Why do loads of men have ginger beards?

HavingCrack

I'm completely baffled by this one. The amount of men I know with black, brown and blonde hair who have a red beard is ridiculously high. I'd actually say close to 50-50.

Does anyone know why this happens

liah

I'm convinced it's almost an exclusively Irish (and perhaps British Isles; moreso Scotland) thing.

I'd never seen a man with jet-black hair and dark eyes with ginger freckles and a ginger beard before going to Ireland. They're everywhere there, to the point where I don't think anyone who's from there would even notice there's a difference.

There's also a lot more people who go gray very young in Ireland, I think. Loads of people I know in their early 20's, sometimes younger, have gray hair. Think it ties in with the ginger thing, somehow, but I'm no expert.

I could be totally off the mark, but I'd reckon it's an Irish genetic distinction of some kind. I think it's pretty cool!

Galvasean

I too would like to know what's going on. I have sandy brown hair with a ginger beard. All of my male cousins have either brown or black hair and they also get giner beards.

Agricola

The science bit....

http://www.epsilon.hlgamers.com/blog/?p=44

Doesnt really account for the possibly exclusive Irishness of it.

Have you seen Frankie Boyle!

Ardennes1944

i dont see many young people going GREY here at all.

antopanto

Well i've brown hair, but if i could be arsed growing a beard it would be ginger, my Dad was a ginger nut, so maybe this is why, it could be a parent, grand parent, great grand parent and so on, once a ginner always a ginner:)

Galvasean

Galvasean wrote: »

I too would like to know what's going on. I have sandy brown hair with a ginger beard. All of my male cousins have either brown or black hair and they also get giner beards.

Should have mentioned my Mam and sister are gingers. Genetics!!!

parker kent

liah wrote: »

There's also a lot more people who go gray very young in Ireland, I think. Loads of people I know in their early 20's, sometimes younger, have gray hair. Think it ties in with the ginger thing, somehow, but I'm no expert.

I hope not :pac:

My facial hair actually goes through different colours depending on what stage of growth it is at. My personal favourite is my blonde phase before I turn strawberry blonde!

PK2008

Tis a secret old Celt way of letting people know you're part of the clan

Sugar Free

If I let it grow for over a week I get a little bit of ginger on my chin.
I keep it clean shaven though.

I also have a few stray grey hairs.
Annnnd I've dark hair, brown eyes and sallow skin.

I should start a support group or something!

Otis Driftwood

There are no red heads in my immediate lineage ie back as far as great grand parents at least yet in my own beard on occasion I get a ginger hair or two and Ive got pitch black hair (now with a generous smattering of greys).Easily disposed of though.

CK2010

I read somewhere that ginger hair doesnt go grey- it goes sandyish and then yellower and yellower til its eventually white! something about the pigment or something!

starviewadams

No gingers in my family either but my beard has a very ginger tinge to it,its darkens and is grand after 5/6 weeks but in the inbetween bit it looks horrible!

Wolfe Tone

Its just my chin which goes ginger, the rest is black!

Will

I've red hair, rock a red beard on occasion, however I'm the opposite. After a while it goes brown and even some stray grey hairs! :eek:

charlemont

front of chin is white now,lower chin is brown with some ginger, my upper lip is ginger, side of face is brown..yet iv a smig running from bottom lip along the centre of my chin thats brown, ive blue eyes, brown hair with an even mixture of grey, it seems to have stopped getting greyer too...

Nevyn

PK2008 wrote: »

Tis a secret old Celt way of letting people know you're part of the clan

It's not the celts, it's the sodding vikings.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=58639999

TouchingVirus

I dunno why this happens, but it really annoys me.

I'd love to grow a beard to see if it suits me, even a smig or whatever. I won't grow a moustache except for Movember, it looks ridiculously knackerish and doesn't suit my roundy face.

