Gingers have no soul. If you’re a ginger you are sure to have been at the receiving end of that absurd statement, with thanks to South Park. Unfortunately if you’re a ginger that’s most likely not the worst thing that’s been said to you about your hair colour. I am a natural redhead, in fact all of my family are (except dad) and I spent at least a decade of my life wishing I had black hair. Longing to die it black so I didn’t have to endure the taunts and bullying that went with being a redhead in school in Ireland. Well I cannot thank my mother enough for putting the foot down and saying no to my hair-dye requests at such a young age. Now I would never ever change my hair colour and in today’s post I’ve shared my reasons why along with including opinions from some popular redhead bloggers and my family members. I hope that by sharing our experiences, you as a redhead can embrace your hair colour a little more or perhaps you can share this post with a friend or family member who is a ginger.

You don’t have to dye your hair. Now I have nothing against dying your hair, in fact I’m totally envious of the pastel hair-coloured bloggers out there at the moment. However when it comes to keeping up with the latest beauty trends in today’s world I simply would not have time to get my hair dyed. I struggle to find time to get in for a monthly cut-and-blowdry as it is! I also have nothing at all against people who dye their hair but please don’t dye it because someone is laughing at you being a redhead.

Pros of Being a Redhead

You will be looked at like a celebrity in the States. Have you ever been in the company of a redhead in America? They love us. They really do! I walked around Disneyworld with a massive smile on my face listening to comments such as “Mommy, look at her hair!” and “Oh my lord, is that your natural hair colour…don’t you ever dare dye it!’

If you’re lucky enough to have red hair and freckles you won’t have to spend ages hand-drawing on freckles to fit in with the latest beauty fad thanks to a recent instagram post by Kendall Jenner. Albeit the freckles can get dark and troublesome in the sun they are unique and nobody else will have the same freckle speckles as you.

The guys will love it! Those same guys that were calling you Ginger in school….they are going to be chasing your red locks in a few years time. Trust me. I haven’t always had this positive outlook towards my hair colour however. Read on to for my experience of being a ginger and that of my family and other redhead bloggers.

I spoke to my mam about her experience growing up with red hair. “As a child I loved being the only member of my family with red hair, as the rest of my family had dark hair. When I started school I grew to hate my hair colour and I can recall one particular teacher who used to call me outside by saying ‘Ginger outside now’, only embedding this bullying mentality further in the classroom.” This bullying continued throughout my mam’s school years and it was only when she had finished school that she was able to begin to appreciate her hair color. “Especially now as I reach my maturer years and I see I still have my glorious red locks.” This is one of the interesting facts about red hair, it does not go grey!

I’m sure mam never expected that her children would also endure similar bullying by the time they were in school.

My experience growing up with red hair was not a positive one as I alluded to in my Dear Me YouTube video. I don’t know if that was just the accepted environment in Irish schools so I wanted to talk to some other redhead bloggers out there and share there experiences with you all. I hated my red hair in secondary school. Contrary to what people think, red hair is not overly common in Ireland. You are different – and that is going to attract attention. Red hair is an easy target for bullys. I still wince at some of the names I was called in school and this didn’t even change when I went to university although that was when my confidence finally began to grow. You expect a certain level of maturity in third level education but unfortunately there was another bunch of guys who decided my red hair was an easy target. They used to follow me around mumbling ginger under their breath behind me on the concourse in NUIG. I would walk so fast just to get away from them but thankfully I did not listen to these people. My hair colour is an important part of Bec Boop and who I am 🙂 Now I get accused frequently of dying my hair because of it’s unique red shade and I’m proud to say that it’s all natural!

My sister has such a positive outlook on her ginger-ness and I’ll admit this encouraged me to also be more accepting of my own hair colour over the years. Stephanie says having red hair is a great conversation starter and really makes you unique. “Now that I am a successful model with one of Ireland’s most prestigious modelling agencies I would never dream of changing my hair colour.”, she says, “It sets me apart in the modelling world and I love my traditional Irish look.”

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