Wait, you're not a real redhead??

[Phexlyn]

Just a little happiness post :D

Today, I was having lunch with my friend C and two acquaintances of hers when a girl walked by who had the most beautiful tailbone length hair, in a colour that definitely was red by nature, not by henna. I couldn't help looking at her, until I realized that actually I have the same length and roughly the same colour (mine's a bit more on the blond side of red).
C is quite used to me staring at other longhairs, but the other two at our table weren't and they were quite puzzled why I looked at the other girl's red hair when the hair on my head was the same colour. I then said, "but she's a real redhead!" and they went like "Wait, your hair is naturally red as well. It can't be coloured!"

I'm so happy that my hennaed hair looks this natural in colour :joy: I've always felt I was more of a redhead person than a blonde.

Anyone else want to share their stories about being mistaken for a real redhead? :)

[Tuntenut]

Heehee, I know exactly how you feel. I get a lot of people thinking I'm a real redhead, especially when I first started hennaing and the colour wasn't as dark as it is now.
I don't think my colour look natural at all, but I don't mind at all. Still, it apparently fits my pale complexion so well that it fools quite a lot of people.

I was actually born a real redhead, but my hair started going blonde when I was about 4 months old. I like to consider myself a genetically real redhead. ;)

[Ashenputtel]

This happened to me to I'm a natural level 8 ash blonde. People used to think I was a natural red head when I was dying my hair red. They also think my natural color was a level 10 beige blonde when I used to dye it lighter.

I'm very pale with a pinkish skin tone and green eyes.

[okiesarah]

Me and two of my siblings are natural redheads, even though both my parents aren't redheaded. I henna my Mom's hair for her though, and her natural color is dark brown so her hair is a very gorgeous dark red with the henna. Whenever me and my Mom go somewhere together someone always seems to say to me "Well I know where you got your red hair from!" LOL Riiight. They seem so surprised when we tell them hers is fake. :D

[MagicAndMayhem]

Almost everyone thought I was a real redhead before I went indigo. In a way, I was going for the fake-redhead look, but it was cool people thought otherwise :p

[ReadHeadGirl]

I am a natural one :-)

[Arya]

Me and two of my siblings are natural redheads, even though both my parents aren't redheaded. I henna my Mom's hair for her though, and her natural color is dark brown so her hair is a very gorgeous dark red with the henna. Whenever me and my Mom go somewhere together someone always seems to say to me "Well I know where you got your red hair from!" LOL Riiight. They seem so surprised when we tell them hers is fake. :D

Haaaa we used to do that with my mum too. The last five years or so, she dyed her hair red. People who've known us both for 20 years or more started saying "oh, look at the beautiful red hair you got from your mother'. I swear my mum saw that commercial where the mum dyed her hair blonde to match her daughter and got ideas in her head. XD.

As a redhead, I find I can almost always tell when a brunette dyes her hair red, but I can rarely tell when a blonde dyes her hair red, because we have such similar colouring. Just don't have bright orange eyebrows! A girl in my class LOOKED natural from behind, but then I saw these two fiery caterpillars on her face. Looked very bizarre.

[strangemeow]

oh how i wish i was a real redhead! i have virgin hair that took me SO long to grow out all the dye(i used to dye it black and red and whatever color struck me that month). my dad was a redhead, my mom has light brown hair naturally, and i ended up with a light strawberry blonde. sometimes it looks much redder than others, no idea why. but im always so envious of natural red(really red or strawberrier strawberry blonde than mine) hair, its gorgeous! and ive been fooled many times by henna heads, it gets much closer to the natural red look than other dyes

[Aleria]

No, but I get mistaken for having naturally black hair all the time (it's actually a red-brown colour). Even with my roots showing and aqua glints in the sun left from dyeing over my turquoise with black. XD

[spitfire511]

I am a natural redhead - but frequently wish that I had the color of so many of you henna-heads! I wanna henna! :D Congrats on the nice comment!

(Offhand - anyone know what henna does on red hair?)

[Anje]

I am a natural redhead - but frequently wish that I had the color of so many of you henna-heads! I wanna henna! :D Congrats on the nice comment!

(Offhand - anyone know what henna does on red hair?)
Depending on your brightness, it makes it very red (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=105&pictureid=26907) or doesn't really affect the color at all. (For comparison, here's my natural red-auburn (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=105&pictureid=26908).)

Be aware, it goes darker, especially with successive applications, so you want to stick to just touching up roots if you don't want your length to get a bit unrealistically cherry-toned.

[ilovelonghair]

It happens very rarely, I don't get many comments on my hair color, but once someone said that it was very unusual that I had red hair with blue eyes. (apparently that's unusual?)

[kaned_ferret]

I had it the other way the other day - I'm a natural redhead (plus extra henna, but it just puts me back to the bright red I had as a kid) and this woman didn't believe me "because I had no freckles". I had to explain to her that by not going out in the sun one can avoid them! I have freckles on my forearms but that's it, the rest of me doesn't see the light of day without full block :)

[HappyMuser]

Well, everyone thought I was a redhead when I was born, if that counts? :D It grew out blonde, though

[Arya]

It happens very rarely, I don't get many comments on my hair color, but once someone said that it was very unusual that I had red hair with blue eyes. (apparently that's unusual?)

