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 Is teasing of red haired children at school still something to be prepared for, or is this outdated?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 ☺️

We have DS2 who is the redhead thr other 2 are both blonde DH is ginger and so is my DM. DS has deep red hair and very blue eyes and fair skin. He didn't burn really on holiday in Turkey and I put the same amount of sun screen on. DH is ginger and tans more than me. I call DS my little Ginger ninja. We taught him to be proud of his red hair he even calls it Tiger coloured hair.

DS is a red head. His 3 siblings are blond, though 2 are getting darker.
DS was strawberry blond at 4months-1, then ginger by 3 and heading towards auburn by 9 (and still the same at 16).

I love red hair! My mum and one of my brothers are red haired and both of them hated it. I have mousy hair and would swop in a heartbeat!

DSis and I were the unexpected red heads. Both auburn so more on the brown side of red than orange. Love my hair colour but I was teased for it at school. I was quite a robust child so it didn’t really bother me. My DDs have both got my hair colour and I couldn’t be happier. DD1 has beautiful red ringlets and DD2 is still a baby so wispy red baby hair at the minute.

DH has really dark hair but is fair skinned like me so we all burn easily. We wear sun cream on sunny days but not everyday.

My redhead ds1 is 18. He used to be bright carrot orange, now it’s much darker but still very much ginger.

His skin is super sensitive to the sun and he stays covered.

I’m not aware he suffered teasing. I don’t think children are teased for ginger hair as they were in my youth. I used to get called orangutan and get questioned about whether my pubic hair was ginger🥺

I was a redhead, now mostly grey so it came from me but my other ds is light brown.

Niece has red hair. Her skin is very sensitive so they try to cover it with light clothes and sunscreen the rest a lot

My DD is strawberry blonde and she always gets comments on how gorgeous her hair is. It's a lot redder underneath with lots of blonde highlights through the son. She's never been teased but she can be very stubborn and we do get comments about the red hair temper! My son is very blonde and might stay that way as DP brother and cousin are both platinum blonde adults, they both wear a lot of sunscreen.

Redhead here.

First born to black haired and brown haired parents and entirely unexpected.

Born with a pale orange cow's lick, which turned into an auburn colour later.

Parents hadn't a clue about ginger maintenance and found new, cruel and unusual ways of frying me every year.

Sunscreen, even on relatively cloudy days is a must.

My daughter was an unexpected red head, Im blonde/mousy her dad has black hair. Her hair is a glorious rich deep copper colour with a gentle wave in it. It truly is her crowning glory. She had straight as a die hair as a toddler, but lost all her hair due to cancer treatment, it grew back much thicker and wavier.
She loves the sun and gets a slight tan in summer but needs to use plenty of a high level sunscreen.

My DD red hair, she has honey coloured skin and brown eyes, her hair is darker more to auburn now (she’s 11). No pair skin, no freckles. She’s feisty and takes no shot when people have called her red hair names! Ginger in my family a few generations ago but not in her fathers, he’s Italian

@IEat

There must be red in her father’s family. Red is the most recessive hair colour so it has to come from both sides. My MIL also has auburn hair so DH passed on the gene from her.

I have red hair. I ended up with a blond, a strawberry blond and a redhead. The redhead isn't the one who catches the sun the most. Ignoring any hair dye their hair colour is pretty much the same as adults.

Ds was an unexpected red head when he was born. Not aware of any relatives with red hair.

Never been teased or bullied about it. No sunscreen on dull days but he needs it on Sunny days even if temperaturenot very high. He has very sensitive skin.

He is 13 now and hair still red. It is a copper colour of red.

My DS2 was very ginger when he was a baby but is now a dark auburn colour, I have always absolutely loved it. It was so unexpected as I have quite dark skin and very dark hair, my dh has dark hair and other than a distant cousin who is ginger and my great grandmother who was apparently auburn we can't think of anyone else in either of our families who could have passed on the gene.
My DS has olive coloured skin and brown eyes so we don't need to worry about sun cream anymore for him than we do our other two who are both dark haired.

He's never experienced any bullying as far as I am aware.

Hello OP, I am a redhead, pregnant with my first so don't know if I am lucky enough to have a red headed baby yet!

Sun cream yes, I burn very easily, when I was young my hair was red/blonde and as I have got older it's got darker.

Ginger I personally hate because to me it equates with all the childhood bullying, this probably isn't the same for everyone though. Whilst it was horrible and I hope it isn't the same for children now, what I will say is that I never disliked my hair or have ever wanted to dye it. My mum was probably very instrumental in this, she always pointed out other redheads and compared the shades to my hair. I felt special for it.

My brother and parents don't have red hair but one of my grandmothers did. Congrats on your little redhead, I hope I have one too

DS is a red head, although we usually describe his hair as orange or lava (lava is very cool to his cousins, this is a compliment. Older DD is blondey-brown, as I was as a child.

For the first year of DS's life, someone complimented his hair pretty much every time we went out. (Then COVID hit and people stopped getting close enough to see/speak to us ) It was actually starting to become an issue that DD felt left out that she wasn't getting compliments.

DS's skin is a bit paler, but not excessively so, and I don't treat him any differently with suncream etc.

Are you offended by the term ginger?

Probably a fairly outing picture but this is DD1 and I. DH has almost black hair.

@AnonymousArmadillo

Probably a fairly outing picture but this is DD1 and I. DH has almost black hair.

This is beautiful. You both have lovely hair

Thank you @Letsallscreamatthesistene

@Teardrop2021 Tiger coloured! I love that. Was he born with dark red hair? My son has bright blue eyes and currently light red hair. The rest of our family have very dark hair and eyes

@Howmanysleepsnow It’s crazy how much it can change!

@BeingATwatItsABingThing Sorry to hear you experienced bullying, but happy to hear you felt strong in spite of it. We’re a family of dark hair that burn too!

@CosmicComfort Gosh those comments are awful. People can be hideous! Good to hear it’s not as common these days.

@Stickytreacle She sounds stunning. I hope she’s doing really well.

@AnonymousArmadillo GORGEOUS colouring. Were both you and your daughter born this shade?

@Hoping11

Thank you. Both DD1 and I were little baldies until we were about three. The little hair we had was red though. DD2 has slightly more hair than DD1 did at the same age and it’s definitely red and holding mine up against it shows it’s the same shade.

My df has 3 brothers. Al the girls have red hair except me. 1 of 3 of my dd's got the red gene..

Yes he was quite darked when he was born but his scalp was also red. It won't let me attach a photo but its quite dark when it longer goes abit lighter when it shorter. I love the colour.

DD was a suprise red head - although not that surprising as I have Irish / Scottish ancestry and her Dad must have the same.

Her hair is the most beautiful colour, in dull light it looks brown but in brightlight it looks like fire lots of red and gold. I found dressing her in pinkish colours made her look washed out and sickly so tend to dress her in natural colours, brown, creams, greens and mustards which suit her colouring much more.

She's 11 now and tells me she hasn't received any bullying because of it and I work in a secondary school and it doesn't seem as rife as when I was at school. When she was younger I used to have older people stop us in the street to complement her.

Interestingly people with red hair can tolerate spicy foods then people without.

In turns of skin care I think I always used a moisturiser on us both that had an spf. She has brown eyes and has skin that tans more than burns and isn't particularly fair.