Thousands of people gathered in the Netherlands at the weekend to celebrate their red hair. It happened at the annual “Redhead Days Festival” in the town of Tilburg.
Liam Hunter, a red-haired man from Scotland, said attending the three-day festival made him feel better about himself. Like many redheads, Liam said he has experienced bullying because of his unusual hair colour.
“I don’t feel alone any more, I feel together, a part of something,” he said, looking out over the festival grounds. “Being here I’m completed.”
About 5,000 redheads from different countries visited the festival, which offered workshops on painting, make-up and skincare tips, photo shoots and music events.
Only about 1 or 2 out of each 100 people in the world are redheads. But among people who have northern or northwestern European ancestry, the number is higher, at about 4 in every 100 people.
The Dutch festival started by accident after an amateur painter called Bart Rouwenhorst placed an advert in a newspaper in 2005. He was looking for 15 models with red hair, but 150 people responded!
Bart, who is not a redhead himself, decided to take a group photo with everyone who got in touch. That gathering was such a success, and it got so much attention, that he decided to make it happen every year.
Five things to know about hair
1. Hair is something that grows from the skin of mammals. Animal hair is usually called fur. Sheep and goats have curly hair, which is usually called wool.
2. Hair is made of keratins, which are proteins.
3. Humans and some other animals have lost much of their hair through evolution. Some other mammals, such as the elephant and the whale, have almost no hair left at all!
4. Hair colour is passed down by parents to their children. Natural hair colour can be given only by genes.
5. Dyeing is a way people change the colour of their hair. A dye consists of a chemical mixture which can change the colour of hair by a chemical reaction.
