I’m a natural redhead. Both of my grandmothers had red hair, too (both are still alive, but are no longer redheads except in attitude!), but I’m the only one on both sides of the family in 2 generations to get it. My dad’s beard is red, when he had one, as is my husband’s (well, his is reddish). I hope that at least one of our kids gets my hair color with his curls!
I was bald until I was almost 2, and then it came in very thick and curly. I lost most of the curl in 1st grade, alas. It’s gotten darker over the years, too – my grandmother has always threatened to dye it red again if it ever turns brown (thus, I knew that she would never “snatch me bald-headed,” no matter how much she threatened!). At this point, being a redhead is so much a part of my self-identity that if it ever turned brown I would dye it. There was this great lady in my church who was 80 if she was a day, and she dyed her hair bright red. I loved it, and I completely understand why she did it.
I’m 1/8 Swede, my maiden name is of Welsh extraction, my grandmother’s maiden name is Scottish, and I know there’s some English, Irish, French, German, and a smidgen of Italian back there somewheres.
All my family is in or from Ireland, so there are a scattering of redheads. In my immediate family, only me. Younger, I was deep strawberry blonde. Since the grey started coming in, I color it to cover and am now what I call Irish Setter Red.
Two of my four grandparents were red heads. They were all Eastern European Jews. No one else in my family has red hair. My husband’s family is Scots-Irish so I was hopeful my daughter might have pulled out the gene because he also some has some red haired cousins but we’ll just have to settle for her beautiful set of blond curls.
Ginger I just want to say that your son is absolutely adorable.
I’m have dark auburn hair- I was born with black hair and blue eyes, the hair lightened by the time I was a year old and my eyes are more hazel than blue now. My dad is a redhead and my two sisters and brother are redheaded as well, each of us has a very different shade. Mine is the darkest, one sister has bright darker red hair, the other more strawberry blonde and my brother has really bright red hair. We are all cursed with the freckles too LOL. Imagine our childhood family outings- sometimes we felt like a freak show. My mom is a brunette but her aunt was red-headed. My dad’s parents do not have red hair, and his sister is a brunnette- but his grandfather was red-headed. We are mostly Scots/English with some Irish and Cherokee thrown in there for fun.
It was hard being a red-headed kid as far as teasing went- I think its far worse for boys but it was still something I was unhappy about for awhile. I love my hair now, especially since I have (knock on wood) inherited my grandmothers resistence to gray (she’s 75 and has very little) . It’s probably the one part of my physical look I like- partly because there is a little bit of self-respect for having survived the teasing part and now having the jealous remarks as adults instead :).
This thread reminded me of an experience I had a few years ago. We took our RV on the Alaska Ferry from Whittier to Cordova (Cordova not having road access). After we had been in transit for a few hours, I started noticing that almost everyone I looked at had red hair. A quick head count revealed that out of some 23 people, at least 15 had reddish tint to their hair, an extraordinary percentage. And they all got off in Cordova. Maybe there was a sale on henna.
Dark brown hair with red tones, which are much more apparent in sunlight or fluorescent light. My beard, when I choose to grow one, is a bright copper. No pics, alas.
My father was of Scottish and Irish descent, and my mother a mixture of Irish and Spanish with a little bit of Russian somewhere in there.
I’m a redhead who dyes her hair a nice medium brown. So a picture won’t help!
I got tired of people either a) not believing my hair was really that color (the arguments got tedious) or b) wanting to touch my hair. I do not want random strangers touching me!
However, my maternal grandmother also had red hair (and was of purely German extraction), and my dad is of Irish/Scots extraction, so it’s not all that surprising.
Not nearly as surprising as my half-Chinese niece who’s a towhead. That was surprising.
My hair started off coal black and faded to deep red by the time I was in my middle-teens. On the rare occasions I let the natural color show, it’s still deep red - when the sun touches it, it looks like my freaking head caught on fire. Not that the sun touches it often. I avoid the sun like the plague. I burn like only another redhead would believe.
I’m a redhead, as is my mother. My sisters are brunette and blonde.
My daughter, alas, takes after her daddy and has jet black hair.
We’re random British mongrels, though as three of my grandparents were born in Alberta we’re really “Canadian”.
Natural. Started as strawberry blonde and got darker as I got older; it’s now dark auburn. Got the “so white, I just go out in the sun to equalize the blue” skin. My grandmother was a redhead.
(she’s 75 and has very little) . It’s probably the one part of my physical look I like- partly because there is a little bit of self-respect for having survived the teasing part and now having the jealous remarks as adults instead :).