My stubble is black, but as soon as it starts to grow it turns ginger pretty quick. Nobody in my immediate lineage (Up to great-grandparents) has red hair, my dad's facial hair is dark brown/black (well, grey now).

kangaroo

I'm another person with brown hair* with a ginger beard. Like some others, mine goes all sorts of colours if I let it grow out. And grey/white is among there (but I'm late 30s now) i.e. it's not true with regard to ginger facial hair that it won't go grey - don't know about ordinary hair.

* I was very blonde when a child and still had streaks till I was about 20

Faith

It's really weird. I know several guys with very, very dark hair and ginger beards. Conversely, I met a guy recently with dark hair and a black beard and I was completely taken aback. I told a friend about him the next day and said "And he has a BLACK beard! :eek:". She was as shocked as me.

I think the ginger beards are cute though .

TouchingVirus

Faith wrote: »

I think the ginger beards are cute though .

If there are more opinions like this then I'll have to get over the shame of ginger beards :P

Faith

TouchingVirus wrote: »

If there are more opinions like this then I'll have to get over the shame of ginger beards :P

I've always had a thing for beards, and spent 6 months persuading my ex to grow one. He refused for that long before he was embarrassed about the fact it would be ginger. It was of course lovely in the end.

Mrmoe

I'm more curious about ginger pubes which has been pointed out to me with much hilarity on more than one occasion.:o

parker kent

Mrmoe wrote: »

I'm more curious about ginger pubes which has been pointed out to me with much hilarity on more than one occasion.:o

At least if you have got that far, you are on to a winner!

Galvasean

Couple of chicks liking the ginger beard. Luckily I'm sporting one at the moment.

To hide spots actually. Dont get too excited ladies.

parker kent

Galvasean wrote: »

Couple of chicks liking the ginger beard. Luckily I'm sporting one at the moment.

To hide spots actually. Dont get too excited ladies.

I was sporting one recently too due to a lack of razor blades in the shops and the snow trapping me from going anywhere else. I called it the Human Snood.

Think girls may have liked it as it helped cover my face :pac:

Truley

Wow this is amazing, my boyfriend has brown hair and a ginger beard. Thought it was unique to him, obviously not.

I had a teacher who had brown hair, brown beard but ginger sideburns. Very strange looking.

pigeonbutler

I'm also in the brown hair, ginger beard column. Was encouraged to grow the beard by an ex that was a redhead so she was into the ginger beard! I've kept it since and despite the slagging from my mates it's been pretty successful

amacachi

Blonde hair and ginger beard. Just a ginger beard soon, stupid early baldness. SIGH.

Josh_Calvert

pretty sure everyone has a range of melanin in their body hair...in the same way pubic hair is often a different shade to head hair, so facial hair can be pretty different to head hair.I have jet black hair bu tin the sun my beard goes every colour from red to blonde to silver...

liogairmhordain

CK2010 wrote: »

I read somewhere that ginger hair doesnt go grey- it goes sandyish and then yellower and yellower til its eventually white! something about the pigment or something!

this is happening to chris evans if the photo in last sunday's sunday times is anything to go by

kangaroo

Josh_Calvert wrote: »

pretty sure everyone has a range of melanin in their body hair...in the same way pubic hair is often a different shade to head hair, so facial hair can be pretty different to head hair.I have jet black hair bu tin the sun my beard goes every colour from red to blonde to silver...

I may not go out for months at a time (due to a disabling illness and having adapted to an indoor life) and I get different shades in my beard and a partly/mainly ginger beard with brown (originally blonde) hair, as I said.

Jimmy Iovine

I used to have very red hair when I was younger. It's been getting steadily darker over the years now to the point where I have to stand under a direct light to notice my original hair colour.

My dad has black hair and also a black beard, which he shaves every day so it doesn't really matter.

My brother has brown-ish hair and it looks like he's gonna have black facial hair. He's at the point where he's shaving his imaginary stubble trying to act hard.

When my stubble is about 3-4 days old it's fairly dark and looks good but then it hits the "Wayne Rooney" stage and I have to shave it out of embarrassment.

