Worried about Dd being ginger in the uk

[Takestwohourstoniptotheshop]

Redhead, Golden haired…

We are moving back to the uk next year. Dd was born in the country we’re currently living in. The majority of people are dark haired, brown eyes and tanned skin.
Dd is reddy gold hair, blue eyes and fair skin. She gets attention everywhere she goes about her hair and eyes, people compliment her a lot and are very gushing about her looks, it’s lovely

My impression is that this is very different in the uk and cruelly this is used as an insult almost, is this still the case? The thought of it is heartbreaking

I got some of that (same circumstances) but I was older and people gave me more grief about my accent for which I grew a very thick skin and gave it back just as much. In the great scheme of it my hair was the least of my problems.

I'm sorry you've had some really bad experiences and hope your confidence has recovered. Sadly, there are some real shites out there.

Where in the UK are you planning to live op?

I was bullied relentlessly at school for my ginger hair, whereas DH, who has much more orangey ginger hair, wasn’t bullied at all, the difference between us being that I went to a rough school in a somewhat deprived area and he went to a well to do school in a nice area, he had a large group of friends who were all the ‘popular’ kids which I suspect shielded him a lot, whereas my friends were the less popular kids, so I don’t suppose anyone cared about upsetting them!

Then if you've covered all that with her, what is it that's worrying you?

This.

It might help to know which country you're planning to relocate to, as that may shape your experience?

I grew up in Scotland with very red hair and was bullied for it for years, I'm not sure it's much of a thing now though, people pay for my colour of hair these days. My DD has red hair and people are always commenting on how lovely it is and complimenting her.
unfortunately children will find anything to pick on others for, as long as your building her up at home and teach her not to worry what others think of her then I wouldn't worry.

Some can be cruel about anything (weight, height, accent, clothes, spectacles etc). If she's confident and acts it she will carry her own invisible shield. Interesting - in nearly all the TV adverts children have golden/copper/red/ginger hair.

I think it's one of those things where if a bully has it in for you, they'll add the ginger thing to their weaponry. But ginger hair won't cause the bullying.

I had enough red in my hair to be called 'ginger nut' at school, but it faded out and I spent many years putting the red back in. I think your dd will be fine.

It was a thing when I grew up, born in the 70’s but it’s never been a problem for ds1 who is as ginger as they come! He’s 22 now and never had an issue.

Cornwall

I have three gingers, two with ginger curls, and can honestly say they’ve never been bullied and all like their hair.
It’s just not a thing at their schools, and from adults they only get compliments.

I was trying to dye my hair red back in the 1980s! Red hair on women — I mean natural-looking auburn/ titian, not openly dyed bright red — has always been admired, even if sometimes linked with a fiery temper, usually in a joky way.
Boys were ruder to each other. But I’ve never known a woman who hated her red hair.

I have red/gold hair, very fair (translucent 🤣) skin, freckles and green eyes. I’ve only ever had compliments here.

Boys with similar colouring, however, (my two brothers for example) unfortunately may have different experiences 😢

DD was complimented in primary school but it attracted negative attention in high school.
Has gone unremarked in 6th form.
You stand out with red hair so you need to develop a thick skin to comments good or bad.

I've been ginger for nearly 60 years and nobody has said anything unkind about it yet. I've only met two children who I know for sure were being teased about being ginger, and they were both children who more or less introduced themselves by saying "everyone teases me about being ginger and I hate it." It pays not to tell everybody what you are most sensitive about! People often seem to say it's harder for ginger boys than ginger girls, but my brother, who has been ginger for almost as long as me, was only ever teased about a couple of other quite unrelated things.

Always been bullied for it myself, horrendous back in the day but it's definitely less bad for my primary age DC now although we sometimes get comments from random strangers. We dye my secondary age DC's hair now and that has reduced things, as well as complaining to school about the bullying. I don't mention it's hair related though as I find the teachers are my generation and always minimise it, so we just refer to it as verbal abuse/harassment, which it is, and they pay more attention to that. It does seem to depend on the shade though, ours is the wrong shade, very bright orange no-one would dye their hair our colour, if your DD has the more golden blonde shade she is more likely to be fine. It's luck depending on her class and their parents I find.

You are focused enough to start a thread about it .

Mum of ginger DS, now 24, mild name calling, even had a random bloke yell out of his van 'Oi, ginger!' whilst on his way to school once!
He dealt with by saying, yes, and.... ? make them look stupid.

Kids will pick on any difference, if it's not hair, it's something else.

Sorry I haven't read the thread (has it escalated??) but I agree with this. My younger son has red hair and he just rocks it! I also don't think anti-ginger sentiment is as strong. I also have red hair and it was pretty bad in the 80s/90s, but I think things have changed.

Yep

DS2 is very red haired. It does attract attention, even though we are in Scotland where it is more common. He gets called Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi, ginger ninja, Jaffa cake, all of that.
Its not particularly nice, but he rocks his hair - red hair and bright blue eyes, apparently a rare genetic combination!

I have 2 ginger colleagues and the only people I have ever heard make disparaging remarks about their colouring is themselves.

It may be some sort of protective device they’ve learnt having been teased as children, but I think it’s sad that they feel it necessary.

I’m a ginger who was bullied , partly for hair colour. I had a c-section with my second, and the doctor declared ‘oh he’s ginger!’ as they pulled him out. ‘Is he?’ ‘No thank goodness’ the doctor replied. And we all had a good cackle 🤣 Kids can be bullied for any reason, because other people can be dicks. Thankfully I now still have my ginger hair, thick skin AND a sense of humour… sometimes 😁

Eh?

I genuinely don’t understand your point.

I was not commenting on what it was like to be a redhead. I was saying I never understood why there was anti-gingerism. It seemed weird to me.

My friend’s boys both have red hair and have been through school recently. I am not sure if they were bullied but my friend said that they certainly hated having red hair.