Perks of being a redhead!

(Yes, I stole and changed the title of this blog from a movie and a book, both which I recommend but the book is better. If you don't get what I mean here, never mind!)

Yes I am looking at the positive side of my hair color. And I will openly admit I never cared for or embraced it until recent years. I'm still not sure if I like red hair.

Lets go back...I'm the youngest of five...four of us are redheads in various shades and the odd one has red headed traits and his beard used to be red. So all my life I've had people make comments about the hair color-"Where do you get your red hair?" as my redheaded mom and three siblings would be standing there. Really?

People love to single out redheads and/or embarrass us or make us very uncomfortable so we blush and turn red-I hate this. Or the always popular comment "Is that natural?" which is more normal now that I am "older".  Yes it is! Do you really think I would color my hair this color????

Unlike my siblings I did not have the redheaded skin as far as freckles-I really never had any freckles until I was an adult. I would burn and peel but usually ended up with a little tan. Otherwise I was pale white and looked sickly from August until the end of May....lack of sun does that to a person.

I'm a strawberry blonde, it was the first thing the doctor who delivered me announced, even before the fact that I was a girl and my birth certificate also confirms the fact! All the other red heads in my family have darker red hair-the hair color gene must have been running out! I had a grandmother who I'm told had dark, dark red almost auburn hair so I guess with the gene on both sides of the family I didn't have a fighting chance to be any thing BUT a redhead. Although I'm not sure what happened to my brother??

The redhair drew a lot of attention, and not in the way or how I wanted as a kid. I remember being called "cow eyes" as a scared kindergartener on the play ground by older kids-I have no idea why I remember that and it is the only time I've been called something not related to my hair color. Otherwise the nicknames or other "names" have always been related to my hair. Some people just think calling me "Red" is okay...no my name is Lynn. My mom, thank goodness never chose a non-redheaded nickname for me...Lindy Lou, was my name when I wasn't in trouble!

In my high school heath class I remember a classmate calling me carrot top...until one day while sitting behind me in class he pulled out one of my hairs-which hurt and I smacked him for it.  He proceeded to look at the hair very carefully on it was on a white piece of paper. He then announced to the teacher and entire class that my hair is NOT red or orange BUT gold colored-really, in front of EVERYONE. But honestly it kind of was the turning point for me-maybe, just maybe having this hair color was not the worse thing in the world. It wasn't carrot orange or fire red. I'd always draw myself as a kid with my box of crayons with a mixture of red, orange and that flesh color  crayons to try to come up with my hair color-I never said I was a creative kid or artist!

I was getting my hair cut a few years ago and an older lady in the chair next to mine asked her stylist what color you call my hair...I turned, smiled at her question and replied "natural!". It is what it is. God gave it to me and it is a good representation of my family and heritage and does come with advantage too!

I honestly hoped each time I was pregnant that the baby was NOT a red head. I didn't want my child to go through what I had growing up a very shy and quiet red head. No one has red hair and the closest I got is Ranen with his pale skin and freckles. Sometimes his hair will have a reddish cast to it but he escaped the red hair. Besides they say it skips a generation so the grandkids may be the next round of red heads!? You've been warned!

The perks of being a red head:
1. Only 1% of the world has red hair and blue eyes...yes I'm rare-leave it alone!
2. I can blame my paleness on being a red head-I was born this way! Plus lack of sun exposure means less chance of skin cancer-whew!
3. My closet has a limited amount of colors-only certain things go with red hair-NOT the pale yellow my mom always dressed me in because it was her favorite color either! I'm learning as I go!
4. It takes a higher dose of meds to work for me...this includes antibiotics and anesthesia and aspirin. While big 200+lb guy can take a small amount of antibiotic or cold medicine, it usually takes a truck load for things to affect and work for me.
5. It is said red heads have a high threshold for pain...or we are just that dense and we don't feel it?! I like to believe I have a high pain threshold here!
6. Yes we have a temper-everybody has a temper. It's just that redheads get a bad rap and are grouped because of their temper. Hey, I'm using it as an excuse, don't knock it!
7. I stand out in pictures! It's hard to miss the redhead! : )
8. You are very fortunate if you have a redhead in your life! We bring color and a whole host of other things to your life!! 

And there are people out there who either absolutely love red hair or hate red hair, or the freckles or the pale white skin...so what. Looking beyond the hair color and the outside package is where the true person is. It's what is on the inside that counts. 

Yes we all have things about ourselves, physical and personality-wise that we'd like to change or wish were different. But we are who we are and how God made us. I'm a mixture of both my parents having an equal amount of tendencies of both as opposed to my siblings who usually favor one parent or the other-I'm the best of both! And embracing my hair color and the attention it gets me is a very slow process. I've always been a "blend into the background" kind of girl....kind of hard to do when you've got red hair and no one else does. But that's life!

Positive thought of the day: It's a great day to appreciate the little things in life, whatever that may be for you!