Being a redhead isn’t always easy. Actually there are some negatives if you’re a redhead and some of them are actually dangerous. Since I’ve been a redhead all my life, I’m quite aware of the realities and the perceptions of being in this minority.
8 Dangers Of Being A Redhead
The top 8 dangers of being a redhead are as follows:
- Everyone thinks that because you’re a redhead, you also have a terrible temper. I’m sure this is a great contributor to why redheads have the reputation for being witchy. I admit that I once had a temper that was out of control, but I couldn’t stand it any more than other people. After some therapy to help me solve childhood issues, I lost the Tasmanian Devil temper. Yeah, it was that bad. So although I still have red hair, I do not have a bad temper and I am not a witch.
- A redhead’s tolerance to pain is often lower than people with other hair colors. This is definitely the truth for me and I’m a pain wimp. If I stub my toe, you would think someone ripped it off by my reaction.
- The sun is not a redhead’s friend. There is no such a thing as a Brazilian tan if you’re a true redhead. Part of being a redhead usually means that you have fair skin and freckles.
- Redhead’s have a weaker immunity and that is enough of a reason to support my germaphobia!
- Bees are amazing little creatures and produce such wonderful honey, but they sting redheads more than other people.
- Even if a redhead uses SPF100 and stays out of the sun, they are still at a higher risk for skin cancer. I avoid the sun like a vampire most of the time.
- Some other people with hair colors that are not red have Gingerphobia. Ginger is another name for a redheaded person. So these people with Gingerphobia are scared of redheads. Often their fear of red hair is so great, it leads them to bully redheads.
- It is impossible to blend in with the crowd if you are a redhead. Red hair draws attention because it is bright especially in the sunshine when it actually looks like your head is on fire. Blending in with the crowd is something a shy person really wants to do, but no matter how much a redhead tries to be invisible, it is impossible.
Crazy, huh?
Well, now that I’m not a child, I love being a redhead and I think my niece, Brittany, does too. We both think that Redheads Rock!!!
By the way, the rumor that redheads are going extinct isn’t true. The world can’t live without redheads!!!
Bees sting redheads more??!! I never knew that!
I’m the opposite of redhead phobic. I’ve always wanted to be redheaded. I’m already so pale I have to stay out of the sun completely, so I wish I had the gorgeous locks to go with it….but now that I know about the bee thing, I might be happy as a brunette with a few fake red highlights!
LOL LOL That’s funny!
I’m a redhead who has never been stung by a bee
there are lots of things about redheads that are different or remarkable… as Mark Twain said: “while the rest of the species is descended from apes, redheads are descended from cats.” many remarkable people were redheads, including Ramesses the Great, British warrior queen Boudicca, Thomas Jefferson, and Mark Twain – & of course Sherry! {{{huggsss}}}
The “Million Reasons To Love A Redhead” hasn’t been written yet. 😉
So why don’t you write it? I love the title and it would be a fun book to read – but on second thought, it would take you too long to dream up a million reasons! Maybe you should change it to “One Thousand Reasons To Love A Redheads.” 🙂
Here I’ll help get you started:
1. Redheads are gorgeous, talented and creative.
2. Redheads have huge hearts and are true, loyal friends.
3. Redheads have a great sense of humor.
4. Redheads are caring, compassionate people.
5. Redheads are great writers and write great blogs.
Okay, now I admit that I may be a little prejudice and that these are all attributes that I contribute to you, but at least I have gotten you started. Now you only have to come up with 995 more reasons why one should love a redhead! 🙂
Thank you Joan, but this list is why you are a writer instead of an accountant. You actually listed 11 reasons not 5.
THAT, my dear friend, is my funny for the day! LOL {{{hugssss}}}
**I am laughing my butt off!!**
You’re right, (as usual), Redhead Riter! But if I named 11 reasons rather than 5 reasons why one should love a redhead, then I just made your life easier. Now you only have to come up with 989 reasons to love a redhead instead of 995. (At least I can add LOL) 🙂
who needs a reason – let alone 5, or 11, or 1000, or 1,000,000 reasons??? that’s just the way it is – a redhead is to love!!! 😀
Awwww, thank you Skip!!! {{{hugssss}}}
You’re right, I’ve yet to meet a redhead accountant…
😛 😉
I think the pain thing is the worst part of being a redhead, but it’s also made me develop a higher tolerance to pain. I have to work on that temper of mine, too, but I think it comes more from getting irritated toward selfish people than some magical proponent of my hair color. 😉 Did not know that about the bees, though! No wonder I’ve always been afraid of them! *lol*
I’m so afraid of them too!!! Did you look at the pics in the post that I linked to this post? Yikes!
