Red Heads

[sharilee]

I was diagnosed with celiac disease a little over a week ago and I am a red head.

[ncteacher]

I'm a redhead!

I heard from a fellow celiac (who is brunette, by the way) that celiac disease seems to be more common along the Irish/Scottish hereditary line. If that's true (I'm skeptical), maybe there is a link!

[IrishHeart]

New here...Hi all.......I have red orange hair, no freckles and light olive complected and the only one in the family with red hair......I can't find anyone in the family who knows any relatives with Celiac.......My heritage is French, Irish and German.

Trying to get a hang of the board.

Hi Hon! Welcome to the forum!

Ditto for me-- French, Irish, German ---and Armenian.

There's no one in my family with Celiac (that we know of anyway )--except me--but there are others (of this, I am quite sure) as the family is loaded with auotimmune diseases. My Dad certainly had it, we know now. And in our grandparents' time, no one kept records.

...and well, someone has to be diagnosed FIRST, right?

Guess that's us!

[IrishHeart]

I'm a redhead!

I heard from a fellow celiac (who is brunette, by the way) that celiac disease seems to be more common along the Irish/Scottish hereditary line. If that's true (I'm skeptical), maybe there is a link!

There is quite a bit written about the celtic association (some folks kiddingly calling this " Celtic Disease".) and the genetic markers that are prevalent in Ireland/the UK. Interesting stuff!

[Ryniev]

My hair is brown but tends to have reddish highlights. I don't think that counts though because I look very Italian and I don't think there are many Italian redheads running amok.

[PatSch]

Redhead w/freckles here. But the rest of my large family with gluten issues are not.

[xJalin]

I'm a redhead too. Interestingly enough, my brother's friend is a celiac, and he's a redhead too.

[xJalin]

Come to think of it, all the people I know who are celiacs or are of Irish descent. My aunt, myself, and 2 friends (all redheads), and another friend who isn't a redhead but is 100% Irish

[SugarBiscuit]

Interesting...I am half Native American, half Irish. I was born with back hair, but turned brown with red tinting when I was a teenager.

[ctenny]

Celiac is called the Celtic disease...

[ChuGotItDood]

I am blonde, my bf is a red head, and our friend is brunette. And we are all Celiacs. I'm new to this too( diagnosed this week ), but knew a bit about Celiacs from them before.

[ctenny]

Welcome to the club! I've been diagnosed for 2 and a half months now.

[frieze]

My hair is brown but tends to have reddish highlights. I don't think that counts though because I look very Italian and I don't think there are many Italian redheads running amok.

virna lisi, natural blonde/blue eye italian actress....about 2% are red heads, so I just read.

[vickimini]

First post for me! I have some Irish blood and some (unconfirmed) native blood. My hair is unremarkable brown but I used to get red highlights in the summer, when I was young. All highlights are gray now!

Glad to be here. You all know so much about this! I have no Dx but have had an explosion of symptoms, fierce anxiety and irritability being the worst, since quitting gluten about five months ago.

[EJR]

Another redhead here. My grandparents were from Norway so have the fair skin, freckles, etc.

[Stubborn red head]

I have red in my hair. I have always been the red head of the family. We all have some in our hair but mine shows the most. Im strawberry blonde, I have pail skin and freckled from head to toe with all kinds of moles.

[Takala]

The only place that's left red is some of my thinning eyebrows and eyelashes. I was born light blonde that went to strawberry blonde and then it darkened to dark medium ashy mixed by high school, so it was very easy to bring it back up to lighter with mild highlighting solutions. It got very dark (the roots) by my forties, then started to go dull ashy mudd grey mixed with the red and blonde. After gluten free, it changed texture again (thank God, it got thicker) and came in curlier and lighter colored. That was the strange part, my hair changed color, too. But I kept highlighting, at least the roots blended nicely. I am pale skinned, why not.

Then, tragically, L'Oreal stopped making my color, so I had to switch. And we have real funky well water minerals around here, all my neighbors my age are sort of in need of a rainwater rinse and conditioning. My hair is currently not quite the right color, especially since skin tends to change with age (could I be any whiter than this ? not by much) but when I've tried others with the Garnier (no gluten) they are not coming out the way I wanted, yet. Grey is funky to dye over.

My mother, by this age, was much more light silver grey than I am, and her hair was much more brunette than mine ever has been. I let my hair grow all the way out natural color last year, looked at it, said, NOPE, I'm no silver fox, and went to the cabinet for the color.

I have very mild freckling, pale skin, pale blue eyes, and the whole Celt/Indigenous/Irish/English/German routine. Both parents were dark haired and all the kids were born blonde.

[FruitEnthusiast]

I was just diagnosed a week ago, so as of today, I have not met a single other person with Celiac's in real life. I have no idea what they look like! I have heard, through the grapevine of the internet, that there seems to be a high frequency of red heads in the Celiac population.

Is this just because of the two gene's common European upbringing?

Who here is a red head? I am!

What do you think of this odd coincidence?

Hi, I'm a redhead too! I've also heard celiac is prevalent among redheads. Though I'm gluten intolerant and tested negative for celiac, my GI said to be extra careful "cause I'm a redhead. I've heard that redheads have one less layer of epidermis on the outer most layer of their skin and also on the inner most layer internally too. Food for thought.

[RL2011]

You Gingers have all kinds of added issues (said laughingly).

[FruitEnthusiast]

You Gingers have all kinds of added issues (said laughingly).

Hmmm... perhaps... but it's soooo worth it!

[Chad Sines]

I like redheads and I have celiac? Coincidence?? Who knows...

[FruitEnthusiast]

laughing...

[RonSchon]

I was married to a Redhead when I came down with celiac disease. Coincidence? I think not.

[jerseyangel]

I was married to a Redhead when I came down with celiac disease. Coincidence? I think not.

Celiac by association?

[katt983]

Medium brown hair here, with some reddish highlights that have faded a bit with time.