I know two things to be true: the Weird Al parody is always better than the original, and random strangers feel the need to comment on my hair. Not that I’m speaking for all redheads, but I’ve compared notes with at least 4 others, and these are pretty universal experiences. Not to mention instant bonding material.
There are a couple different varieties of commenters. The first is the old ladies. These are older women who seem to be on patrol for redheads – especially redheaded children that they can stop and inform that they – or someone they are related to – used to have red hair in their youth.
This happened to me constantly when I was a child. Not that I’m complaining – they were usually quite friendly about it. And women do compliment others’ children – it’s just that for me it happened any time I left the house, and for this one very specific reason.
They do tend to taper off as you get older though. Probably because it’s harder to speak to an unknown adult than it is to compliment a stranger’s child. People still comment on my hair now, but with nowhere near the frequency of when I was a kid. And mostly, these tend to be compliments, though they occasionally border on uncomfortable.
These ones don’t bother me, unless they come from creepy men.
Then there are the interrogative ones. The ones that seem to need to find a reason for my hair.
It’s hard to convey just how frequently I get asked these questions, so let’s just say that at this point, I should probably just have business cards made up so I don’t have to keep repeating myself.
I’ll admit I’ve had the urge myself, when I see a redheaded child at the supermarket, to wave or wink, letting them know we’re both part of the same club. Maybe I’ll even be one of the old ladies one day, telling kids I used to have hair just like theirs. It’s the circle of redheaded life.