Though it has been know that people with red hair and fair skin have the highest melanoma risk of any skin type, a recent research has found a new mechanism to nail it down. A recent research by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cutaneous Biology Research Center (CBRC) and Cancer Center researchers claimed that those with red hair have a pigment which escalates the risk attached with melanoma.

Such people also are unable to produce the black-brown pigment called eumelanin, instead they produce the red-yellow pigment called pheomelanin, which is reported to be weak enough to protect from UV rays.

For the research, the team administered strains of mice which were genetically similar except for the gene which controls the type of melanin produced. It has further been noted by international melanoma expert Dr David Fisher, from Massachusetts General Hospital in the US, that they noticed a high risk of skin cancers in mice with red hair traits, without the presence of causes of melanoma including UV exposure.

It is believed that this study might be able provide the much needed base to develop better sunscreens and other measures which would be able to deal with the pigmentation-associated risk.