Just yesterday I discovered a website called How To Be a Red Head . Being a red head is very different and seeing that there are websites and even products dedicated to that made me feel sorta special and interested.

However, that made me think – why being a red head nowadays is so different? It’s just a Hair color so why do I feel like a species of another human kind. There are blonds, brunettes and all kind of rainbow colors out there but yet red hair is considered something different. To be clear, I am not talking about bright red fake hair. I am talking about natural ginger fire red hair. So what is like to be a red head in this day and age? This is what it means to me.

I was born in a post soviet country which means that people had been influenced by alcohol, tough times, regime and basically a lot of people became more aggressive. Even if you were born later, your parents or other generations had that. The mentality has changed exceedingly.

For most of my life being different meant you could not fit in. The society judged you if you had different shape, different hair, orientation, had more or less money than it was acceptable. This type of judgement was evident even in children’s behavior. So having red hair meant you were different. Children would make fun of you, say cruel things. For someone who is very outgoing and out there this might not be a huge issue but since I always have been a shy, introverted person- it was hard to deal with. I always thought people called me names because of my freckles but at the age of 8 I found out it’s my hair. I couldn’t fathom that fact. I thought why they do not like my hair? It’s just hair. It is long, straight and bright. To me it was beautiful. Other girls have short, dull, messy hair and nobody says anything to them so why me. Because of that, for years I started thinking that my hair is ugly and didn’t want to even look at myself. My hair color was directly linked to bullying and hurt.

As soon as I got to an age where I could be different and wanted to fit in more I changed my hair color. I was 16 years old the first time I changed my hair. At 16 year old I changed my hair because I wanted to be like everyone else. And It worked. Somehow I became more confident, more outgoing. I was still a shy, introverted person but different. Tho I still didn’t love myself as I should’ve had. I had many other insecurities. Until the end of high school and beginning of college I still was changing my hair color. I had black, light or dark brown hair – at some point my hair even looked like a mix between black and purple which was not intended.

Around the age of 20 I started loving myself more, lost a lot of weight and became even more confident and happy. Then I stopped for a second. I went to ERASMUS exchange to another country and there I saw a completely different outlook on life. People actually loved red hair. Students from warm countries where everyone have black curly hair, or even Europeans who are not different in that department loved it. I was surprised. I thought everyone hates it. But they didn’t. Afterwards I started looking up more movies, pictures, inspirations for what being a red head really means. Little by little I started brightening my hair in a copper red color. I changed the color so many times that by then my hair was damaged and to get back my original color would be close to impossible. But I told myself that red hair and fair skin is beautiful. I mean being fair and having this look was considered royal at one point in history.

Not that long ago, I decided to stop brightening my hair and just grow it out, see what happens. That’s what I’m doing even now. The result? My hair is natural, longer, healthier. But the most important part is not the color. It’s the fact that being a red head it is so different in nowadays modern society. It shouldn’t be. Being different does not mean you are worse than others. It means you are special. This is not a disease or a problem. It’s the solution. I do not know how ‘gingers’ feel growing up in USA or other western countries, but where I come from, I never loved myself but now I know how to appreciate and understand that my genes are special. Right now I’m even thinking that I would love to have a little red head girl in the future. But that’s the future.

All red heads of the world, if you had a hard time before, people made fun, you felt down – don’t worry. It passes. There will be that moment that you will realize that what all those people are saying or the thoughts you are having are just temporary. With time you start to understand that you are different but in a unique and positive way. There are only 2% of us in the entire world and that should be cherished. Even tho there is a small number of natural red heads in the world compared to all blondes and brunettes, each of us is of different shade, length and size and we should be proud of that!

I think seeing this website and reading all the great things about being a red head, knowing that there are other girls just like me who are proud of themselves – makes me want to post and write more and this topic and perhaps in the future I will.

that’s all for now.

xoxo, ADL.