To be fucking sick of ginger hair comments?

[BlurryFace]

My 2 DSs are both under school age and ever since their hair came in I get to hear comments on it from strangers. Sometimes its complimentary, other times it's tuff like "ooh he's going to hate his hair when he's older bless him" or "he's going to get picked on with that hair".

It doesn't ruin my day or anything, I just think "get some social skills you twat" while going 'mmm, really'. I am ginger for Christ's sake, so even if it goes over the boys' heads I can fucking understand it. When I was pregnant with DS1 SIL (who I like) said "oh DH, wouldn't it be funny if you two had a ginger kid? Oh no offense, BlurryFace."

I just feel sick of shrugging off ginger this, ginger that comments. I've been doing it for 20+ years, my own mother has said she thought it a shame I was ginger when I was born. I got all the ginger pubes (what other colour would my pubes be, dumb fuck?) comments at school, but everyone hated me anyway, it was just bonus ammo.

Next time I think I'm going to ask if the person who thinks my kids will hate their hair hate their own nose/jaw/body shape.

[stitchglitched]

What a cutie Billy.

[ElspethFlashman]

I have a friend who' went to a very posh public school in England who was almost suicidal in his teens because of the bullying about his hair. In boarding school there was no escape.

[Faithless]

My DSD has beautiful long, red hair, similar to the girl in the picture and gets complimented on it all the time. She also has a very positive, strong nickname associated with her hair that was given to her by her sport coach and she totally embraces it. She is very positive about her hair colour, knows that it is rare, and LOVES that it is associated with feistiness. I think it's great that she has absorbed all this positive attention.
The only person who has expressed concern about anti ginger bullies is my DH, who was swiftly corrected by my DD, who, as a late teen is the authority on 21st century high school culture in our home. She states categorically that kids do not get bullied for ginger hair any more (in our area anyway), that no one will bully DSD as she stands up for herself and DH should get out of the 20th century and catch up!

[user1493759849]

I know this is slightly different, but it's similar, so I (and DH) do feel your pain a bit OP.

My husband is very pale, and has fairly white skin, and we have lost count of the amount of people who have commented over the years. (His mates and colleagues and my mates and colleague too, and neighbours and 'friends.') They say things like 'FFS, tell him to get a tan,' 'what's wrong with his skin colour?' 'Is he ill?' 'has he got anemia?'

Even the bloody doctors have commented and said he needs extra vitamins. It's just his skin colour FFS. Would anyone say to a person of colour that they need treatment to lighten their skin? No they fucking wouldn't.

Our daughter (now adult) has very pale porcelain skin, but no-one seems to comment on a female having very light skin oddly.

DH's mother was ginger and pale skinned, and I think that is why DH is very pale. DH has strawberry blonde hair though not ginger (or was til it went a bit grey!) Our daughter's hair is sort of golden light brown, and as I said, she is pale skinned.

Her boyfriend's mother is ginger and so is his grandfather. (His mother's dad.) As well as her dad's mother. So the chances of her and her boyfriend having ginger children is about 40-50%. She is actually excited at the thought of having a red haired child.

I thought ginger was much more 'cool' these days with there being so many cool famous folk with it, and much more accepted, but obviously there are still rude bastards around who feel the need to berate.

And people saying 'are you sure he's the father,' if your child is ginger and your DH isn't? Disgusting! Ginger often skips a generation. As I said, our daughter and her boyfriend are not ginger, but they have parents and grandparents who are, so they have a fair chance of having ginger children.

And asking if your pubes are ginger? Cunts.

[carrotcakecupcake]

My DS's hair is a similar shade to yours OP and I love it! So far I have only had positive comments about it but I dread the day when that changes (and it will, won't it ). I can't quite work out what colour DDs hair is yet (2 months old) but it's not the same as DS, more a dark auburn, and I'm quite disappointed.

[JanetBrown2015]

I love red hair. I always wanted a ginger child (I was born with reddish hair). Also loads of people have it at least where I am from (NE lots of celtic people etc.

I have 3 blonde children and neither of their parents is blonde although we have it in the family. I wish the red hair had passed down. It looks lovely.

[edengarden123]

One of our boys has red hair. We love it. He calls himself "The boy with the golden hair" ❤️. He's three.

We are in Ireland and we get regular comments about how fabulous his hair his.

They have a redhead festival in Ireland every year.

www.redheadconvention.com/

[hazeydays14]

YANBU it is bullshit.

No DCs yet and I'm not sure if they would have my colouring because I seem to be the red-haired sheep of the family with the only other red head being my gran's gran..

Through secondary school it was the daily 'ginger minge' comments.. I remember being an innocent sheltered 11 yo and asking my mum what it meant because I didn't understand. South Park did us no favours either with the 'gingers don't have souls' thing.

I nagged my mum to let me colour my hair and she used to say 'people pay a lot to have hair your colour'. I'm so glad, I absolutely love my hair colour now. It's always been on the auburn side but has got slightly darker with age (teisen (sp?) according to my welsh gran)

Haven't had a negative comment since about 16 yo apart from a hairdresser asking me 'do you actually like your hair colour?' with a scrunched up face, needless to say I didn't go back and my 'FIL' calling people on telly 'ginger twats' then saying not you though...

I think your idea of asking if they would like their kids to inherit their ears/nose/awful personality is pretty bang on, how bloody rude of adults. You would think they would have grown out of it.

