Red Hair and Redheads

Trying on wigs is a good way to decide what hairstyle, hair length and/or shade of red will look best on you BEFORE getting your hair dyed. (Hint: The darker your skin is, the darker your red hair should be. The lighter your skin is, the more options you have with the shades of red. See the "Red Hair CAN Work on ALL Ethnicities/Nationalities" module below for more about that.) Or, if you just don't want to commit to being a redhead just yet, you can borrow or buy a wig to wear for awhile and see if you tire of it quickly or embrace your new red hair. It might also help you see how others will perceive you with red hair, and whether or not you're comfortable with it. Check out the wigs in the following Amazon wig module to see some examples, or check out all of the Red Hair Wigs on Amazon.


Picture of wig courtesy of Photobucket.com.

Perhaps you are ready to dye your hair red, but you have short or thin hair, and you want long, voluminous red hair. Buying hair extensions can help with this, because you won't have to wait to grow your hair out. If you have your hair dyed professionally, you can bring a package of hair extensions with you to show them exactly what color to dye your hair. They can put the extensions in some time after that (probably not the same day, since your dyed hair and scalp might need a break before putting the hair extensions in).

Extensions can be done several different ways. Here are a few of them:

• Clip-on hair extensions can be clipped and pinned in with your hair, and then brushed or combed to blend in with your own hair. This is probably the easiest way to get extensions done.


• Weaving/Sewn-in hair extensions, where your hair is braided a certain way, and then the hair extensions are sewn in along the braids.


• Braided-in hair extensions, where the extensions are just braided in with your own hair. This is usually only done when you're going to have all your hair braided up or have dreadlocks.


• Bonding/Glued-in extensions. To my knowledge, there are different types of glues that can be used. But the best kind of glue to use for this process is protein glue. I had extensions done this past summer with protein glue, which my hairdresser told me is best for the hair since hair is made up of protein as well, which makes the glue more gentle on your hair than other glues.

Here is a very good link/website with more information about hair extensions:

• HairResources.net (first of 6 steps/pages on the research and process to be aware of when getting hair extensions; also describes 7 ways to get hair extensions done [which include the four ways I described above])

Picture of red hair extensions courtesy of Photobucket.com.

In this case I would say just get your first dye job done professionally. However, you can do it yourself (and it will be less expensive), but you need to have some idea of what you're doing.

I have never tried to dye my hair, so I can't give any tips from my own experience. But I can give a few tips based on other people's experiences. If you're going to dye your hair, it's best to talk to someone else who has dyed their own hair before. They can tell you what they did right, as well as what they did wrong. Also, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS on the box or container. You are less likely to mess it up if you do what the instructions tell you to do.

Here are some links to websites and web pages with more tips about how to dye your hair and how to touch it up:

• GlamBlush (link takes you directly to page about touching up a red hair dye job)


• SoYouWanna.com (first of five pages giving extensive tips about whether you should dye your hair or not, as well as how to dye it)

Aside from the Amazon hair dye/color module below, here are some more places you can find red hair dye:

• Red Hair Dye on Amazon (where you can sift through all the red hair dye products available)


• Ghetto-Rock.com (click the "Other" link at the top of the page)


• Folica.com (features the product Manic Panic Dye Hard Temporary Hair Color Styling Gel)

Picture of Manic Panic Amplified Semi-Permanent Pillarbox Red Hair Dye courtesy of HotTopic.com.

Check out even more red hair dyes at HotTopic.com.

Punk and (especially) scene hairstyles are probably my favorite to look at, and I'm interested in trying a few styles out as well. And most likely, some of you just read that sentence and the title of this module and said, "I know what punk style is, but what is scene style?" This is the best way I know how to describe it. If you're familiar with "emo", you know that their style is related to punk. So the hairstyles are similar, but they tend to wear a lot of black. Well, scene is related to punk as well. But scene style involves a lot of color, much like the red scene hairstyles in the pics below.

The first picture to the left is a girl with two-toned hair, wearing a white headband. (A lot of scene girls wear headbands in several different colors.) To the right is a very common scene hairstyle, where the hair is bigger and has more volume on top, but the rest of the hair is stick straight. Personally, I wouldn't try either of these hairstyles, but I like the color on both, especially the two-toned colors.


