Parents of red haired children

[Hoping11]

I have recently given birth to a beautiful red haired baby! We don’t know of anyone in either of our families with red hair so it was a shock for us, although genetically speaking it must be in both families history, several generations back. I’d love to hear from other parents of red heads...

Is your child’s skin particularly sensitive to sunlight? Should I be using sunscreen from a very young age, even in the uk on dull days?

Has the shade of your babies hair changed much? I know brunette and blonde babies change a lot, but is it the same for reds?

Are you offended by the term ginger? Is teasing of red haired children at school still something to be prepared for, or is this outdated?

If you’ve had a surprise red head, have your subsequent children had the same hair colour? If we have more, I’d love them to be red too so our baby isn’t the only one in the family.

I’d love to see your gorgeous red head babies! I never noticed the colour of children’s hair and now I have my own, I spot beautiful little red haired children everywhere ☺️

Hi, my red haired baby is almost 3 now! He was born with a crop of bright orange hair and it hasn't changed colour at all.

I don't put sunscreen on him on dull days (once yours gets to about 18 months you'll understand why!!! 😂) but am religious about doing it in sunny weather - much the same as with non redheaded babies and children tbh.

We're not offended by the term ginger but tend to tell him his hair colour is 'orange'. He isn't in school yet but my teacher friends say ginger-teasing isn't as big a thing anymore. I hope so, like you I do worry about bullying.

I have to say I have only ever had comments about how beautiful his hair is. Nothing ever negative.

My DH and I are not ginger, but there is a lot in both our families. I was dead convinced my second baby would also be ginger when we found out he was a boy at the 20 week scan, but he has light brown hair, so it doesn't necessarily follow that your subsequent babies will have red hair.

Enjoy your baby xxx

I have a red headed DS, which wasn’t unexpected as I am, and it runs in DH family as well. But DD isn’t red, so it’s probably unlikely you’ll have a second. My mum was, but neither of my sisters are.

I don’t sunscreen at all on dull days, and keep them out of the sun or mostly covered up on hot days, with sun screen on the bits that are exposed. I try to let them have a good 20 minutes in the early morning sun with no sun screen though, so they can make some vitamin D. We’ve only had one sun burn, which was not a very sunny day so caught us out as they were playing in the paddling pool, so the sunscreen had washed off - it was hot but not very sunny.

None of us have ever changed colour that I know of - DS definitely hasn’t and he’s 11. I hate being called ginger, but then I was badly bullied at school. My nephew also suffered from bullying so be prepared for it. As a kid, I only ever got compliments from all the adults, but the kids were merciless. I can’t say DS has ever been bullied specifically because of his hair colour though.

Both have mine have red hair - DD’s is curly and deep red, DS’s is straight, fine and a kind of golden red (strawberry blonde maybe?). I like being able to spot them from a distance. Neither have had teasing about their hair (yet - 8 and 11).
All of us have really fair skin and would burn easily - we all wear sunscreen every day from about April to October, if out for more than about 20 minutes.

Unexpected red-head mum here. First DD is very dark skinned so when my DD2 got burnt on her nose and cheeks on a very cloudy day in Skegness, I was so so upset.

DD2 is quite orange in the summer but more auburn in the winter. Theres been no issues with teasing and she's 9 now. Every year she seems to get more and more freckles, but again these only come out in the sun. So you must must be vigilant with the sun.

I think as she gets older she might have issues with the colour of her skin rather than her hair. Having ginger hair is not as uncool as it was when I was a kid. But the fact that she can't lay in the sun without turning into a lobster might pain her a bit when she's trying to fit in with her girlfriends when she's older. But who knows on that one.

I tell her everyday that she's beautiful, like I do with my eldest DD.

My oldest is a strawberry blonde shade of red but it wasn’t a surprise as DH is red along with my sister and dad. What was a surprise was my second has dark brown hair.

We’re Scottish so the sun doesn’t like us much anyway but we’ve been on holiday to Spain in the middle of July and nobody burned. We’ve just accepted we need to buy factor 50 and nothing less. If the sun’s out in the summer at home, I will put suncream on them. I don’t bother before about May here though unless it’s very bright. There are a few kids in the school nursery with hair redder than DS and I haven’t heard anything mean being said but it’s not an uncommon hair colour where I am.