Yeah, everyone thinks that redheads have green eyes for some reason? People always call me a green-eyed redhead and do a double take when I correct them. I really don't know where that idea came from, but I've encountered it before.

[okiesarah]

Yeah, everyone thinks that redheads have green eyes for some reason? People always call me a green-eyed redhead and do a double take when I correct them. I really don't know where that idea came from, but I've encountered it before.

Well I guess I'm unusual too, I've got the blue eyes and so do my two siblings. My 3 yr old neice ended up with the most gorgeous red ringlets for hair and BROWN eyes. I've only ever seen one other redhead with brown eyes.

And LOL at the "fiery caterpillars" Arya! :D I wish my caterpillars were more fiery. They are way more blonde than red though and so are my eyelashes, so I wear brown mascara and put in some brownish brow powder so you can actually see them.

[Kristamommyx3]

I know a teenage girl who's mother is a Caucasian redhead and her father is black. Her brother is a lovely caramel color with curly light brown hair and blue eyes....but SHE is even more amazingly unique! She is absolutely white as a lily with freckles allover, blue eyes and copper penny red tightly curly hair! She is so amazingly different with her in between features and bright fire red spirals. I love to just stare at her ( of course I don't really). She says she loves her red hair, but no one believes her father is her real father, but she looks just like him when they are standing together. I love naturally red hair, but on a fair skinned African american with freckles, that's even more beautiful! :D

[Knittycat]

I get that all the time! It makes me happy :eek:. I'm naturally an ashy-dark blond, and I don't care for it. I was supposed to be a redhead :) I love my henna.

[christine1989]

I have never been a redhead (natural or otherwise) but this story just goes to show how great henna is! With chemical dyes you get that line of demarkation when your hair grows out that is a dead giveaway.

[Mesmerise]

It happens very rarely, I don't get many comments on my hair color, but once someone said that it was very unusual that I had red hair with blue eyes. (apparently that's unusual?)

well I'd actually say red hair and blue eyes would be a common colour combination! Red hair is a recessive gene that's usually in people with very fair skin... and errm... so is the gene for blue eyes ;). Sure there are red heads with brown eyes and green eyes... but generally the fairest skinned people are blue eyed.

And back on topic...

My friend was convinced I'm a natural red head... of course, she's never seen me any other way. She has this idea that I'm somehow related to these other people she knows, because I look a lot like them. Well guess what the only real commonality between me and them is? Yup...the hair. I guess there are some features in common, but yeah...not massively. I did explain that I use henna haha but she's still convinced I'm related to these people! (And I am related to so few people... that it's fairly unlikely).

Oh mind you, when I had black hair people thought THAT was natural too...and that I could not figure out, as I've got fair, freckled skin. People used to think I was Southern European despite my skin and would ask what country I was from! And yes, even people from Italy, Greece etc. would make that assumption too, not just fellow Anglo Saxons lol. I could NOT figure that one out! I even had a discussion with an Italian girl about it, who INSISTED that I had to have some Southern European blood... I was truly boggled by this.

[Milui Elenath]

Congratulations that is a lovely compliment.

I also had the opposite issue; people insisting I must be a dyed red head (before I henna'd) as my eyebrows are dark.

AND I also have blue eyes! My grandmother (when she was young) and another friend are even truer red heads (I am/was auburn) and both have blue eyes too.

Oddly last year when I used henna to cover my greys someone (in real life) commented on my lovely natural colour :rolleyes:

. . . I believe this thread has just given me the final push to buy some more henna.

[Longfellow]

C is quite used to me staring at other longhairs, but the other two at our table weren't and they were quite puzzled why I looked at the other girl's red hair when the hair on my head was the same colour. I then said, "but she's a real redhead!" and they went like "Wait, your hair is naturally red as well. It can't be coloured!

How do you know she was a real redhead? :)

[AshNight1214]

I'm not a dyer, but I do have a friend who dyes her hair red and I spent two months at rehearsals with her, completely convinced that she was a natural redhead. Then, I looked at some old pictures on her FaceBook and... she's a light brunette!! I don't think her natural color suited her - she's picked a gorgeous color. :)

[Seeshami]

I get this all the time, even people who have seen me as a blond can't pin point "what I've done" with my hair until I tell them.

[GlassWidow]

When I was born, I was so strawberry blonde that my hair appeared to be pink. :lol: It was truly copper as I was growing up, but began to get ashy as an adult - I think mostly because I treated it horribly. I spent years trying to find a realistic looking copper out of a bottle (and very often got an unpleasant orange), and lost sight of my natural hair color for a while. I discovered that if I put a blonde wash over my natural color it would bring out the red, but it was when I realized how blonde my hair had become that I decided to try to get back to my "grown up" red. Let me tell you, henna over bottle blonde is pretty trippy! I've been using henna for almost 18 months now, and I feel like I have achieved my goal. I can see where the last application of henna ends and my natural roots begin only when I am looking closely...I will likely continue to henna every few months because it really revs up the highlights, but I don't feel like I need to do it in order to keep up a consistent all over color.

