Scientists say that redheads feel pleasure and pain differently

Red-haired women give new meaning to red hot.

Aside from their gorgeous looks, women with natural red locks have some other enviable differences over those with other hair colors.

Oxford University Vice-Chancellor Professor Irene Tracey discussed how redheaded women experience pleasure and pain better than others.

The neuroscientist known as the “Queen of Pain” showed how difficult it can be to study pain, noting how everyone experiences good and bad pain differently during a segment on Radio 4’s Today, according to MSN.

“Pain is subjective, it’s a private experience that you can’t objectify, it’s a wonder in itself,” she said.

“The holy grail is to root out what we call bad pain, chronic pain, and actually target it at the right level and remove that suffering for patients. You don’t want to remove the good pain, but you want to remove the bad pain.”

She then added that while feeling each type of pain is an individualized experience, it has been found that redheads experience tolerance and sensitivity differently than those with other hair colors.

“There’s often a comment about women with ginger hair, versus not, having that different genetic basis for how they experience the pain threshold,” Tracey said, according to the Daily Mail.

Redheads – who make up about 2% of the population – have the MC1R gene, which is linked to their distinctive color and sensitivity to touch.

Red-haired women can tolerate up to 25% more pain than people with other hair colors, a McGill University study showed.

They also feel less pain when pierced by a pin, a study from the University of Oslo reported.

But it gets even better for those with auburn locks.

Scientists have realized that redheads also experience pleasure differently.

A study from the University of Hamburg found that women with red hair have the highest orgasm rate of all hair colors (at 41%) and have more sex than women with other hair colors, according to the Daily Mail.

“The research shows that the fiery redhead certainly lives up to her reputation,” said Professor Dr Werner Habermehl.