New emojis are coming, and they include new hair options

Redheads and curly-haired people, the Unicode Consortium has heard your pleas.

Those are just a couple of the 77 new characters approved to be added to Unicode’s next emoji update - 157 new characters if you count the variations in skin tones.

Bald people and people with white hair are the other new hair options. Jeremy Burge, the founder of Emojipedia and a member of the Unicode Consortium -- the shadowy organization that approves and encodes emojis -- said red hair and curly hair were the most requested new emojis. Like other “people” emojis, they’re available as men and women, and in a variety of skin tones.

Here are some you-ought-to-know-by-now things about emojis.

When was the emoji born?
In 1999. Emoji - cute pictograms that add emotional nuances to emails, texts and chats - have become something of a universal language. Back then, there were only 176; now, there are more than 2,600. They run the gamut of human experience, from joy and confusion to snowmen and witchcraft.

Who created the emoji?
Emoji had been created by Japanese mobile phone companies, who competed with each other to give their users more and better symbols to cheer up their text messages.

Then what happened?
A sleepy Californian non-profit organisation called the Unicode Consortium was thrust, by the emoji’s unexpected popularity, into the role as arbiter of these contemporary hieroglyphics.

It soon became clear that, to meet the public demand, new emoji would constantly be in demand - and that the possibilities would be infinite. To ensure the emoji alphabet was manageable, and with a one-in-one-out policy considered impractical, the Consortium opted instead for a robust selection process.

What are some examples of people’s emoji submissions?
Florie Hutchinson, a PR adviser in San Francisco, proposed a woman’s flat shoe, which is among the new symbols accepted. Another new symbol, the lobster, was the brainchild and relentless fixation of US senator Angus King, of Maine. And Rayouf Alhumedhi, a Saudi teenager living in Germany, was just 15 when she successfully pitched “person with hijab”. The mosquito emoji proposal was created by global health advocates from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs.

What about the new emojis?
There are 77 new emojis to be released by June this year. It typically takes a few months for companies such as Apple, Google and Microsoft to add new ones to their keyboards.

With the new release, there will be more than 2,700 emojis out there. Though it would be difficult for Unicode to remove less-used emojis from the official database - it would create backward-compatibility problems - Apple and other companies may choose to take a few off their keyboards in the future if users find the quantity overwhelming.

New animal emojis
Peacock, raccoon face, badger, hippo, swan, kangaroo, llama, parrot, lobster and mosquito.

New food emojis
Mango, leafy greens, bagel, mooncake, cupcake and salt shaker.

New emotion emojis
Sweating, Freezing cold, Face with hearts around it (slightly more low-key alternative to the heart-eyes emoji) and Party face.

New science-related emojis
Lab coat, goggles, magnet, test tube, petri dish, microbe and strand of DNA.

New craft-related emojis
spool of thread, ball of yarn, safety pin.

New one-offs
Pirate flag, roll of toilet paper, receipt, firecracker, suitcase and jigsaw puzzle piece, skateboard.

The Daily Telegraph/LAT