Red can last longer as a colour than others. My dad is 64 and his colour has faded to brown but he has no grey. DH is the same. Some of his friends are very grey at 40 but his has stayed the same although it’s thinned a lot!

I was an unexpected red head. DD is blonde but has very fair skin. My hair has not changed colour since I was a toddler. My brother has brown hair, no one else in my close family has my hair colour, it's never bothered me and I was never really bullied. I don't use sunscreen in winter. However in summer I'm pretty militant about sun screen, hat, long sleeves etc and staying in the shade for me and DD!

Unexpected red head here too, he had brown hair and birth but it turned red in the first few weeks and has stayed that way. No redheads in either family apart from one distant relative.

I don't do sunscreen unless it's a very sunny day and we will be outside for more than 15m or so. He's never burnt, or even really been sun marked.

I do worry about him being teased when he's older, he already gets loads of comments from within our family about his hair so maybe I'm hyper wary. Lots of people assure me it'll change as though it's a bad thing.

I love it though as it's part of him, and who he is. Never thought I'd have a red haired baby!

I am a redhead! Started off very ginger but it has darkened to auburn over the years. I love my hair. I have alot of freckles but dont really burn that easily think the amount of freckles I have provides protection... My bro has darker red hair and no freckles and tans with a bit of effort. Both our parents had red hair though.

None of mine have red hair, think my husband must have no red haired gene.

From what you've said, I would think you have around a one in four chance of another redheaded child.

DS's had no hair when he was born, but when it came through it was red. It's in both sides of my family and one side of DH's, but it missed our generation completely. I thought DS's red hair was just gorgeous but it went darker as he grew and as an adult is mid brown. He still has lovely copper highlights though in the right light. Turns out it missed DS's generation too.

My daughter had a shock of red hair when she was a baby and looked quite like a mini Jonny Rotten for a while!

Unfortunately, it didn't last and has got progressively lighter to the point of complete blondness. In some lights it shimmers a bit gingery. I fully expect it to go brown like mine (I was ginger as a baby, then blond, then brown).

I'm more assiduous with sunscreen on my ginger son than on his blonde big sister, but I've only ever needed to do it in summer. People haven't teased him for his hair, but I think he has had comments about his freckles and went through a phase of not wanting them. We read Freckle Juice!
DHs brother is strawberry blond and apparently there are gingers and redheads on both side at our grandparents generation. Yes once you have your own redhead, you see them everywhere. A big kid at school adopted my son as his 'mini-me' in my son's first year, and he loved having a friend higher up the school. It wasn't a deep friendship but he did sort the tracking on my son's scooter!

I have two unexpected redheads. First was a surprise as noone is red on either side of the family. No issues so far. They both by chance have a red haired best friend but that could be by chance as we are in NI and it seems quite common here. No bullying at all and eldest is nearly finished primary. He likes being different I think so far as he and his mate are only two in his class. Youngest calls hers orange. They are both quite different shades and very striking looking in the sunshine.

I am one of three siblings all with red hair while my parents didn't have it. An aunt of my Dad's did however so it must be from that side of the family. We were all vibrant red when younger - my sister's has stayed dark while my brother and I are lighter now. It's true what a pp said about it being slow to go grey - I am 60 and though I occasionally colour my hair the greys are never obvious even when it grows out. We all got sunburned as kids but this was in the 60s and 70s when nobody realised the danger, and I inherited my Dad's slightly olive skin so fared better. I don't remember any teasing.

I have a ginger son (it's very pale Ginger that goes blonde in the summer so I don't call it red).

I put suncream on him All The Time. He burns easily and has a very pale complexion - but so do I.

We have ginger in both our families (DH has a ginger beard) so ours was not a surprise at all. We live in Scotland so get tonnes of compliments about his hair. Ginger teens don't get teased in the same way here, apparently, because it's more normal (BIL is a true redhead, I asked my MIL).

If your baby was born with ginger hair, it might fall out and be replaced with another colour yet.

I have one strawberry blonde DD and one definite redhead with blonde highlights (but not bright red). No surprise as DH was red as a child.

