re mutants! A single gene, the MC1R (melanocortin 1 receptor), is responsible for our red hair.

It supposedly affects 1 to 4 percent of the population. (Upon hearing this, my husband asked, “Then why do I see redheads everywhere?” I immediately responded, “Bottles,” though I thought, “Wishful thinking!”)

In European lore, red hair was considered the mark of a witch.

The highest concentration of redheaded people occurs in Scotland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Australia. While a whopping 13% of the population has red hair in Scotland, only 2% of Americans have naturally red hair.

While it’s considered to be bad luck to have red hair in France, in Denmark it’s considered to be an honor. Some people teach redheads to wear green in order to “tone their hair down.” And I thought it was because green made our hair look even redder!

Two studies suggest that redheads have more sex.

Redheads are more likely to get skin cancer, sunburns, and wrinkling due to sun exposure.

30% of women who dye their hair dye it red.

Redheads are harder to sedate, requiring up to 20% more anesthesia than the average patient. Before I knew this, I could at least attest to it personally; in both dental work and in surgeries I’ve felt my operations and have had additional injections to anesthetize my body.

Redheads tend to lose their hair later in life than non-redheads, and do not turn gray; instead, their hair turns white. Redheads also have the fewest amount of hairs on their heads than any other hair color.