why do people with red hair have more freckles than others?

Question

is a there a medical reason why red heads tend to have more freckles than other people? and how come black people don't have freckles? well i don't know any.....

CAN having too many freckles be dangerous or not really?

Answer 1

redheads get more freckles because they have fair skin meaning less pigment so when they are in the sun they get freckles and african american people do not get freckles because they have alot of pigment in their skin so they just soak up the sun but do not burn

Answer 2

Freckles are a result of a certain kind of pigmentation in your skin.
Lighter skinned individuals have less pigment in their skin.

It is common that if you have light skin, you will also have light hair, (red hair). It's the way the hair follicles react to a lack of pigment.

Freckles are the way a certain type of pigment reacts to sunlight. The pigment cells will actually bunch together, creating spots of color- called freckles.

People who do not have freckles have the pigment that stays even throughout their skin, and there is also a lot MORE pigment... making easier for those skin cells to cover ALL of the skin.

Answer 3

Because most cases of freckles and red hair are caused by the same gene—MC1R. Here’s how it works.

The MC1R gene is really just a set of instructions for making the MC1R protein. The MC1R protein sits on the outside of melanocytes where part of its job is to make sure that there is a certain balance of pigments in hair and skin.

There are two main pigments in people. The most common one is eumelanin. It is responsible for most hair colors other than red.

The other pigment, pheomelanin, is more rare. It is responsible for red hair and the orangish red look of many freckles.


Red hair and freckles often
come from the same gene
When MC1R is working, it turns any pheomelanin that gets made into eumelanin. So when MCIR is broken, you get a build up of pheomelanin. And red hair. So people with broken MC1R genes have red hair.

But if MC1R is responsible for both red hair and freckles, why do some people only have freckles? It has to do with how many copies of certain versions of the MC1R gene they have.

Remember, everyone has 2 copies of most of their genes. And these genes come in different versions.

Some people have certain versions of MC1R that don’t work well. If one of their copies doesn’t work well, they can get freckles. If both don’t work well, they get red hair and freckles.

Now the red hair makes sense. If MC1R doesn’t work, you’ll get a build up of pheomelanin and end up with red hair. But why does having half your MC1R work sometimes cause freckles?

Scientists don’t know. What they know is that having one or two non-working copies of MC1R can sometimes cause freckles. Note the sometimes.

Not everyone who is a carrier for red hair has freckles. So there must be more to freckles than the MC1R gene itself. We haven’t yet found what that other thing is.

Answer 4

Their skin is more sensitive to the sun. Thats what causes freckles.

Answer 5

I have no clue my guess is that there born with them or they stay in the sun too long.

Answer 6

It has to do with th pigment cromosomes.

Answer 7

its the irish in them.

Answer 8

Because they're freaks of nature.
wang?