Ginger

It's remarkable how remarkable having red hair is. Or perhaps it's that my particular shade is a browny sort of red, so people get surprised when summer strikes and suddenly the sun lights each strand in such a way as to make it all seem indisputably red. But it's not quite that. I remember a conversation while I played WoW: I was talking with a friend in England and somehow hair colours got mentioned. Instantly, he remarked "Are you a GIN-GER!?" in I don't remember which characters, but in such a way that I forever think of it as being a playground sort of sing-song tone.

For many years of my childhood and teenagerdom I fought against the label. No, I was most definitely auburn. Not red. The day a teacher commented on my "auburn" hair, I latched onto the word in hopes that I had found a way out of my brothers' teasing, but alas, they laughed and told me that auburn was different and at the time I didn't know any better than to believe them because I didn't know what auburn was.

At some point I realised it wasn't worth the effort to say I didn't have red hair. "No, it's just reddy- brown," was only met with stares and repetitions of the accusation until I gave in. Maybe it was my insistence that it wasn't red that caused all the teasing, rather than the actual colour. I still believe my hair is a proper mix of brown and red, but woe is me if I call it anything other than red, because that's just denying it, isn't it?

I never know what to expect when people talk about my hair colour. People I make friends with and see more often over the winter consider it brown until someone mentions the word red, then it's all, "It is, isn't it?" and suddenly I have red hair again. I still get surprised when someone says I have red hair when it hasn't come up in conversation, perhaps because I've been trying to pass off as normal and somehow they figured me out without having consulted the rest of the group.

Red hair isn't really that rare, is it? I mean, I know that brown hair is all over the place, but I meet a lot of redheads. Or maybe it's just one of those things like being exceptionally tall – "You're tall? I have another friend who's tall! You should meet each other!" And just like all the tall people, all the redheads get introduced on account of having red hair and everyone knows they have red hair because everyone remarks on it. Teases, laughs, pokes fun, etc.

I wonder how or why people started thinking red hair was particularly silly or bad. Or unsilly and unbad – because, being somewhat redheaded, some people also commiserate with me and point out that they actually prefer red hair. I think the first occasion of red hair remarking may have gone something like this:

Once upon a time everything was normal. Then one person said to another, "You have red hair."

Everyone looked about themselves, examining the man with the red hair.

"Yes, I do," the man said, because it was true.

Everyone looked at their own hair. "Mine isn't red," said one person.

"Is it better to have red hair or not red hair?" someone asked.

"I think perhaps not red, because I should quite like to have the better colour and mine is not red," someone else answered.

"Then is it better to have black hair, or brown, or blond?"

And everyone who didn't have red hair said, "I'm not sure I mind, just so long as I don't have red hair."

Having red hair isn't all that bad. It's just strange that people feel the need to constantly remind you your hair is red. Oh well. Even if not everyone agrees with me, I think of myself as having dual citizenship with redheads and brunettes. Although someone did point out some blond bits recently.