Reports about the red hair gene dying out due to climate change have been circulating the Internet for years. According to the reports, as the number of sunny days increase the number of red-haired individuals will decrease. However, fear-not my fair-haired friends, the team at Brit Lab recently looked into the claim, and in their investigation found that regardless of whether you love it or hate it, the ginger gene is most likely here to stay.

The red hair gene is actually a mutation, and along with giving individuals bright flame-colored hair and fair skin, it also increases their sensitivity to pain and allows individuals to convert sunlight into vitamin D more easily. And while this trait may be useful in areas with low levels of sunlight, fair skin can be a hindrance or even a danger in warmer climates as having less melanin in the skin increases your skin cancer risk. Temperatures are rising due to climate changes, which means that even once overcast areas are seeing far more sunny days than in the past. Some have claimed that due to this, the red-haired gene will become irrelevant and eventually die out completely. However, according to Brit Lab, this just isn’t true.

The gene necessary to make red hair is recessive, meaning that one must inherit it from both their mother and father in order for it to be expressed. This means that even if everyone who physically has red hair did manage to die off in a catastrophic way, the gene would still be unknowingly carried by their blonde and brunette descendants. To completely drive it to extinction every single blonde or brunette carrier would also need to not pass on the gene to their children, and although this could possibly happen, it would take a great deal of time.