Thanks for saying that bees sting redheads more, as I often notice they follow me more than others and am met with ridiculous doubts when I mention it. Have a happy day!
It is true! They follow me and leave everyone else alone!!! LOL
That is interesting. I’d heard the opposite about pain tolerance, that we had a high threshold for it. I’ve also heard that we form worse scar tissue than other pasty pale caucasians (which I do).
Yes, the scar tissue thing is true too. About the pain thing…did you know that anesthesiologist and doctors all know that redheads are going to need more medication and complain about pain more often than the average person. I just try to think of it like the Princess And The Pea. LOL
As a redhead myself, I can totally relate.
High Five for the Redheads that Rock!!!
Redheads are taking over the world. My husband, who is ginger like me, says this often. He also says that babies stare at us because they think our heads are on fire. He cracks me up but the things you say are true. My redhead friends and I call ourselves vampires as a joke because “we burn in the sun.” We are more sensitive to pain and to medications. But overall, sunburns and all, it’s worth it to be red on the head.
😀 Yes! It is worth it to be red on the head!!! {{{hugsss}}}
I laughed with this post. When you were little you would get a tiny scratch and you would just be dying. Your sister would get a cut with blood running down her leg and she would be still playing and not know it. It baffled me as a young mom. I used to think you were just a sissy, LOL. Sorry.
Bees are drawn to color and smell. Your hair is like flowers. It is bright and you smell like vanilla. LOL Poor little things think you are a flower. It truly is the color that attracts them.
That group of pics is so pretty of our Brit.
I know you thought I was a sissy! You and Audrey both thought it and that is why I insisted on having no medication when I was giving birth to Alyssa. I had a point to prove!
Well, even if the bees think I’m a flower head, I still don’t like them enough to forgive them for always chasing me and even stinging me once.
I think the pics of Brittany is beautiful too. She’s such a pretty girl and I love her so much.
Thanks for you comments on my blog all the time Mom. {{{hugsss}}}
Hey Gal! I have always wanted to be a redhead! I tried dying it, but needless to say, my skin tone just didn’t go with it. I dyed it auburn and it was much better. As I got older though, I decided it wasn’t worth the money or the trouble of doctoring roots and touch-ups so I allowed it to turn brown and silver gracefully. LOL! Your niece is beautiful by the way!
Love ya!
PJ
Thank you PJ! Long silver hair is beautiful!
ah, what a cool post! I am glad to come visit your blog! What a real treat! I am blessed to be married to a red head and you’re right, the world cannot live without redheads!
God bless
nancy
Thank you Nancy! Ohhh, you have a redheaded hubby! Cool! {{{hugssss}}}
Hey, it’s me again! I just wanted to add to my “One Thousand Reasons To Love A Redhead” that I commented about above, that you can just love a redhead for being who they are – and if that redhead happens to be a geek, well at least she’s a cool geek! (Now, I am not mentioning any names, but I am just saying that there happens to be this certain redhead geek on the Internet who puts out the coolest and most entertaining blog – and she never seems to run out of ideas for provocative posts to write about!) 🙂
You’re so sweet Joan. Let’s see if my head is too big to walk through the door now.
Hmmm, I wonder who that redhead geek could be?
Brittany.
LOL LOL
Just wondering! LOL
😛
Brittany lucked out with the tanning capabilities. For the most part, growing up, she didn’t mind it. Love you
Yes, she did luck out! Love you too.
Audrey, I noticed that in the pictures… she’s the tannest redhead I think I’ve ever seen!
On the same vein as the bees, mosquitoes love us redheads too! It’s one of the things I dislike about being a redhead!
Yes they do! I eat lots of garlic because mosquitoes don’t like garlic. 🙂
Oooh, thanks for the tip 🙂
I often tease and say that I’m sure vampires don’t want anything to do with either. 😉
I love your site! Coming from a long line of red headed women, I still learned a few things from your fun facts about the drawbacks of being a redhead. You might add one, I hate the expression, “beat ya like a red headed step child” and have heard it all my life just because of the red hair and usually men thinking it is funny! LOL
LOL Yes, people do think that is funny! You might enjoy reading this about being called Carrot Top. Go all the way to the bottom and it is just a couple paragraphs.
Thanks for visiting and commenting! I’ll look forward to your next visit! 😀
Oh cool! Congratulations on your book too!!!! Brand new shiny books!
