6 Things About Having a Red Head Baby or Child
Nearly six years ago, Bart and I unexpectedly hit the parenting jackpot when Ani was born a red head baby.
Being a mom of all girls has had some unexpected surprises. Pop in your email address and I’ll send you the six things that have surprised me the most.
Within moments of her birth, the nurse was looking at our baby daughter carefully and saying, “Does she have some red in her hair or is it the light?”
Every nurse and doctor who stopped in to check on her over our hospital stay asked about our redhead newborn.
And as she’s grown up, her hair has become more and more noticeably red.
Since both Bart and I are not redheads, we weren’t ready for what life would be like with a red head baby.
Here’s a few insider tips, in case you also have a red headed baby girl or boy too:
People will comment on their red hair constantly
Frankly, it’s a little like going out in public with a celebrity sometimes. I can’t remember a time we’ve been in public in the last six years that SOMEONE hasn’t mentioned it, whether it’s the cashier at the grocery store or an old man in the parking lot. And guaranteed, they will tell you about their red haired grandson or their sister with red hair(I’m 100% guilty of this same phenomenon with twins – anyone with twins, I am basically forced to tel them that I have twin nephews).
Sun protection is no joke with redheads
With that gorgeous red hair often comes some pretty fair skin, which means that although I try to be careful about sunscreen or hats for ALL my children, Ani is the one I worry about the most. I definitely don’t want her skin to be the same color as her hair!
That stereotype about red heads having fiery tempers is a stereotype for a reason
At least in Ani’s case, there’s an element of truth to that redhead stereotype. Generally, she’s very pleasant, but if she’s mad? She’s MAD. And she’s been that way since she was an infant.
If you don’t have red hair yourself, everyone wants to know where your red head baby came from
This doesn’t happen to me as much if I’m out with the girls on my own, because probably people assume my husband is a redhead, but if we’re both out in public with Ani, everyone is so curious about where that red haired baby came from.
Dressing a red head baby is a little harder
With my other blonde babies, most colors look reasonably good on them, but red hair and very fair skin makes it a little more challenging to pick shades that are flattering.
You will NEVER get tired of having a red-haired child
Six years in, and I still am floored by how beautiful Ani’s red hair is. She also lucked out with really great, thick straight hair (it was curly for the first three years or so but now is completely straight) in addition to a great color. She’s probably sick of people commenting on it right now, but someday, I think she’ll love her gorgeous red hair. And if I’m very lucky, I’ll end up with some grandchildren with red hair too.
Any red-haired babies in your family tree?
I enjoyed reading this article. It is most definitely like having little celebrities. I have two red headed little girls both with blue eyes. Both my husband and I have brown hair. We both had a great grandmother with red hair! I had no idea how rare, and beautiful red hair was until I had redheads!
people like to kid themselves that stereotypes have no basis in fact UNTIL they describe an MC1R redhead 👩🦰 !!! … truth be told , my redheaded Mom got ALL the attention in her family , favorite granddaughter of my very ambitious great grandfather … Mom was a 39 year old go-go dancer and the den mother to all the 20 year old dancers … always drove her ‘64 Galaxie wide open and even outran the cops one night … the fiery redhead ed Mom could also out-cuss a sailor … stereotypes , yes indeed , when it comes to redheads , they’re real and on point !!!
Positive redhead representation: Ron Weasley and Annie Shirley. Not so Positive representation: benedetto has blue eyes and strawberry blond hair, and his adoptive father, bertuccio, cites a proverb about redheads either being completely good or completely evil (benedetto being the latter) benedetto is the adopted son of Giovanni Bertuccio in the count of montecristo. (Bertuccio is a former corsican thief and smuggler turned steward of the protagonist Edmond Dantes)
My son is 5 years old, and he has red red hair however he isn’t fair skinned! He has olive skin like his dad and I, and I’ve yet to this day met a tan red head other than him. Everyone comments on his long red hair but they also comment on his skin, so we get stopped at least 2-3 times every time that we go out. People think that I dyed his hair or something, and I just tell them “No” “that is a god given gift, thank you!” He wants to cut his hair now that kids in his class are starting to call him a girl, but daddy says no. I believe it should be his choice, and want to do it anyway. Any ideas or advice? 🙂
Our son was born with spectacular, bright red hair! He hated it from the beginning. Before his first birthday, I was in the grocery store with him. He was in the cart and a little old lady came up, patted his head and said, “What beautiful red hair!” He looked straight at her and screamed, “NOT RED!!!!” Those were the first words he spoke in his life! He hated his red hair all through his childhood and grew up to be 6’4″ so he couldn’t hide in the crowd. When he was in his late twenties, he was working on a photo shoot in the desert said to him, “Don’t move! In this light your hair looks a little reddish!” He said he felt like he’d been kicked in the stomach. His identity all his life had been RED, RED, RED and suddenly it wasn’t. His hair had been fading into reddish brown. Apparently that happens to quite a few red heads. Now in his late 40’s, there are a few white hairs creeping in….
My hair was light brown and my husband’s was black. My mom’s sister was a red head, as was one of their cousins (football player Red Grange), his brother and their father. I have a red headed cousin from the other side of my mother’s family. My husband’s grandmother was a redhead. When she was young, she was sitting at a table in an outdoor restaurant. A young man was sitting with friends at a table on the other side of the restaurant and saw her. He asked if any of his friend knew who “that beautiful red haired girl” was. One did and introduced them. They became my husband’s grandmother and grandfather! My husband wouldn’t exist without that red hair!
My husband and I got lucky and got 2 unicorns – I have dirty blonde hair and he’s got dark almost black hair. Both of our girls have red hair.
I gotta tell you, as bad as it is having one redhead, it’s worse having 2 lol. They’re fairly common where we live (lots of history of Irish and Scottish heritage, which is where our girls came from) but we went on vacation this summer to somewhere where it’s less common and boy, you’d think they were seeing a real live unicorn XD