Redheads could be extinct by the year 2100, according to The Seattle Times. The article cites research by the Oxford Hair Foundation. The Seattle Times calls the foundation an “independent institution,” but my internet searches tell me that OHF, independent as it may be, is the research arm of Proctor & Gamble.

Could P&G be hoping for a run on red hair dye products?

CBS also covers mentions the possible extinction in an article on redhead discrimination, but without any alarm.

Only four per cent of the population carries the gene for red hair. With the odds that a red hair gene carrier will marry a non-carrier and since the ginger gene is recessive, we redheads could really become extinct.

My husband (let’s call him “Gene”) and I both carry the gene, so we certainly would have had redheaded babies.

Did we do humanity a disservice in choosing not to have children? I doubt it.