In order to inherit the gene, both parents need to be carriers and although Scotland accounts for the highest percentage of gingers in the world (13 per cent of the population, apparently), the unusual mutation can be found all over the world.
Researchers believe the spread of the gene comes from historical interactions between Europeans and Africans during the colonial periods in the Caribbean or parts of South America.
"This might also explain why you occasionally see red hair on a black Caribbean person who has two black parents,” Dr George Busby from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetic told VICE. “By chance alone, it might be that they are both carrying a European mutation which has come together in their child.