I just had to post on this thread as I understand what you mothers of red head kid's go through. I am a natural red head, went through all the demoralising taunts at school but I feel it made me stronger inside after time. I am also the only red head in my household with my mum, dad, sister and brother all dark. So I got the usual taunts of 'milkman, ginger nut' etc.
When I went home in tears because of the taunts which made me hate my hair, my mum and dad and whole family always enforced in me that I had lovely hair. They pointed out other attributes I had rather than focusing on the colour of my hair.
I soon learned to retaliate and when my so called freinds and I fell out and they called me ginger nut, I retaliated with, ok I have red hair and you don't like it but I'm thinner, smarter and far prettier than you. Yes I spoke up for myself, never had any problems when dating and was always the first to be asked out when clubbing with my mates, the same mates who taunted me about my hair, I had great satisfaction as a teenager when one of my mates fancied one of the boy's and that boy in turn asked me out, I used to say 'so who wishes they had red hair now then'! Teenage stuff.
Then I married and had my baby who is just past 22, 6ft 5in with bright red hair, much brighter than mine was and I cried for him when he was born because I knew how he would be slated.
Jordan hated his hair from about the age of 6 and always wanted it dyed, he had a much worse time than me at school because of his hair, always picked out as the one to start a fight etc. Then at 11 we went to Canada where they love red hair and he was so popular with the girls and never mentioned his hair. We returned back home when he was nearly 17 and the same thing started again, loss of confidence and low self esteem caused by his very healthy interest in girls and when he asked them out they would say 'I like you but could never go out with someone with ginger hair'. I think it is much harder for boys than girls as girls can be so cruel by saying 'yuck he's got red hair'.
So he went from being popular with the girls in Canada to very unpopular with the girls here and according to my son just because he had red hair. So he went dead short and dyed it blonde (which made me so sad) for a while - it was the only way he could cope with it at that time and the truth is once he went blonde he was again the popular guy with the ladies. He eventually had to stop bleaching it as he took a reaction. I tried all the same tactics that my family had done with me but nothing worked. I said things like 'someday you will be sad that you spent so much time worrying about the colour of your hair', that these people that say things like this are not worth knowing and everyone has something they don't like about themselves. To accept the colour of his hair and move on and find a determination to not let them get you down. Instead of worrying about his hair to show them that he has lots of other attributes. So eventually he got used to it, stopped wanting to dye it, stopped worrying about it but still hates it. Jordan is the youngest ever to work on the Tornado for the Saudi Airforce in Saudi, £50,000 a year tax free, plus a 4 bedroom villa, cleaner, washing allowance, food allowance, 9 weeks full paid holidays a year with free flights. Now listen you mothers of red head kids, I can't help wondering how much of the bullying, taunts and disappointment about his red hair succeeded in giving him a determination and strength of character to become what he is today.
