Are Redheads Going Extinct?

USC genetics professor Jerry Hilbish says that redheads are here to stay.

By: Krista Bagley

The prediction of people with red hair becoming extinct started back in 2007 when Australia's Daily Newspaper, The Courier Mail, claimed that recessive genes – like the one for red hair – will "die out" as early as 2060.
 
But is the redheaded extinction rumor true?

USC genetics professor Jerry Hilbish says that redheads are here to stay, and he can prove it by using the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium Theory.

"It's a very simple theory that is based on the binomial expansion, and it shows that genetic variation persists from one generation to the next.  What that ultimately means is that unless you do something about it to make the trait become more common or less common – like you go out and kill all the redheads or you kill all the ones who aren't redheads – unless you do something like that you're not ever going to change the frequency of these traits," said Hilbish.

Case and point: USC senior, Ned Durrett.
           
"I heard that we're going to go extinct, but if anything that made me ramp up even more of feeling like I needed to do my part to keep the redheads alive," said Durrett.

He's keeping the redheads alive because he's getting engaged to his longtime girlfriend Emily who also has red hair, meaning they'll have redheaded children.

"I would love for my kids to have red hair.  I mean everyone loves a curly redheaded kid running around; I think that's adorable," said Durrett.

So in the end, all it took to bust this redheaded myth was a little bit of science and a lot of love.