Ginger & worried about the future.

I'm in my early 50s and yes I was teased a lot about my hair at school but nothing I couldn't deal with (having red hair makes you quite resilient!) and I was very tall for my age so plenty for them to have a go at! I was also bullied although I don't think that was to do with my hair. The older she gets the more compliments she will get. I still get people asking if it's natural and what a lovely colour it is! I'd rather be a redhead than a boring mouse or blonde. We are a rare and special breed and she can tell the teasers that.

And I think it's best to treat red hair like blonde or brown hair. Everyone needs to stop singling it out. You can't mention red hair without people saying either negative comments or how special it is. It just needs to stop being commented on otherwise things won't change.

When a bully chooses a target they will say whatever they can to hurt the victim. If she were to be chosen as a target and had brown hair they would choose something else to use to hurt her. The best thing you can do for any child is build resilience and confidence and ensure you have good communication and they trust you to tell you things.

Children bully, if they can find a weakness they will exploit it. My cousin underwent surgery for his sticky out ears. Then one popped out again. My son also had a sticky out ears. We made thing of it, how cute, how lovely, games of how many kisses we could fit on them. When someone tried to skit his ears, he laughed, he saw his ears as an asset. The same child lost half a thumb, his siblings called him mutant. He thought it was funny! It's all about perceptions. However I was totally offended when listening to a colleague make derogatory comments about Gingers, WTF. A grown man!

A red here - felt slightly sad reading this post. There are countless things other kids can pick on. Don't make this a thing. She will pick up on it. Anticipating whether or not her colouring will change so that she will be more accepted in society...!?

Likely she will barely get a word said about it - but if she does, well that's life- teach to embrace it.

tortoisshell1985 I'm not a red head but that was nasty, what a complete prat. I had a very attractive friend and some random bloke commented that I must get a lot of her dregs, as she was sooo gorgeous, cheeky get. Then someone said the same thing to another friend about me and she would get all my hangerons, wtf are men thinking. So I feel your pain and your not alone. Men eh

I have an auburn husband and two of my three sons have red hair. The older one is like his father with freckles and burns easily in the sun. He is completely happy in his skin and has never had any issues. The younger one is 24 now. He has darker red hair, no freckles and tans in the sun. He is very self conscious about his hair, and reports that there was a fair bit of bullying when he was a teenager. I think it partly depends on how many redheads there are at school in their year. I also agree with a previous post that it depends partly on how self confident the child is. My no 3 son has confidence issues even though he is handsome and clever and holds down a really good job.

I was bullied terribly for the red hair totally wrecked my self confidence unfortunately. I still hate it and I'm mid 40s now. That said, this was 80s and I doubt bullying in schools to the extent it was rife would be tolerated now.
I distinctly remember at 16 meeting someone I thought was a friend from school, she wanted to meet her boyfriend after work so we waited outside, he came out with a friend of his. He introduced his girlfriend to his friend, friend looked at me and said thank God it's not this one.

My friends daughter who is now 20 absolutely rocks her red hair. She was never bullied for it as she was brought up to love what she's got and she really does. She doesn't take any nonsense and never did at school. She is stunning with her red locks and freckles.

Red hair & blue eyes is the rarest combination in the world, how very special.

I’m ginger. If shes proper red / ginger it will never change. I’ve been teased about my hair colour my whole life and my sister refers to me as ‘my ginger sister’ but I wouldn’t say I was bullied about it as such. You learn to roll your eyes and ignore it.

I was brought up to believe that my hair colour was stunning and unusual, and that freckles were marks of beauty. It certainly helped my resilience when people at school made remarks about my colouring. I never felt bullied.

As I grew up, I realised my parents and grandparents were absolutely right, as some men were attracted to me because I was a redhead, in the same way that some ‘gentleman prefer blondes’, or brunette women. Thanks to my family, my self esteem was such that, although I noticed this, I didn’t feel obliged to be ‘grateful’ for this special attention, iyswim?

Now my hair has white streaks in it, I pep it up with a copper conditioner.

I feel fortunate to have been born a ginge!

My daughter is 3 and a pale.red head. Her answer to it is she is like the princess from Brave and tbh she probably would confront anyone who was silly enough to comment

Sorry not sorry, can't believe some people are saying parents are to blame for attitude towards red hair. Parents worry for all sorts of reasons, at least they care. Your little girl will be fine, if she gets teased or not because she has parents who cherish her.

