Barely a year later, the New York Times published a report about how the findings had been faked, but the study has still been cited over the last 10 years in various publications.

A similar myth started in 2007 thanks to a study done by the Oxford Hair Foundation (funded by the hair dye maker Procter and Gamble who was trying to boost the sale of red hair dyes) showing redheads will very soon become extinct.

This also has since been proven false because the mutated gene itself (see what causes red hair here) is still being passed on, even when a redhead is not produced (often producing brown haired women who insist on telling everyone they are redheads ).