Living As A Redhead: How Having Red Hair Changes Everything
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Redheadedness
As you may or may not be able to tell from my Hubber profile, I myself am a redhead and I will attest that being a redhead is an eminently unique experience compared with other natural hair colors.
Herein, I will attempt to prove it.
Incidence
Redheadedness is the rarest natural haircolor: less than 4% of people on the planet have naturally red hair.
It is more common among individuals with genetic roots in western Europe, and - notably - in Ireland and Scotland.
Stigma
Throughout history, redheadedness has been associated with negative traits, which I find summed up nicely in this proveb (compliments of the French):
"Redheaded women are either violent or false, and usually are both."
They have been targeted as witches, deemed as 'naturally' quick-tempered, and viewed as the product of 'unclean' sex.
More benign stereotypes of redheads include the idea that they are more promiscuous, wilder, more passionate, and loud-mouthed.
Also, redheaded women are more likely to be the subject of said stigma than redheaded men.
Interestingly, among women who dye their hair, more women choose red shades than either blonde or brunette.
NOTE: even my own grandmother (who, mind you, had four redheaded children and at least seven redheaded grandchildren) said a the birth of my newest cousin: "I never did care for a redheaded child...."
Real Life Effects
As a redhead, most of the nicknames I have been given have been due to my hair color, and the only celebrities anyone every compares me to are redheaded ones...and they do so indiscriminately (evidently, having red hair makes me look like Tori Amos, Julianne Moore, Lucille Ball, and Lindsay Lohan all at the same time....).
Furthermore, much of my identity to others lies only in my hair color. When people are asked to describe me, many can only come up with "redhead," and some will add "tall" to the description.
More than that, though, the strong public perception of redheads as strong-willed, feisty, and whathaveyou seems to have led to people treating me as if it were so. People expect me to adhere to these stereotypes, behave towards me as if it were so, and I have reacted accordingly -- fulfilling their expectations because that is what I was taught from a young age that I was supposed to be.
While that is not science or proof, I am certain that other redheads may have that experience as well.
Many redheads also report having been treated negatively as a child due to their haircolor - mostly by children. Personally, I have had the experience of adult women being fascinated by and jealous of my color. (I have also had men fascinated by the possible color of hair other than that on my head.)
In dating, men are either attracted to the hair as a fetish, or terrified by it's ostensible indicator of my personality.
In foreign countries like Thailand (or others where redheads are far less than 1% of the population) redheads can expect to have their hair fondled often.
Also, everyone assumes I'm Irish. I happen to be Irish, but that's only a scant 12.5% of my heritage...no one ever guesses the rest of my genetic background.
Bottom Line
Being a redhead comes with assumptions, stares, taunts, and questions.
The good news, however, is that when people expect you to have a strong personality and you thus develop one, people usually listen to what you have to say and are interested in who you are. I happen to love it and embrace it as part of who I am, a central piece to my identity.
You may learn to love the attention and enjoy busting the stereotypes, but unless you dye your hair permanently, you cannot escape what it means to be redheaded (and, even then, you're stuck with the genetic corollaries).
Redheaded Sources
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Comments
Wonderful, thanks!
I'm tall also, so I think a lot of the stereotypes are exaggerated when that's also true for redheads.
nice article
I am a redhead and at 46 am still treated like a redheaded step child. People have been cruel to me my whole life. I am also only 5'6" and have big ears and wear glasses and had braces on my teeth until I was 19 years old..............
I'm sorry to hear that!
I think sometimes it's completely different for men who are redheaded than for women who are redheaded.
You are absolutely correct. Being a redhead does change everything.
I am also a very tall redhead!
I used to hate when I was younger, but I am now embracing it.
I like being somewhat unique, and my best friend is coincidentally a redhead too.
She is very short though.
We're both very short-tempered, made fun of for being redheaded, but people still complement our hair.
I have a lot of Irish in me, and she has a lot of Scottish.
Both of my parents are burnette, while I have two other siblings who are redheaded, and four others who are burnette.
Her parents are burnette and blonde.
I think the only thing that stil bothers me is that people think the nickname firecrotch is really funny.
Why do so many people dye it this colour if people treat readheads so bad?
@lindsey:
Because they don't treat us 'so bad' these days. I think what a lot of us are saying is that we are pissed off that suddenly (for about 15 years) it's more and more trendy to be a redhead. Some of us went through hell as children because of our hair, then as teens everyone thought redhead american girls must all be like Tori Amos and redhead boys were aliens. I'm not sure what the difference is.