Igotthemheavyboobs....iPad issues means I was trying to complete my post when my iPad failed hence two linking posts. Ranger is short for orangutan to make it clearer for you. My ds has experienced a lot of bullying regarding my his hair and colouring please do not dismiss our lived experience or our sharing of it on here, thank you.

I was at secondary school in early 2000s and was teased about my red hair. Not horrifically bullied but comments were made and I was extremely self-conscious about my hair.

I walked into a pub about a year ago and a man who I'd guess was late 40s sneered "ginger" at me as I walked in. I'm afraid adults can be just as bad. I also had family members "joke"that they would send their child back up if they turned out ginger.

Dd has the most stunning wavy, very long, thick red hair and grey eyes.

She's never been bullied. Quite the opposite. She gets stopped in the street all the time and complimented on her hair. Its seen as desirable these days imo

As to when if it will change...not necessarily, but certainly possible. When I was born, I was tow-headed (white blond). By aged two, my hair was almost the colour of carrots. By the time I was 9 or so, it had gone a honey blond. Now, FAR older, it is a light brown with vivid copper highlights in full sun.

Tbh girls are bullied less than boys for some reason. I was bullied a bit by one person for a short period when I was 14.

But it all evened out with the compliments from strangers and fit spanish and italian boyfriends who found me so exotic! Ha. I love being a redhead!

I have the same colouring as your daughter and was never bullied for having red hair. In fact, I once suffered a spell of bullying around age 12 (the school had a bullying culture, it was rife) and even then the bullies never mentioned my very red hair.

I grew up as the only redhead in the family and with parents who adored my hair - I think they would have been genuinely baffled by the idea of it as a bad thing. I do wonder if that instilled a confidence in me that meant I was less likely to attract any bullying, because I definitely heard other redheaded children get it.

The other thing that people don’t seem to realise is that red hair attracts at least as many vehement fans as it does detractors - as a child/young woman I was constantly being approached my strangers who wanted to tell me how much they loved my hair. That helped me see it as a positive thing too.

I’d encourage you to try and drop the worrying and focus on the fact you see your daughter as beautiful - hopefully she’ll pick up on that and grow up feeling the same.

I personally love ginger hair but I totally agree - it’s actually really shit the attitude still prevalent to ginger hair. Sometimes it’s the adults who are the worst! I come from a very red headed family and have always loved the varying shades you can get. It’s probably about time this was really addressed.

My beautiful boy has gorgeous red hair, red hair and blue eyes is one of the rarest and beautiful combos (Biased I know lol)
However, my Dad was ginger, my Nan, her sisters, its a big family thing...and they were all v VERY sensitive about their hair, even when people were lovely about it, so I decided to change it up!
I have called my son Rusty, Ginge, Red-Head, Freckles, I have thrown every fun-filled insult his way since the day he was born, my wee Ginge, my gorgeous lil Rust-bucket, Moulin Rougey Bum, Ginger Biscuit, everything.
He started school, and of course as he got older the ginger comments started, but because he had heard every single one of them since the day he was born...they washed over him like water off a ducks back. They meant nothing to him because if the person that loved him the most in all the world had already called it to him, along with his siblings who followed suit, he knew they really weren't insults.
This might not be everyones cup of ginger flavoured tea, however, for my lad, it worked amazingly. I always used to ask him if he knew why Mum called him Ginge, and he grinned and said he loved it, made him stand out and feel special!
He is SO full of confidence, so happy, and has never been short of interest from the ladies lol.
Being Ginger is a blessing, and I am so jealous of every redhead! x
Ps We also used to play Hunt The Baked Bean on his head...I did this purely to have a photo to show to his future partner...I like to plan ahead! :-D

My mum is a red head and was bullied terribly so when I had my son and he had red hair I was determined to make him proud of it and he absolutely is. He's 8 now and I've drummed into him how stunning it is, its such a unique shade, I adore it. He thinks its brilliant as only he has that hair colour in the world! I've discussed that some may tease him but casually, and just said it will just be jealousy and to ignore it. He's so far escaped any bullying. He's a very sensitive boy so its a huge worry for me but I think so long as you raise your daughter to be proud of the way she looks you stand a fighting chance. I love red heads personally, such beautiful colouring.

My whole family are Irish and there are quite a few gingers of differing shades. Some have been bullied and some haven't.

At school during the 70s and 80s (Catholic school with lots of Irish) some kids were bullied relentlessly but they were mostly the ones who had bright orange hair/eyelashes/eyebrows and freckles.

I could honestly never get my head around why it provoked so much hatred and it had nothing to do with being anti Irish as most of the pupils were of Irish descent.