No, on a scientific level it is generally a European thing. What happened is in the natural human genome most humans are to have dark skin, dark hair, dair eyes.
Over the course of time, certain things happened, the human population bottle necked, that left fewer breeding options, but to keep humanity alive some clans or groups had to line breed or interbreed to produce off spring. As we moved out of Africa and into Europe, the climate was different and we had to adapt by having to wear animal furs for warmth and protection from the environment, often our ancestors had to wear these heavy skins year round which meant the pigments of the human skin never saw the sun. Over a course of generations, this lack of light on the skin of humans living in Europe, especially in extreme northern Europe caused a mutation in the DNA and in the mRNA. This genetic coding error rewrote the code for these people to have light to no pigmentation causing fair skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. Red heads have a further genetic coding error causing them to have no skin pigmentation, extremely sensitive skin, blue eyes, and of course red hair. This is NOT the same genetic coding error that causes Albinism, this is a different, much slighter one.
Now you've learned something new. 
