There’s no way to avoid the name-calling when you have red hair. Ginger. Fiery. Carrot top. Strawberry. Cinnamon Bun. Ginger Snap. (Let’s keep thinking of more food names, shall we?)

How about this one– RED. Really creative, huh?. Or, even better, “endangered species”? My dear little Grus japonensis (that’s the Latin name for red-crowned crane), I will treasure you forever, because your kind may no longer exist in the near future.

Indeed, the rumors of disappearing redheads have spread across cyberspace at an alarming rate. Family and friends especially like to support my phenotypical oddity by sharing articles about redheads being “endangered.” Some of these articles cite Oxford Hair Foundation (P&G Beauty), an “independent” research foundation, funded by Proctor and Gamble, which sells beauty and hair products.

But let’s check the science!

I am here to tell you these rumors are a load of nonsense. Thanks for the appreciation though friends and family! I really do love the support. It’s always nice to believe I am special in the most melodramatic, future- of-the-world way possible.

Because if we check the science, there is no actual evidence that redheads are in danger of disappearing. Red hair comes from a mutated MC1R gene. The gene is recessive, so it only expresses itself in a human when both parents are carriers. Just because you don’t have red hair doesn’t mean you are not a carrier of the MC1R gene. In fact, a whopping 80% of the global population are MC1R carriers (source: TIME Magazine).

The only way for redheads to die out entirely is for all carriers to die off and never reproduce with another carrier. While it’s true the visual expression of the redhead gene is statistically rare, the gene itself is in no danger of disappearing from human DNA.

Good news everyone!

Especially for redheads! Now you can throw off that awful pressure to find a red-headed mate and procreate as much as possible for the sake of your species.

For the rest of you blondes and brunettes and raven haired, don’t be sad. All your ginger friends are here to stay. Go hug them extra tight and appreciate them for being such a rare, beautiful, exquisite expression of the human genome.