Strawberry blonde DD has got DH’s milk white skin and redhead DD has my pale but more robust skin. Neither burns especially easily thankfully, although milk white DD did as a baby.

No freckles and no blonde eyelashes. I doubt they’ll be especially red by late teens tbh - more likely to be dark blonde or reddish brown.

I was born very ginger but turned to baby blonde by 1yo and have retained that (lucky me) until 50+

My sister stayed ginger. She hated it as a child but it's truly beautiful now. She hasn't gone grey either.

Both my DC are ginger. DS1 is a proper carrot top. DS2 is more strawberry blonde

DS1 (now adult) has to be very careful in the sun. Even 15 min in high summer will make him burn. Weve never bothered with sunscreen in winter though. DS2 has more "Scandinavian" skin colouring and whilst still fair, burns less easily and will take on a bit of a tan.

They did get some teasing at school but nothing nasty, there are worse things to be called than ginger. DS1 learned to use it to his advantage.

My redhead gets a ridiculous tan if he so much as looks at the sun. It’s extremely unfair. He has dark dark brown eyes so I’m assuming some sort of pigment thing with skin too.

Absolutely not a single bad comment so far - I actually roll my eyes a bit at the nice comments too because I don’t really love one of my children getting compliments from strangers and one not (one doesn’t have red hair). I’d rather no one commented on their appearance.

Really the only ‘negative’ comment we got was MIL ‘it’s not ginger, it’ll change’ ... while I’m sitting thinking there’s no doubt it’s ginger!!! Accept it

My son is 13 now and his hair was bright orange as a baby/toddler but has gradually darkened and now it's more dark copper/auburn than ginger. Even in the summer it doesn't lighten much. He is blue eyed and fair skinned but he does seem to be weather hardened by hours spent outside playing sports throughout the year.

But then DP and I are fair skinned too so we're used to covering up and putting on SPF 50 whenever we step outside between April and October

Oh forgot to say, I have had nothing but (a lot of ) compliments on their hair

Gosh, I didn’t receive a single notification so assumed nobody had replied! I just stumbled back across my old post and here you all are. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences!

@Ihaveoflate Can I ask what age your daughters hair changed? I have so many people telling me his hair will go blonde. I’m not convinced when he’s got to 5 months and the red is very much here!

@TheRealLadyWhistledown Exactly the same from my MIL. Quite painful to keep listening to!!!

@Hoping11

Looking back at photos, she still had red hair at 8 months and by one year it was strawberry blonde, so somewhere around that time. My hair was gingery until I was about 18 months and by my second birthday it was blonde.

I have a strawberry blonde (orange/gold more than red) 5 year old girl and my 2yo is currently light ash blond but has dark enough eyelashes that I reckon he'll follow me to mousy. He's also heading towards green eyes while 5 yo is still bright blue.

Bit unexpected because I'm a mousy brown (but reddish hints) and very burny fair skin while DH is blond but we both have close family with red hair.

Neither are very sun sensitive and the redhead has very white skin, some frekles and comes out in a rash if I put any factor 50 on her. She's ok with once a day factor 20 so I tend to rely more on hats than suncream.

She has basically invisible eyebrows still and very pale lashes. I suspect jealousy of her brother in the future, followed by demands for mascara!

Many dc here. Only 1is red haired!!
This was a few years ago..

Dc1 unexpected redhead. We're both dark hair, dark eyes but must both carry the recessive gene. Our second dc is blonde with blue eyes, the blue eyes were a bigger surprise, never thought we would produce a blue eyed child!

Both our dc are fair and burn easily, up until 6 months we mainly kept them in the shade but I did buy a baby spf even before then as we go away a fair bit. Mainly our redhead needs to wear uv swim suits from head to toe and a swim hat. Sun lotion reapplied on hands and face regularly. When we've been away with friends whose dc are less fair they can get away with shorts/swimsuits and lots of lotion. Our dc would have to reapply every 15 minutes in the pool!

Redhead hair not changed at all blonde has gone much darker.

No teasing at school, she's proud of it and loves being unique as she calls it. I don't think it has the same stigma it did when we were at school. People seem to love it, we've only had positive comments so far,she's 9.

@Ihaveoflate Oh wow!! I didn’t realise it could change so late.