Red/ginger hair-what’s the big deal

[Flowersintheattica]

Toddler Dd has red/ginger/whatever colour you want to call it, and blue eyes. It’s the topic of conversation almost constantly among people-friends and strangers. It’s curly also, which adds to the hysteria more 😅
Dp and I both dark haired and people can’t seem to understand how this happened

Why is it such a big deal? In a good and/or bad way?

I love red hair! I've been dying my mousy brown locks red since I was a teenager

@Marove

Well people are gushing over ginger hair on here. I have ginger hair and the nasty vile and disgusting comments about it are what I remember. One person used to always say I had lovely hair and people even took a he piss out of that like it wasn't true.

As a young child of about 10 a grown man asked me why people with ginger hair were so ugly. Also as a child I had older boys asking about my pubic hair before I was at an age to have any and people saying really vulgar things about my vagina because of my hair colour, I found this confusing because I was so young. The things people said to me because my hair and because I also wore glasses were just disgusting and very hurtful for a young girl but treated like it was normal by every one.

People used to tell me I'd grow up and have ugly ginger children. I have 2 DC not one is ginger.

I don't know if people behave like this today ( I don't hear anything about my hair but is that just because I'm not a child anymore?) but in the 1980s and 1990s it was perfectly acceptable.

I do remember one of the most hurtful things that ever happened. We had family friends who would tell my mother she was like a daughter to them. They were all over her and made a real fuss of her but always treated me and my sister like bad kids. We had to call them nan and grandad and aunt etc.

One day, a member of their family had a baby who was born with red hair and they all commented how this baby was the first redhead in their family and that there were no others, it was said so many times . I'd known them well over ten years at the time. I never forgot it.

I have a red haired boy. Kick A Ginger Day was a well established accepted asshole day in his school.

Both my daughters have red hair and blue eyes, so does my husband (his are piercing blue!) I love the compliments they get, it's a beautiful colour.
I just hope my girls never colour it, it would be a shame.

@Disfordarkchocolate

Because its beautiful, and uncommon.

Exactly. Be glad that she has been lucky with what Mother Nature gave her.

To those saying that compliments of this type 'fetishise' red hair, I think that's twisting things in a nasty way. What a sad world it would be if nobody ever complimented anybody about their beautiful hair, for fear of someone implying they're some kind of pervert.

I'm a red head and would have loved my daughter to be. What I've constantly had is "she's not ginger is she?" (because in some photos early on her very blonde hair looked like it had a strawberry blonde tone) and "lucky she got DH's colouring" - I don't get why it's still seen as such a negative thing. I love my hair now, but actually after growing up with horrible comments about it daily, maybe I should actually be thankful my little girl won't.

My newborn DS2 has masses of thick auburn hair with blonde highlights and enormous pale blue eyes. I think it's absolutely the most beautiful hair colour I've ever seen, I am biased though but the amount of attention it attracts is insane. I thought DS1 got a lot of attention for his hair, cos he was born with a full head of thick black hair, but with DS2's it's something else. It's really surprised me. The difference with how people respond to DS1 and DS2 is that people want to touch DS2's hair all the time. I don't remember it being a thing with DS1. I had to stop someone in a shop from doing it after he'd not long recovered from an infection! I don't know if it's the added factor of seeing a newborn with red hair, but I'm hoping he's not going to be pawed at for years! DH and DS1 have black hair and I'm blonde so the contrast probably doesn't help either.

My DH has wavy ginger hair and piercing bright blue eyes and it is a really stunning combo, even now at 50 something he still gets comments (usually from grandmotherly types TBH). Unfortunately our son got my bog standard brown hair and brown eyes.

I'm a fellow red head (brown eyes though) and I grew up hating the fact that every single time I left the house some stranger (usually an older woman) would stop my mum/grandma/whoever I was with and comment on it.

Just because it's unusual doesn't make it ok to comment!

@Chocoqueen Fair point, maybe it could get tiresome, I've never had that level of attention so can't really imagine what it's like.

Hopefully there are far fewer negative comments these days about red hair, since it has become more popular over the years. If people don't like it they don't need to comment, but some people just have no filter when it comes to things like this.

@Gingernaut "normal" vs redhead is pretty fricking offensive

I have red hair and yes it was something that people, especially adults commented on when I was a child because as PP have said, it’s uncommon. Probably because like your DD, my parents are dark haired as well.

Did I get bullied? Yeah a little bit, but not terribly so. That’s kids for you isn’t it? If it wasn’t my red hair, it would have been something else. The red hair was just an easy obvious target because it made me different from most other kids.

I remember my mother telling me to just ignore anyone who teased me about my hair and anyone who did was just jealous. I’m nearly 40 now and I have no emotional trauma from any childhood bullying relating to my hair colour, so in the nicest way I think you’re probably overthinking this a bit.

There is a belief that Judas had red hair
In some literature female vampires had red hair and green eyes

This information will have seeped in to popular culture and it’s tumbles down through generations. I wonder how many people who are rude about red hair know why they have this prejudice.

I am in my 50s and ginger, never dyed it and it's still a lovely colour.
As a child I was never bullied, but had stupid nicknames at school and then in secondary, rude comments from the boys, ginger minge was the most popular (strangely all my body hair is blonde) so maybe I just wasn't sensitive to it at the time. But I love my hair, it's still really curly and very thick.
I do get annoyed though, that its acceptable for derogatory comments to be made on tv and such, about ginger hair, but not about other characteristics.

OP don’t make a thing of it. Worry about bullying IF it happens. Mine never got bullied.

Kids are far more woke than our generation. Don’t put the idea in there yourself that it’s strange in some way!

Someone went out of their way in secondary school to find an 'intelligent' nickname for me.

Duracell - The one with the copper coloured top.

@Gingernaut

I was called that in Primary school.