Hanna Winzenried, Brigham Young University
History
Red hair is one of the most rare hair colors. In fact, only two percent of the world’s population has naturally red hair. My research attempts to show how Western perception of red hair has undergone transformations over time. I seek to show how red hair has been associated with a variety of perceptions from the Middle Ages onward. This is not a comprehensive study, but one that takes a variety of primary sources to show how changing societal perceptions of red hair imbued females (and males) with a variety of traits contributing to a kind of physiognomy of hair whereby a person’s character could be read through hair color.