Red-headed allure: Style
But they often embrace it as a gift of uniqueness in adulthood
Being a red-headed kid ain’t easy.
There’s the usual teasing: Being called a frecklefaced redhead, a carrot-top, a ginger.
“It’s not very nice,” says Megan Knight, a 13-yearold from Fort Saskatchewan. “My name isn’t Ginger. Ginger is more a spice name.”
There’s the name calling: Anne Shirley (of Green Gables fame), Archie (of comic-book fame), Wendy (of fast-food fame), Annie (of orphanage fame) or Strawberry Shortcake (of sweet-cakey plasticky doll fame).
Then there’s the downright offensive: red-headed stepchild (think Cinderella’s stepsister Anastasia, with red hair and uggo looks), person without a soul, fire crotch, bloodnut, fantapants, tampon.
That’s at least four colour references below the belt. Youch and yucky.
Sure, people with other hair colours face stereotypes: blonds are dumb. Brunettes are trustworthy. Redheads have fiery tempers and adventures under the covers.
(Come to think of it, all hair-coloured stereotypes seem to be aimed at women, the misogyny glossed over as harmless fun.)
But such nasty nicknames come from centuries-old discrimination: biblical Esau, born “red all over like a hairy garment,” was passed over in favour of his fairer twin Jacob. Judas Iscariot is depicted in some medieval paintings as a red-haired traitor. Red hair is often seen as the favourite of Satan and witches.
So imagine being born into that dark mythology, a rare group of about one to two per cent of the world’s population — higher in Scotland and Ireland.
Imagine the potential dangers: Kick a Ginger Day was created as a joke in 2013 after ared-hair-themed episode on the adult cartoon South Park, but it sparked a violent episode in Yorkshire, England, where six kids were kicked on their way to class for having red hair.
Thank goodness for Roodharigendag (Redhead Day), celebrated each year in the Netherlands. It was launched unintentionally in 2005 when a painter, inspired by the famous works of Gustav Klimt and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, put a call out for red-haired models and 150 showed up. The two-day festival now attracts 1,500 people from around the world.
And look at the celebration of red-haired women in Disney movies as independent, assertive and creative: Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Princess Merida from Brave, a youthful Ellie in Up, Anna from Frozen, and rootinest tootinest cowgirl Jessie in Toy Story 2. Jessica Rabbit? A (ahem) more voluptuous predecessor.
“I actually kind of love it,” young Knight says of her red hair. “I’m different. I’m my own person, kinda. I don’t look like anybody else.”
As for boys, poor Phineas (of Disney TV series Phineas and Ferb) has but a red tuft, nothing in comparison to Rupert Grint’s Ronald Weasely character or reallife Prince Harry. Don’t forget Alberta’s own wildly rosie Brian Jean.
Life isn’t easy for red-headed boys, says Brock Harrison, who works for Edmonton ad agency Starburst Creative.
“Life is easier for a girl as a redhead,” he says, noting that men often find women with auburn hair alluring.
“For men, there’s no advantage on the open market. It’s not like red-headed men have a status.”
“I love my hair now. It’s who I am.” Brock Harrison
While women often dye their hair red, when did you ever see a man going Conan O’Brien on purpose?
When Harrison was young, he used to bemoan his haircolour fate. He was not only Carrot-top, but also Broccoli because of his first name, making him a “mixed bag of vegetables.”
“When you’re a kid and all you want to do is fit in, it’s something that sets you apart,” says Harrison. So he went blond in his teens.
Lucky for him, his wife loves redheads. And at 32, he can handle the jabs from guys who tease him for the full-body SPF 60 coverage and always wearing longsleeved shirts while golfing in the sunshine.
“I love my hair now,” Harrison says. Neither of his children has inherited his colouring. “It’s who I am.”
Jessica Boyden, 38, has also embraced her strawberry locks. Mother of four blond daughters, Boyden traces her colouring back to her grandma, who had red hair and hailed from a province in the Netherlands (where orange is the official colour of the royal family) invaded and settled by Vikings.
The class jokester in elementary school certainly didn’t care about the royal connection when he called her “freckle-faced redhead.”
“It made me feel like Anne in Anne of Green Gables when Gilbert picked on her for her red hair and I secretly wanted to bop him on the head for saying it,” she says.
Looking back, “I always looked quite awful with the freckles and the braces and the mullet.”
When she grew out her hair in high school, there was suddenly an increase in attention from the opposite sex.
“It’s hard to forget a girl with red hair and blue eyes,” she says. “It’s fascinating for them. You’re a mystery. … I feel like it makes me unique. I don’t always want to blend in.”
Natasha Dawson, 29, doesn’t even blend in with her family, all of whom have brown hair, brown eyes and olive skin.
“My dad was in the navy and he was gone a lot so they used to say I was the milk man’s,” Dawson says.
She still has a love/hate relationship with her hair, which is understandable, considering the harsh bullying she faced at a young age.
“They used to say I got my period on my head, which is horrible when you’re 12 years old,” Dawson says. Now, she gets constant compliments about her natural colour.
“Once I’m an elderly woman, I’ll want to dye my hair red,” she says.