It's still better than my uncle and his black facial hair though. He has to shave every single day and even then it usually grows back by the afternoon. Looks a bit like Ryan Giggs only way worse. Must be torture having to shave it so often. I'm lucky that I can get away for a day or two before it's noticeable

Jimmy Iovine

Galvasean wrote: »

Couple of chicks liking the ginger beard. Luckily I'm sporting one at the moment.

To hide spots actually. Dont get too excited ladies.

Just saw the spoilered part there. I've noticed that I seem to get more spots on my face when I leave my "beard" grow for a week or so. Often i don't bother shaving at all for a week and then my face breaks out. If I keep it shaved every day or so then I don't have any spots at all. I'm at a loss as to why this happens

Josh_Calvert

hair folicles blocked with oil Id imagine...

kangaroo

A dermatologist once recommended to me to grow a beard. It was something about avoiding having bits of redness from short hairs growing inwards. [Aside: I was sent to the dermatologist because a doctor thought I must be concerned about something; it might have helped if he had diagnosed my illness (ME/CFS) which was five years undiagnosed at that stage and getting worse. I wasn't worried about the state of my complexion (most of my acne was on my back)].

parker kent

Jimmy Iovine wrote: »

Just saw the spoilered part there. I've noticed that I seem to get more spots on my face when I leave my "beard" grow for a week or so. Often i don't bother shaving at all for a week and then my face breaks out. If I keep it shaved every day or so then I don't have any spots at all. I'm at a loss as to why this happens

I noticed something similar before. I put it down to shaving being a form of exfoliation or something similar.

Apolloyon

I think I must be the poster child for this kind of phenomenon as my beard has always been ginger/brown and now in the last few years has gone ginger/brown/grey. Oh well at least I have my hair...brown...oh all right grey with a bit of brown!

Dravokivich

Similar thing happens to me as well alright, tend to only shave every 5 / 7 weeks.

Bit mad when it grows because it starts off dark, gets ginger when it thickens then tends to have a bit of greying along the chin...

babo9

Tell me about it! I have pure blond hair and a full ginger beard, thing is too I have fast enough growth and I have a sizable bushy beard in about 10 days, so it starts to stand out a mile away after about 5 days!

It's always funny if I bump into someone who knows me reasonably well (but not well enough to know about the red beard!) when I haven't shaved for about 10 days - "do you realise you have a ginger beard?"
What do they expect! - No, No not at all, that's news to me

fullstop

Maybe Xabi Alonso is actually Irish....

strobe

fullstop wrote: »

Maybe Xabi Alonso is actually Irish....

Well he's from the Basque Country, born in '81, every chance his real Da was an IRA man hiding out in the town. :pac:

fullstop

strobe wrote: »

Well he's from the Basque Country, born in '81, every chance his real Da was an IRA man hiding out in the town. :pac:

Paddy Alonso :pac:

HavingCrack

This thread makes me feel so much better, I'm not alone :pac:.

NoDice

A few of my friends, incl my OH, have dark hair but a few scattered ginger hairs too. I think it's really cute!! Love beards (on fellas ).

GrumPy

Well I can only speak for myself, but I guess it's cause I'm ginger.

Dante

I have black hair and blue eyes and there's no gingers in my family, yet after a few days my beard goes ginger.

Luckily enough I still have a soul though.

Asphyxia

I always make fun of my boyfriend because of this When he grows his beard out he has tiny bits of ginger in it haha! I find it really cute though but he gets really embarrassed.

A the moment he is sporting a goatee type look and it really suits him, I think if his beard didn't have the light ginger bits he would look strange having it so dark.

evil_seed

Ginger flecks in my facial hair but it has been going darker and I've been growing greyer by the day since 19 yrs old. I'll be a badger in 3-4 years haha.

Nevyn

strobe wrote: »

Well he's from the Basque Country, born in '81, every chance his real Da was an IRA man hiding out in the town. :pac:

The Basque region along with Breton and the Rhine region are all considered 'celtic'.

CDfm

It all sounds like a Henna misadventure to me.

http://www.hennaforhair.com/science/index.html

I will bet that it only happens to guys who go rooting thru the cabinet and use the nice expensive looking bottle herself bought. This might be a purely Irish thing.