When you grow up with red hair you tend to experience strange reactions from people around you. It becomes normal and when you meet other redheads, they really understand your trials and tribulations. You realize some of your interactions aren’t so “normal” when you see a look of confusion on a non-redhead’s face when you tell them the experiences you have had because of your red hair.
Here are 3 stories most redheads can relate to:
1. Strangers will randomly touch (and grab) your red hair
This has happened a lot in my life but the one that sticks out the most is when I wandered off in the grocery store. I was with my mom and figured I would see her in a few minutes in another aisle. I had my hair up in a ponytail. My ponytails are kind of heavy because I have a lot of thick hair and it’s nearly hip length. Any shift in position without me touching it sets off my redhead senses (like Spidey-Senses, but better). All of a sudden, I felt a hand pick up my whole ponytail and slowly release it strand by strand. I didn’t think much of it because my mom does this to be when she doesn’t want to startle me, but when I turned around, it was a complete stranger. I was mildly (this has happened many times in my life) surprised. I smiled, grabbed my ponytail back and walked away.
2. Hairdressers will ask if your hair is natural
Yes, professionals will STILL ask — even when you’re sitting in their chair and they examine your roots. One time, I at-home dyed the under layers of my hair purple and pink. I needed my hairdresser to take some time to readjust the phenomena in my hair so the bottom part could grow back naturally red again. She was intensely looking at my roots (which are red) and not at the purple and pink by my neck. She asked very politely, “Did you dye your hair red yourself or did you do somewhere?” I told her my red hair was natural and she said, “But these blonde strands look so natural?!” It took a good five minutes (and my mom backing me up) to explain that natural blonde streaks in my red hair were from the top layers of my ponytail and several hours of the summer sun. She reluctantly believed me. Since this story took place, I haven’t gone back to her in over three years.
3. Friends may not be able to tell the difference between you and other redheads
When I got to college I became part of a small group of friends. They started telling me I was pretending not to know them when they saw me in between classes. I had no idea what they were talking about. It all clicked into place when I was meeting a friend at the library one afternoon. When I got to where my friend was standing at the entrance, she looked extremely embarrassed. She told me she spotted another redhead in the library, slammed her textbooks down at the table and realized she was not looking at me. After my other friends heard the story, they admitted they sometimes could not tell the difference between me and other redheads from afar.
Has any of this happened to you? What can you relate to? Rock it like a Redhead!
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