Anyway, as a natural red head who got off course and then back on again thanks to henna, I am always thrilled when other henna heads are mistaken for true reds. Red's the best (and most fickle) color, afterall. ;)

[ilovelonghair]

Yeah, everyone thinks that redheads have green eyes for some reason? People always call me a green-eyed redhead and do a double take when I correct them. I really don't know where that idea came from, but I've encountered it before.


well I'd actually say red hair and blue eyes would be a common colour combination! Red hair is a recessive gene that's usually in people with very fair skin... and errm... so is the gene for blue eyes ;). Sure there are red heads with brown eyes and green eyes... but generally the fairest skinned people are blue eyed.


I thought the same too, although there are a lot of people with red hair and brown eyes. With green is very rare, unless maybe what they call green is more on the brown side. A lot of green eyes are not really very green, but more a very pale brown with a green hint. It's rare to see green that's more on the blue side (I have teal eyes that often are seen as blue, but depending on the light, they can look greenish)

[GlassWidow]

I thought of this thread last night as I was checking out at the store. I had to show my license, which is not color balanced very well, so my hair is very bright copper in the picture. The cashier looked from my license to me, standing under the fluorescent spotlights, a few times before finally handing the license back. Feeling self-conscious about the picture, I made a quip about it being so bright, and said that I was sure it was glowing under the lights, too. "Oh, no," she said, "I was just envying your naturally red hair. You can't get that color from a bottle! It's got such pretty highlights and color variations. You're very lucky!" I just smiled coyly and said "I know, you're right, you can't get this color from a bottle!" :lol:

[Aveyronnaise]

I thought the same too, although there are a lot of people with red hair and brown eyes. With green is very rare, unless maybe what they call green is more on the brown side. A lot of green eyes are not really very green, but more a very pale brown with a green hint. It's rare to see green that's more on the blue side (I have teal eyes that often are seen as blue, but depending on the light, they can look greenish)
Actually I read in my genetics class that red hair and brown eyes is the rarest red head combination. I'll try to find some corroboration.

ETA I can't believe how much completely random information i remember from school.

Okay here ya'll go

http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=220

[Rosetta]

Yeah, everyone thinks that redheads have green eyes for some reason?
I have green eyes, or grey-green (grey with green hint, and also some brown spots, strangely enough) :) So yeah, I think this thread is making me more & more certain I want to start hennaing again...

I *think* I was many times mistaken for a real redhead during all the years I hennaed, but don't remember details of any particular incident right now ;)

[Aurielle]

Actually I read in my genetics class that red hair and brown eyes is the rarest red head combination. I'll try to find some corroboration.

ETA I can't believe how much completely random information i remember from school.

Okay here ya'll go

http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=220

My mom has red hair and brown eyes. I guess that makes her "rare." :) She always says she was the only one in her family (including extended) to have red hair and brown eyes.

[BeckyAH]

That is a fantastic compliment.

...I have had people ask if my hair color was natural. ...It's blue. IDEK.

[Aveyronnaise]

My mom has red hair and brown eyes. I guess that makes her "rare." :) She always says she was the only one in her family (including extended) to have red hair and brown eyes.
Personally I think it's a really pretty combination it looks they are always being filmed in sepia tones :)

[invisiblebabe]

Right before freshman year of undergrad, I dyed my hair strawberry blonde. My friends at the university thought it was naturally that color :)

[foogrrl]

I was a very bright redhead as a child, now mellowed into a softer strawberry/blonde. My eyes are the darkest brown - it's hard to tell the iris from the pupil. I also have that "don't tan, just burst directly into flame when going into sun" skin tone.

I never thought it was strange until now. Both my sisters have the same eyes, but otherwise look entirely unlike me, coloring-wise: Very tan, dark brown hair, etc.

Genetics are such funny things to me.

[rbecks]

My dad is/was (now he's grey) a natural redhead and I inherited his colouring (very fair, blue eyed). I was blonde as a child and now it is light brown with bits of red especially in the summer naturally, but I dye it copper red. So many people always are so disappointed to find out that my hair isn't naturally this colour, and definitely are shocked. It always makes me feel nice about my choice that people like it so much.

[princessp]

That is a fantastic compliment.

...I have had people ask if my hair color was natural. ...It's blue. IDEK.

Lol!

Yeah everyone thinks mine is natural too. Officially (from this moment forward), I'm not going to correct them anymore. :p

[BeckyAH]

Lol!

Yeah everyone thinks mine is natural too. Officially (from this moment forward), I'm not going to correct them anymore. :p

\It's actually purple as of a couple of days ago, but yeah. I'm just going to start telling them it is and moving on. :p

[princessp]

\It's actually purple as of a couple of days ago, but yeah. I'm just going to start telling them it is and moving on. :p

Double LOL!:cheese: