Caitlin Beery and Tess Ware walk down the hallway where everyone else is different. photo by AJ Domagala
A dying breed is always the most superior.
Many people ask me what it’s like to be a redhead and while it’s pretty normal to me, others believe it’s an outrageous thought. Less than two percent of the world has red hair and most of the redhead population lives in Scotland. Many redheads are asked if we experience the world in a different way and in some ways yes; we are at a higher risk of getting skin cancer, we experience pain in a different way than most and we experience hot and cold temperatures more severely.
With how transparent our skin is, we are more likely to get sunburned which could lead to skin cancer later in life. Covering up in the sun is something that redheads have to be aware of more than others on a daily basis. Finding shade, wearing sunscreen, and trying to wear clothes that hide our skin from the sun are all things we have to think about regularly. We get sunburned a lot faster than others do, so when choosing to be in the sun we have to remember that if we don’t take precautions, consequences will always follow. If and when we get sunburned, it’s a lot more severe than it would be for others. Redheads are more likely to get blisters when they get a bad enough burn since our bodies can’t handle the sun on that extreme level. When talking about the jokes we are told on a daily basis, English teacher, Sean Silvers stated, “Sometimes about how pasty I am, but that really can’t be helped, when you don’t tan at all. I am just various shades of red.” Redheads get pasty jokes on a daily basis but there is really nothing we can do about that except for getting fake tans, but in my opinion, that’s too much money, too much work, and not to mention it’s very dangerous.
The pain that redheads experience is a lot different than the way others feel pain. That doesn’t mean we all have a lower or higher pain tolerance but internal pain and anesthesia affect us in a different way. Senior Shalom Busse explained, “I feel pain the same as others, the only difference I know of is that we feel thermal pain like burn more intensely.” Since our skin is so sensitive to temperatures, the extreme hots and colds affect us more than others. The 70-75 degree weather with cloud cover is ideal conditions for the redhead population.
Many redheads need more anesthesia medicine to feel the impact and its results. Caitlin Beery got oral surgery and was given more anesthesia than normal because her body wasn’t reacting to the typical dosage. This a very normal occurrence for redheads when it comes to how they react to medicines. Statistics show that redheads need 20 percent more anesthesia than those with darker or lighter hair colors.
Even though we are sensitive people, we bring a lot to the world with how we experience our surroundings. How we react to the world around us shows a lot about who we are as people.