Photos are courtesy of Photobucket (here & here).

For more info on scene hair and everything else scene, visit the Scene Kids, Scene Queens, Scene Style & Hairstyles lens.

Let me begin by saying that I am actually black, and I have owned several red wigs over the past three years, all of which looked great on me. But when I got my first red wig, I had help picking it out because I really didn't know what shade of red would look best on me, especially with my dark skin. And so, with my red hair experience, and after paying much attention to redheads of many different ethnic groups & nationalities, I can impart this wisdom to you.

If you're black or asian, or anything other than white, and you think that you can't pull off red hair because of that... well, you're wrong. That's not to say that you can definitely go red, because some people just can't pull it off. But that is more about skin tone than skin color. If your skin has a red or pink undertone, you can probably pull off red hair, regardless of whether you're black, white, asian, hispanic, etc. The shade of red you can pull off, however, is reliant on how dark or light your skin is, as you'll see here. Likewise, if your skin with a yellow undertone, then you're most likely better off brunette or blonde.

And so, here are two great examples of red hair on black women. To the upper left is a model with dark skin, and long, dark, brownish-red hair. But to the bottom left is a rapper (whom you may or may not be familiar with) named Charli Baltimore. She is black as well, but with lighter skin. And therefore, she can get away with the bright red hair. She could also go darker if she wanted to. But the darker a person's skin is, the darker red they'll need to go, otherwise they won't look good. (Really, imagine the model above with hair as bright as Charli's. Not so good, is it?) My skin is even a little darker than that model's, so I have to go even darker than that when I do it (which is the reason I favor darker colors on myself, like the style & dye job I pointed out in the "My Favorite Red Hairstyle & Dye Job" module below).

For more info about shades of red hair, visit Red Hair- Best Shades.

Both photos courtesy of Photobucket.com here and here.

To figure out what red would look best on you before you color your hair (and without trying on wigs), visit DailyMakeover.com.

I sooooo want the hairstyle and color these girl have. This first picture I found a few years ago when I did a Google search for "red scene hair", although this doesn't look as "scene" to me as other scene hairstyles I've seen (including the ones above). But I love it regardless. You can see how most of her hair is dark red, but there are lighter red pieces mixed in. I wouldn't have the lighter reds in the bangs, though, as the bangs would be framing my face, and so lighter reds in that area just wouldn't look right on me. In fact, I'd probably skip the bangs altogether, just because I hate having hair in my face, especially anywhere near my eyes. Anyway, I do like the way her hair is both somewhat curly and somewhat straight. And because I also love long hair, I also like the length. (I like her nose ring/piercing, too.)

In this second photo is an Asian girl with red hair that fades from a dark color on the crown of her head to a much lighter/brighter red on her ends. It's pretty much got the same shades of red as the girl's hair in the first photo, but instead of highlights it's this cool fading effect, which I also really like. This is another hairdo I want in the future.

(Photo of redhead with curly/wavy hair & nose ring is courtesy of Luv-emo.com. Photo of Asian girl with fading red hair is courtesy of the LuLu and Your Mom blog.)

Like Jennifer Tilly, there are other famous celebs who have dyed their otherwise blonde or brunette hair red for a TV, movie or theatre role, or simply because they wanted to. Some of these celebs the general public is so used to seeing with red hair, it's simply assumed that they're natural redheads when they actually aren't. So I have actually looked up some of these celebs using SEVERAL sources, confirming that the following are "faker redheads" (& note that for now, there is only one guy on the list because men don't normally dye their hair red unless they've dyed it red by accident, or they're part of the punk scene, or they're Dennis Rodman):

Gerard Way, lead singer of the rock band My Chemical Romance. He's previously had jet black hair and white blonde hair. This is his latest look. (Click on the photo for the source.)

Actress Jennifer Garner (wore this red wig for the Alias series premiere & in Alias promo shots, & wore other red wigs throughout the show); Photo courtesy of Photobucket.com.

 

 

 

Pop-star singer Rihanna had her hair dyed red for a few years. But she currently flips between blonde and brunette hair. (Click on the photo for the source.)

 

 

Hayley Williams of Paramore (who once stated that even she doesn't remember what her natural hair color is, lol). Sources on the internet said that she's a natural brunette. And they're right! The proof-- a picture of Hayley when she was a toddler. Picture courtesy of Photobucket.com.