I heard an interesting statistic about redheads. It said that only 1 in 5 of the redheads you meet on the street are true redheads. I’m always telling my wife, (She has one of those inferior hair colors, brown) that she should feel very lucky that she has a pure breed redhead for a husband.
1 in 5?! Wow! You’re right. Your wife should feel so honored to have the real deal! LOL Reds Rock!
I’m a 42 old redheaded man that works outside a lot in the summer time. People also ask me “how can I wear long sleeve shirts and wear geans when it’s 105 outside.” I tell that i have to keep the sun off my skin. And with me covered up i’m cooler in the sun than a lot of poeple.
Sounds so familiar! I can’t stand the sun boiling down on my skin. Not only am I hot, but I can feel it burning.
High Five! Redheads Rock!
I’m a natural red head, only one in the family for generations. I have blue eyes, no freckles at all,
I am not super pale at all, and I tan very easy, I love the sun and hot weather. I also have a high pain thresh hold, and I hardly ever get sick . So not everything that’s written or characteristic of redheads is true.
You are a lucky redhead and so right about stuffing all redheads in the same category! We are not the same!! 😀
About the pain tolerance it’s true I should know I’m a redhead myself
LOL Yeah, it stinks!
Redheads don’t have weaker immune systems than everyone else. As a matter of fact, their immune systems are usually STRONGER, which is why redheads are so prone to sensitivities and allergies and inflammation. I’m slightly germaphobic because I have to take antihistamines regularly, but I know I fight colds and flu far better than my peers (if I even catch those things in the first place). I also have a natural resistance to herpes. Now I don’t know if this is due to my redheadedness but I know that there are two things which run in my family: red hair, and allergies. Ok, so do heart disease and diabetes. In any case, the redheads in my family were taken out by bad diet but pretty much never from illness. If you find that you tend to have reactions to strong chemicals, it’s not because your immune system is weak. On the contrary, it means your immune system is hyperactive. So watch out. You need to expose yourself to germs and viruses more often than to other things, or you will develop allergies to your fancy hand sanitizers. (I actually can’t use Purell — gives me hives.)
I don’t use hand sanitizers anymore. A few years back I read that they were actually not good to use all the time. I can’t remember why, but I quit using them.
Maybe we redheads have more attitude than other hair color groups because we spend our entire lifetime being subjected to assorted intrusions by perfect strangers who feel compelled to touch, tousle, comment and speculate.
People also touch blond children too much but it tends to be a gentle caress of a single lock (still inexcusable to touch someone without their consent and I think children should be free to bite strangers who pet them) but redheaded children are likely to have people walk up and without so much as saying “Hi” first, reach out and actually ruffle their hair, often while making some comment about the child having been left out to rust.
Then we start school with a target on our backs and a litany of overused nicknames and “jokes”…. until High School, when the assumptions of promiscuity, erotic creativity and voracious appetite kick in…. what a joy it is to go through puberty with people feeling a need to speculate about the sexuality you’re still coming to terms with….and that crap goes on and on.
No wonder we become a bit crabby- it makes a girl grumpy to spend that much of her life being touched by strangers, called odious nicknames, presumed to be sexually “gifted” (we are, of course, but that’s none of anyone’s business until we make it their business 😉 ) and asked 4 times a day if our hair color is real and if the “carpet matches the drapes”.
YOU ARE SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO right Shana!!!! Thanks for making me laugh too! 😀
I certainly don’t agree that we have lower immune systems. I’m hardly ever ill. And I work with the public in a hands on job!
You’re just a healthy woman! Since I’ve stopped eating grain, I’m soooooooooooooo much healthier. 🙂
Redheads I know are hotheads with a chip on their shoulder.
Very exhausting& full of drama
LOL Now THAT was definitely a stereotype! Not true of all redheads!
I really enjoyed reading your article here. I have red hair and I was bullied all throughout school for years as a child. As you said what I just read, now that you’re an adult you like your hair, I feel the same way, when I was a child I hated my hair because I was bullied so much and I had very low self-esteem because of it. I love my hair now as an adult and I think it’s beautiful. One thing I’m not sure if it’s correct though that you wrote, you wrote that people with red hair have a lower immune system but I’ve read some other sites that say people with red hair have a higher level of vitamin D so their immune system is higher.
Fair skinned people, redhead or not, normally have lower vitamin D levels. This compromises the immune system and makes them more susceptible to disease and supposedly COVID too.