Why do people think red hair is all the same colour?

[BedatHogwarts]

DS and I have very different colours of hair. Mine is dark auburn (exactly the same colour as an old-style Brownie uniform for those of you aged over 30!) and DS's is the colour of set honey, basically medium blonde with a tiny hint of red in it (strawberry blonde?). You wouldn't describe him as having red hair.

On several occasions people have commented that DS 'has my hair'. I find this confusing - if we had the same hair on the brown spectrum, I would be a dark brunette and DS a light mousy blonde, and I doubt anyone would suggest a similarity in our colouring. Is there something about red hair that makes non-red-haired people register it as being all the same thing?

Has anyone else noticed this?

Well I have dark blonde hair and DD has very fair white blonde and we get similar comments about how she is such a mini me. I think its just people making conversation.

And both your hair colours sound really lovely!

I get this too but not with red hair. I am very blonde, ds is lightish brown, dd is dark brown and dh is jet black. Lots of people say dd has dhs hair and ds has mine but we all have completely different colours. I know what they mean though.

Interesting that it happens with blonde hair too. It just seems a strange thing for people to point out a similarity between two very different things.