Why do redheads have the stereotype of being 'fiery' or whatever? Because the idiot masses prefer to cling to stereotypes. Trust me, I would still be a bitch if I was blonde or brunette. Having to put up with so much just because of my hair only makes me worse. Yes, I love my hair and its color, I have about four feet of it. What I hate is that the very same (expletive deleted) that teased me when I was 13 were all over me when I was 17.
They would ask "what do you use to get your hair color so beautiful?"
"Shampoo. What do you use?"
I honestly have no clue how it is for guys. I have never known a guy who dyed his hair red and pretended it was natural. All I've known are women who dye. There are some that I love, basically anyone who does it as a form of artistic expression, anyone who does it as a modification because it's how they think they are (like people who cut off a limb because they see themselves as whole when they are an amputee (I suppose this includes trannies)), and people who do it as if it were no different from makeup.
The ones who piss me off are the ones who pretend it's natural. The ones who /want/ to identify with the stereotypes are the ones who are getting in the way. Isn't it odd that red hair dye sales skyrocketed when it was first made widely known that redheads need higher doses of some drugs?
Suddenly (eye roll) major media agencies are running the story again as if it's something we didn't know 15 years ago. They aren't spending all this money/time doing any relevant redhead research. They are taking 15 year old info and raping the redhead stereotype image for the ratings the other 98% of the world gives them. If it was about anything useful then the latest batch of 'reports' wouldn't have been so skewed and recycled.
They drew conclusions in very weird ways from the last batch of 'studies'. They assumed that higher sensitivity is the same as a lower threshold of pain. They made it seem like a natural resistance to anesthesia means we are babies and avoid the dentist more than other people. Sure, there are probably a lot of redheads who have avoided going /back/ to the dentist but there is a higher percentage of the non-redhead population who have never even been to a dentist.
Nowhere in the recent press releases did I see it mentioned that (genetically) we are more likely to be more physically sensitive while also having a higher threshold of pain. It makes sense to me that at least those two things are probably connected. It makes just as much sense to me that even if we're not born with a high threshold then considering that we also have a resistance to both natural and artificial anesthesia is surely something to cause us to have a higher threshold.
The media only want to play whatever 'angle' will get them higher ratings/sales. Yes, that is proper English because 'media' is plural, not singular. I wish 'you people' would either go away or at least go back to hating us. Really, I was much happier just being teased than I am about being pimped out for the stereotypes associated with me.
CarolynnMarie, i would like to say (for the benefit of everyone) that it is NOT different for redhead men, it is just different for men in general..
yay red.
Also I think women are often stereotyped by their hair colour. I often get told I look like anyone who has black hair. It is also a description used to describe me above anything else. I notice that people assume I am mysterious, serious and that I read gothic novels. The stereotypes for blonde-haired women are endless!
My niece has typically Scottish red hair. Her dad bought her a GAP t-shirt and told her that the GAP written on the front stands for Ginger And Proud!
I am a redhead and 14-when I was younger I was soo insecure about my color. Now, I've realized that i am one of the "few" lucky ones with the color.
GO RED!!!
I am 16, I have auborn hair, and I have olive colored skin. Everyday people will make some type of comment like: "Your a ginger","You have red hair","Red heads are so moody"..... The fact is most "redheads" have orange hair, not red. My hair has more brown in it, but it also has red, blonde, and orange in it too. Also people make remarks about my eyes (which are also auborn), they always say: "Your a vampire, because you have red eyes". People just assume the silliest things about me, that may or may not be true. Although the constant teasing gets on my nerves, I absolutely love being a "redhead"!!!
I've had my hair fondled by a Thailand guy when I was 8 it was weird
I'm pretty sure I always get into confrontations when I'm out coz i'm redheaded. People just don't respect me. I avoid trouble as much as possible, but it always finds me. I learnt how to box, so now i just kick their ass if it goes too far. Reading this, you probably think i'm the aggressor. All I want to do is have fun and wish no harm on anyone but it just doesn't happen like that in the real world.
Also I can tell you all now that reason everyone thinks redheads have a fiery temper is because we do because of all the shit we have been through.
To finish on a good note fellas, girls believe that guys with red hair have big dicks to make up for the failed hair colour. Yes, girls have told me this(girlfriends), i didn't make it up and the fact has been confirmed on my behalf. So lets get the best kept secret out there fellas!!
Tom
sean.rutger says:
10 months ago
I'm one of the guys with a thing for redheads.. my wife is one. A tall one, at that. She has said many of the things you have... except they mostly happen to be true about her. For example, she is very passionate and sometimes loud. Sometimes I think maybe she is a witch, hehe. Nice hub!