Interesting comments re it's association with celtic people and some jews though, you learn something new everyday. A singer did a music video showing the mass killing of ginger people to highlight the treatment of people in her country but I can't for the life of me remember who she is/the people she was speaking of.

[AnyFarrahFowler]

Some people are idiots. My DS has beautiful ginger hair, just like his Dad, and it runs in my family too. It's gorgeous. If DC2 is also born with ginger hair, I will count myself extremely lucky, because it is very rare, and who wants to look like everyone else anyway?! I hope DS will be proud of his hair, and if he was to ever get any negative comments about it I'm afraid I would have to be just as rude back.

[DarklyDreamingDexter]

Lots of gingers in my family - brother, gran, aunt, cousins. I think it's stunning personally - all red shades. I don't blame you for being pissed off when people comment negatively though. Some people are just fucking rude and ignorant.

[LittlePeonie]

Its just backwardness!

I went to school in London in the 60s and 70s, a nice little local school. Nobody talked to each other like that. It would have been seen as unpleasant and rude to make such personal comments.

I don't know whats wrong with people.

[ThumbWitchesAbroad]

Another ginge here who was bullied for it at school. Ginger, curly/wavy - got a lot of negative comments. NIcknames like Haystack, ginger minger and worse.
Got told I smelt of piss because I had red hair.

As I've got older, the red has faded out a lot - as generally happens - to the point where some people don't even realise that my hair ever was red. But I have the ginger photos to prove it, and the teeny tiny papercut-size scars from the name-calling.

I would have liked one of my children to have red hair - DS2 has a slight reddish tinge to his, but it's not really red at all - but DH wouldn't have wanted it. He reckons it's ok for girls to have red hair (just as well, as both his mother and I did!) but not for boys - they get called things like Ranga or Blue. (Although I cannot for the life of me see how Blue comes in as offensive in comparison with other names!) Ranga - it's short for orangutan and you can't go around calling people apes - imagine how that would pan out for dark people... wildly racist, that's how!
Even my own sister said if one of hers had had red hair she'd have tried to give it back. How fucking rude!! And these people have no thought to how wounding their words are to the red-head in their lives - just doesn't really filter through their brains, somehow.

"Oh red hair - yes that's funny, it's awful, let's laugh at it - oh but not you, I'm not talking about you."

Well yes you are, actually. :(

[OlennasWimple]

I love love love red hair - and have only heard positive comments about it over the last 15 years or so, I thought that ginger jokes had died out along with MiL jokes

[ThumbWitchesAbroad]

@user14937etc.
I also had very pale skin. I am female, and yes, I used to get lots of comments too. Not least because I also had freckles (and glasses, oh my life at school was just an utter blast with all these things going for me, poor specky four-eyed spotty ginger minger that I was!)

"Best" comment was on a beach in Portugal, with a few other friends who all tanned better than me - bloke walks past, and in possibly the worst chat-up line ever said "God, you're white, aren't you?!" Err, yes, I am, thanks for pointing that out, I'd never have noticed without your input!

[WritingHome]

I am a red head and absolutely love my hair. I am 47 now and have always loved it. The thing I cannot stand is the word 'ginger' to describe it - don't know why but is is like nails scraping down a blackboard to me

[DovahJunFeyn]

Your hair is beautiful, Blurry.

I've never understood this notion towards red haired inviduals. It's just a fucking hair colour.

[c3pu]

My DS1 has ginger hair. I love it, it's copper coloured and gorgeous. He's not been bullied about it yet AFAIK, but he's going up to secondary school soon so that may change. His class has about 4 ginger kids in though, so he's not alone!

[Areyoufree]

@hazeydays14. That was M.I.A. Born Free.

[blerp]

I'm not ginger, and this pisses me off.

This is a relatively common characteristic among British people, children are small and sensitive, mocking children for the way gingerness makes their hair and skin looks should be seen as being a monumental twat.

[ExConstance]

My hairdresser works alongside a male hairdresser who I think of as "The man with the most beautiful hair in the world" It is red, curly and nearly waist length, though he usually ties it up.

[CotswoldStrife]

I'm a redhead, it runs in my family although crops up less and less as the years/generations go by. Clearly my own family were hoping for another redhead judging by the number of 'oh, she's got her dad's hair' comments that we had when our DD arrived with dark hair

I didn't get bullied because of my hair colour plenty of other reasons but never that one so that probably influences my opinion. Catherine Tate did a sketch on redheads.

[Istandinpause]

First time my M-i-L saw her grandson she said 'Oh dear, he's got red hair.' The next time she said 'Oh, shame he's still got his red hair then.' I was nice and held my tongue but was astonished inside.

[paganmolloy]

Next time it happens say to them "substitute the words ginger hair for black skin and then take a long hard think about what you've just said" that should make them squirm and shut up. We live in the 21st century FFS - why do people still think it's ok to pass negative judgements. Cross on your behalf!

[Littledidsheknow]

Meh, can only think its jealousy combined with general being a rude cuntedness. Red hair is stunning.

Bruce Springsteen and Jack White have songs extolling the gorgeousness of redheads; and both married one!

[HappyFlappy]

a stranger who leaned into his pram and then said to me "Poor little mite, are you very disappointed with his hair? " to which I said "no, the thing were really worried about is if he grows up into the sort of person who comes up to strangers and is rude about their babies. That would be awful"

Brilliant reply, Paxmanfan