Question: Why are gingers more rare than any other hair color?

Steven Gardner answered on 24 Jun 2013:

In genetics, you have two copies of every gene, one from each parent. These genes can be either dominant or recessive. Each of your parents will have two copies of the gene and which one of theirs is passed down to you is random. The genes you inherit we call your genotype (gee-no-type) and the characteristic that you show (like brown hair or blue eyes) we call your phenotype (fee-no-type). If you inherit one type of gene then that is the phenotype you show, but if you inherit different genes, for example if you have one brown hair gene and one ginger hair gene (we call this a mixed genotype), then your phenotype will be which ever one is dominant. In the case of hair ginger is a recessive gene, so people can inherit it but not have ginger hair. Since ginger hair is a recessive gene, it’s more likely that it will be dominated and so ginger hair is rarer than brown or blonde.