Ginger & worried about the future.

[Noimusntforget]

Our gorgeous toddler Dd has red/ginger hair, she’s very pale, with blue eyes and barely there eyebrows and eyelashes.
We’re both dark haired, with tanned skin and blue eyes, our girl doesn’t really look like us yet. Where we are (not in the uk) ginger hair is seen as very unusual and special, but we plan to move back to the uk in the next few years. I have a red headed friend who was bullied for years. When I look at my sweet, innocent girl, I feel fearful for the way she might be treated in a few years.
Anyone else have a red headed child? Is her colouring likely to change at this stage (2.4 months old)
Her hair and colouring is stunning and special to us, but people can be arseholes in life and I feel sad if she’ll have to encounter that.

Your daughter is very lucky to have such beautiful colouring

DS was born with red hair. His older brother is full on ginger and always has been, but DS had mousey brown hair by the time he got to about 6. I have brown hair and DH had black hair (Irish genes).

@Bearnecessity

...iPad issues....Ranger....orangutan. His mate is called Ginge by everyone....there are a lot of ginger folk where we live too. My ds is 18 .

What does iPad issues mean, or Ranger? Kids come up with the most bizarre insults.

OP, she will probably not get bullied for having ginger hair. I've never known anyone bullied for this. My bfriend's sister has bright ginger hair and she only ever receives compliments.

DD was bright, bright ginger when she was born. She’s 8 now and it’s faded to the most beautiful strawberry blonde with lots of natural highlights running through it, she also has piercing blue eyes and is stunning. (Obviously I would say that )

Complete strangers often comment on her colouring when we’re out and about. She’s never been teased about it, to the contrary many of her school friends are quite envious.

My DD - now 20 - has ginger hair and blue eyes. It was lighter strawberry blond when she was little. She always wanted to be blond when she was younger and did face some fatuous low level hives at points. She now loves bring ginger - she stands out from the crowd and is drop dead gorgeous (yes I'm biased but she has a constant string of admirers).

My Dd (10) has red hair, green eyes and has never been bullied because of it. In fact she has had other girls comment how pretty it is and how their's is boring...

@MrsJBaptiste Is that you Katy Hopkins?

I don't think it's so much of a thing nowadays. I know two red headed children and both of them are stunning.

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.

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 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

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.

@Bingomangoes

My child doesnt have red hair but does have birthmarks. A wise teacher friend reassured me that its personality type that determines whether a child suffers bullying or not, not what they look like. Some beautiful children are bullied while some with obvious differences are not. My son, now 10, has experienced no bullying, he's had comments but knows how to deal with them and brush them off. I'm guessing secondary school will be the true test but he's resilient, confident and funny, I have high hopes he'll be ok.

So victim blaming then

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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.