Do Redheads Feel Less Pain?

You may have heard that redheads need less pain medicine, or that they need more anesthesia in surgeries. And both of those things are true! Which is weird. Let's talk about some of the stuff we know about what the heck hair color has to do with pain tolerance.

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Sources:

[nickim]

I was born with red hair--now it's brown--and my doctor has told me I have a very high pain tolerance. Also, when I was being sedated for a medical procedure, the nurse asked me if I was getting sleepy, my response was, "No, am I supposed to be?"

[triciac.]

This came up in the ER. I had been bitten by something and wasn’t in pain. But my arm was blowing up. Third doc to visit me took one look at my hair and said of course she’s not feeling it, she had red hair. Admit her now. And yeah, I spent three days on IV antibiotics to battle in the infection.

[nicoleflo]

Another redhead here to confirm I need more anaesthesia than average. And it’s important to take seriously. Waking up during a medical procedure is no fun

[Tinkerkel]

More anecdotal evidence to add. My mom is a brunette and my dad a redhead. I have dark Auburn hair. It looks brown inside, but the red shows up in the sun. 1) Both my mom and myself had laser eye surgery, and I was definitely in a lot more pain than her. 2) I had an infected cyst that I had to go to the emergency room to get removed. The nurse was shocked at how much anesthesia they had to give me to knock me out. She said I had to have as much as a football player. I was 5'4" 115 pounds. 3) I tripped on my kids toys and fell not realizing I had broken my clavicle. It didn't hurt all that much after the initial shock. I got concerned when the next day I still couldn't lift my arm. I was surprised when the x rays showed a completely broken bone.

[oisinm]

This is partially why I hate dentists so much. As a kid, the dentists didn't believe what I told them.

[shyone]

Blue eyed redhead here that has very very low pain tolerance. A hangnail can actually bring tears. I do require extra anesthesia though. People are different and interesting.

[SeekerOfTruth]

When I was younger I was getting a tooth pulled, the dentist gave me the legal safe amount of novacaine, but I still felt everything. So I had to be sent to an oral surgeon and be put completely under

[AbbieBrockhurst]

Redhead here. UK
I can manage sharp pains really easily, probably because local anaesthetics don't work so well on me. I could feel the surgeries on my tongue tied frenulum as the surgeons sawed with the scalpel, they didn't believe me and said I had enough pain medicine so I just toughed it out.
I could feel the nurse cutting the connective tissue on the implant in my arm away, she said if I had any more anaesthetic it would have to be done in a hospital so I shut up.
Before falling asleep for a surgery I surprised the surgeons by not shutting up as they were gassing me.
I've done minor surgeries on myself as a child and teen and am able to ignore the pain.
I think my lack of pain sensitivity has made me vulnerable to the concerns that follow a pain insensitive body, ignored injuries, SH, risky behaviour (ignoring threats like sharps as they don't hurt enough to be unable to ignore).
Thankyou for explaining this, my hair is beautiful but it hides issues nobody understands aside from the vampirism.

[RILDIGITAL]

The complexity of genetics and its relation to pain perception is truly fascinating.

[michellecoleman]

lol I switched dentists and the first filling he had to replace went like this:
"Are you feeling that numbing yet?"
"Kinda, but not really. Could you possibly do another shot?"
"Yeah, I was expecting that. Redheads always need a bit more."
On the other hand, a higher pain tolerance also results in you knconsciously downplaying your illnesses and problems to doctors and you have to constantly remind yourself to consider how bad it really is because if you're at the doctor, you're there for help and downplaying the actual problem because you feel guilty that "Well, I can still function technically when other people say they feel so much worse, it must not be that bad."
Also, screw paper cuts and sunburns.

[Adi-]

“As far back as 2005…” ah the ancient times

[humicroav]

I'm a red-head and it took me a lot of bad experiences with local anesthesia to realize I needed to be telling the doctors that I need more. Since then, it's helped a lot. I wish I had known this earlier.

[feedbackzaloop]

After all those years of exposure to moral suffering in school no physical pain is strong enough anymore.

[aaelfohto]

I was given 13 shots of anesthesia during my root canal and still felt my dentist drilling into my mouth. Horrible.

[donkauer]

Oh so this would explain why Yosemite Sam kept coming back for more even after getting hit with a cannon ball. Got it. 😂

[feynthefallen]

You know, I alway found that "pain on a scale of 1 to 10" BS _extremely_ annoying. So when I was faced with it again recently, I held out my hand and said "I don't know, can you inflict a Level-five pain on my hand for reference please?" You should have seen the look on the nurse's face...

[katwitanruna]

The only time I haven’t felt pain in the last three decades was in the ER when a physician walked in, looked at me, looked at my records and said “Are you a natural redhead?” Yup. “Are you okay with my giving you my redhead pain combo?” Nope. And yeah it worked. I just wish I could remember what it was. Three medications and I don’t think any of them were an opioid.

[CeltKnight]

High pain tolerance and being resistant to pain meds and anesthesia is the story of my life. I felt very fortunate to find a dentist, ortho, and GP who understand this. I almost cut the end of my index finger off once and was sitting in the ER with an intern. He was frustrated because he'd given me "More lidocaine than I should have" and I could still feel the needle he was trying to stitch me with. I told him to just do it anyway but he couldn't make himself do that. Finally an older supervising doctor walked by, grumbled something about "These new young doctors they turn out today that don't know about red-heads" and did a nerve block on my hand. Norco might as well be M&Ms but weirdly Tramadol works wonders for severe pain. Other than that it's just push through.

[andrewweaver]

I was a heroin addict. Let me tell you. I outlasted everyone people that tried to put me to sleep. It was like weed 4.0. But that's all. Even addiction recovery was easier. Lmao. What a stupid superhero ability.

[PhilLesh]

As a red head who has a higher tolerance for pain and who has needed more pain killers to reduce pain I have always understood why. It makes perfect sense. If it takes more pain before I feel it, this means the pain signals are at a much higher level and therefore need more pain killers to suppress.

It's like if my pain's level one threshold is 100 decibels of high pitched noise and your pain threshold is only 80 decibels, and the remedy is noise cancellation of the same sound level but an inverted waveform, you would only need a 80 decibel signal while I would need a 100 decibel signal.