The Red And Nearly Ginger Association exists to represent the interests of Ginger primates everywhere.
Special interest groups exist for people with all sorts of differences; Political, Religious, Ideological, Gender Orientation and/or Sexual Preference and Medical, to name but a few.
This site's purpose is to further the cause of all individuals whose MC1R receptor is set in it's default position, therefore producing pheomelanin rather than eumelanin.
We do this by providing research information, forums, and community events all designed to allow our Ginger brethren to be proud of their genetic heritage.
Rangas everywhere - unite and be proud!
Now it never occurred to me - Miss Eagle is sharp sometimes and dull as dishwater at others - to link my hair to some specific, findable, nameable, recessive, carefully placed gene. But if you, dear Networkers, wish to know all about this and other things your mother forgot to tell you about redheads please go here. And if you are a glutton for punishment, please go here.
Now, Miss Eagle is the daughter of a red-headed father with a red-headed aunt on either side of the family tree. She married a red-head and produced, allegedly, three red-headed children: allegedly, because while most people refer to my third child as a redhead, I regard him as a sort of coppery brown. No not auburn. Brown.
This means that just taking into account husband/father, me, one daughter and two sons we have a wide range of red hair. My colour is auburn - and for more than you ever wanted to know about auburn hair, please go here
One factor that is not exactly made clear in all the learned journals is the instability of red hair. I have often been envious of dark haired people when they age with that lovely and elegant pepper and salt hair. But what happens to redheads?
Lighter redheads just tend to fade, perhaps to a sort of non-descript blonde-cum-gray. Those of us with auburn hair like me and my mother's sister find that our hair gets brown and dark and then when gray creeps in - again a quite non-descript colour. And when you are used to having your hair coloured in an interesting way and people admiring it or asking is it natural or out of a bottle, this can be a bit of a shock to one's self image.
As my beautiful (she was very beautiful and elegant and glamorous) Aunt Doreen remarked - So many people have asked if my hair colour is natural and I have honestly replied yes, that now it is changing with age and the red can't be seen, I have to get it from a bottle to keep faith with my public!.
So I echo Auntry Dor. Although I would be happy to live with my white hair and save myself the money and the hassle. I dye. Now for years and years, I dyed an auburn-brown colour in the main. And then, two years ago, an amazing life-changing thing happened. I managed to grab the wrong colour off the supermarket shelf. It was bright, bright, traffic-light red hair. I was shocked - at first. But have grown to love it. And I have some interesting observations because of it.
Years ago I read an article by Joanne Woodward which described how post-menopausal women are treated/ignored. Let me tell you, this post-menopausal woman is not ignored. She is no longer invisible. I get chatted up by men in trains, shops, restaurants. Now, needless to say, all of these men are not men I wish to be chatted up by. But there you are. If you are a post-menopausal woman, gather up your courage and daring and make a colourful hair statement. It's fun, adds to the spice of life, and you ensure you stand out in a crowd.
I have never posted my very own picture on this blog before - but, dear Networkers, I want you to see how red the hair is. So here' tis:
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