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.

My dd is 13 she has dark red hair
Never been bullied about her hair
She’s started using red shampoo to make it look redder !!
She has a couple of red haired pals they call themselves ginger ninjas !!
It’s seen as a good thing !

My DS is 7 and has ginger hair - like you I did worry about whether my perfect boy would be bullied, but he hasn’t been teased about it at all. He is full of confidence and thinks his hair is cool.

We have deliberately called him ginger/ginger ninja as a term of endearment as we hope it will then have less power if anyone tries to refer to his hair as a negative

He has had two ginger teachers for year 2 and his current year which has been great as they’ve made a fuss of their ‘ginger friend’ or ‘team ginger’

Your daughter sounds beautiful.

My best friend at school was a red head and I am dark but with curls. Apart from teenage boys shouting ginger nut and mop head at us, I’m not aware that she was bullied.

Try not to worry.

I have a red headed toddler. She's gorgeous and tells strangers her hair is beautiful. I think red hair is seen as more desirable nowadays. Kids can pick on others for anything.

To be fair, nobody is going to be too awful on this thread as we were originally talking about a 2 year old 🤐

I have red hair. As a child adults would comment about redheads having a temper, which was trying, ironically the redheads I have known have been pretty chilled. You definitely stand out, which I found uncomfortable as a shy child, as an adult in work situations I have come to embrace being the different one when in a room of grey men in grey suits.
One odd thing is that I am assumed to be the mother of any red haired children I have anything to do with, even more foxed when with my red haired friend, as they try to figure how we are both the mother.
Also, when in Scotland you will be embraced as one of their own, just with an odd accent.
Of course, the big issue is the sunscreen and hats, the only thing I battled with my own poor mother about. The best of British luck with that.

@MrsJBaptiste Meaning? Lots of people don’t like ginger hair/kids?

I'm a redhead and did get teased/picked on about it at school but that was 70's/80's and to be honest I think it was cos that was the main difference I had to other kids so if they were annoyed at me for something else that's what they used to attack me and there's any number of things that kids can do that with that you can't control.

As an adult I've mostly had positive experiences aside from pervy comments about whether "the carpet matches the curtains" from men who would be pervs anyway no doubt, and a couple of women who were very weird in not believing it was my natural colour! Inc a hairdresser! Once she was dealing with it up close she could see it was and was amazed (this comment is generally because it's not a uniform colour, so can in certain lights look like I have highlights which I don't. This is even more the case since I've started turning grey as even the greys aren't all the same shade of grey)

My dd is dark but her best friend throughout school is also a redhead and to be honest the more orangey red which isn't a "fashionable" preferred redness which I'm lucky to have (it's somewhere between a strawberry blonde and a light auburn) I'm more Amy Adams she's a more orangey Karen Gillan.

My point being dds friend and other redhead friends of hers didn't get anything like the crap I did at school.

That may depend on there being more redheads here though (west coast of Scotland)

All you can do is keep bolstering their confidence regarding their hair colour and themselves without necessarily making it a "thing" and IF they do get bullied stamp on it as hard as you can, don't dismiss or minimise it.

My dd had some Dickish comments about her naturally curly hair though as that is no longer the preferred fashion and we had much angst over her spending ages straightening every morning! She's more comfortable with it now but at school it was an issue.

Being a teen in the 80's with curly hair was fine as perms were all the rage, I did have it permed to have tighter more uniform curls at one point but it didn't go right and I didn't bother again

She'll be fine I'm sure

What I WILL say is make sure the schools keep on top of the skin care aspect! I burned horrifically a few times as a kid as this wasn't well known about then, it's better known now but we very fair people even WITH top factor sun block can still burn very quickly and badly in uk sun and it's bloody painful! Plus of course putting us at higher risk for skin cancer.

Op ignore MrsJBaptiste it’s meant to get you questioning. Not nice and spiteful

I work in a child setting ages 3-11 and have had quite a few ginger and red heads to look after over the years- if any comments were made they were positive actually and certainly didn’t hear if any bullying to do with hair colour.If anything it was very much admired!

I have red hair.
My father has red hair, as did his mother.
My son has red hair.

None of us have ever been bullied.

I have never known a child be bullied for red hair, and I have red hair in the family and am a teacher. I think it’s more a thing of the past when red hair made people stand out. In todays multiethnic society red hair is nothing unusual

Funnily enough a school friend of mine who was a ginger (red head) has actually done very well for herself in business so didn't hold her back and I also knew someone who had very red hair (privately educated and also lived in HK) who seemed to do very well too.

^^

I think it definitely stems from an anti irish/Scottish thing.

I wish I had lovely auburn hair. Mine is dark brown/black and shows even 1 little grey

My brother had a red hair until he was about 4 years old. He’s now a boring brunette with me. I would love to have a red haired baby / child

Dd has been called ginger ninja in this house since a toddler. Shes grown up being called ginger so she doesnt bat an eyelid when she hears it. Shes also 13, nearly a black belt in karate and has perfected a withering look😂

I don't know OP, it's as if ginger is the least attractive and has negative connotations. "Ginger Minger" etc. I have no idea where it comes from. I'm in the north of England BTW. Not sure if that's relevant. Maybe avoid the north.

I'm a natural red head and only ever get compliments! I'm praying my future child will have red hair too.

She sounds gorgeous I think everyone is more inclusive now. Kids will always pick on something teeth, hair, nose. Mannerisms Don’t worry people are gentler now

@Girlyracer Hmm, we’re from the North originally too, so would be going back there. I have heard that saying, but wouldn’t say that those expressions and views were in my social group, I’d change my social group if I were you.

@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.

There are 7 children out of 30 in my sons class with ginger hair. They are all gorgeous and there is definitely no stigma attached to hair colour!! My Dad had ginger hair (it's white now) and I always hoped my children might inherit that gene but they got my mousy brown!

My son has red hair which is a little less glowing now. There were occasional attempts (usually by women for some reason) to tease, call him ginger, carrots etc. We always looked them straight in the eye and made them agree his hair was red. For one obtuse woman I remember threatning to criticise her back if she couldnt stop 'having a laugh' Keep your cool. Make sure your daughter understands she is beautiful snd take no shit.

My daughter’s a ginger (her term). As she’s an only child we brought her up to stand on her own two feet. Believe me, no one messed with her because of her beautiful hair colour.

My 6 year old DD and I both have red hair and she has never once been subjected to any kind of ridiculous bullying about her hair. If anything it’s the absolute opposite.

I love being a redhead. It's been admired by both friends and strangers my whole life. I've never been bullied about it either.