 

 

 

Actress and singer Alexz Johnson (dyed her hair red to play Jude Harrison on the TV series Instant Star); picture courtesy of Flickr.com.

 

 

 

 

Buy/see photo at AllPosters.com; Actress Alyson Hannigan (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, How I Met Your Mother; natural brunette).

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of AllPosters.com (see or buy photo here); Actress & comedianne Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour); picture courtesy of AllPosters.com.

 

 

 

 

Actress Emma Stone (Easy A, Zombieland, Superbad; was asked to dye her hair red for a role and got more attention & roles with it, so she kept it that way; dyed her hair blonde to play Gwen Stacy in the upcoming Spiderman prequel, but dyed it back to red shortly after); Photo courtesy of Photobucket.com.

 

 

 

 

Actress Kate Walsh (Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice; natural blonde); picture courtesy of Photobucket.com website.

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of AllPosters.com (buy/see photo here); Actress Debra Messing (Will & Grace, The Starter Wife; has said her career took off when she dyed her hair red; natural brunette)

 

 

 

 

Actress Amy Adams (Doubt, Enchanted, Leap Year, and the new movie The Fighter; recently she was on Conan O'Brian's new late night show Conan, where they discussed how she is actually a natural blonde but got more positive attention & roles once she dyed her hair red); Photo courtesy of Photobucket.com.

Photo courtesy of AllPosters.com (buy/see photo here); Actress, singer & dancer Ann-Margret (born & raised in Sweden & officially became a U.S Citizen in 1949; starred in the movies Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas with Elvis Presley, The Swinger, Grumpy Old Men & the sequel Grumpier Old Men with Walter Matthau & Jack Lemmon, Any Given Sunday with Cameron Diaz, The Break Up with Jennifer Aniston & Vince Vaughn, & The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause; natural blonde or brunette who had her hair dyed by the same person who did Lucille Ball's hair); info courtesy of Wikpedia.org.

 

Photo courtesy of AllPosters.com (Buy/see photo here). Actress Cynthia Nixon (Sex & The City TV series & movie; supposedly a natural blonde; dyed her hair red to play Miranda, as there were already 2 blondes on the show).

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of Art.com (buy/see photo here). Actress Kirsten Dunst (a natural blonde who dyed her hair red to play Mary Jane Watson in the Spiderman movies; ironically, natural redhead Bryce Dallas Howard [see "Famous Natural Redheads" module] dyed her hair blonde to play Gwen Stacy in Spiderman 3)

 

 

 

Other famous faker redheads: Actress Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, Erin Brockovich, Ocean's Eleven & Ocean's Twelve; natural dirty blonde); Actress Christina Hendricks (Mad Men; natural blonde who has dyed her hair red off & on since the age of 10); Actress Rachel Nichols (a regular in Alias's fifth & final season, & went red to play Shana "Scarlett" O'Hara in G.I.J.O.E.); Actress Gillian Anderson (The X-Files; natural blonde); Actress Rose McGowan (Charmed, Jawbreaker, also dated Marilyn Manson)

Here are some famous celebs who were born with naturally red hair, have kept their natural color and/or enhanced it. Check them out below...

Shirley Manson (lead singer of Garbage, also was an actress on the now defunct Fox series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles); picture courtesy of Photobucket.com.

 

Photo courtesy of AllPosters.com (see/buy here); Actress Isla Fisher (her hair may not be that red in this photo, but she is a bonafide redhead; She can be seen in Confessions of a Shopaholic, Wedding Crashers; also is fiancee to Sacha Baron Cohen of Borat and Bruno).

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of AllPosters.com (see/buy here); Model Angie Everhart (was also on an ABC celeb reality contest series called The Mole).

 

 

 

 

Actress Julianne Moore (her movies include Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Hannibal, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Far from Heaven, The Hours, & A Single Man); picture courtesy of Photobucket.com.

 

 

 

Bryce Dallas Howard (daughter of director & former actor Ron Howard; her movies include The Village, Manderlay, Lady in the Water, Spider-Man 3 [went blonde for this movie], Terminator Salvation, and has replaced Rachelle Lefevre in the 3rd film of the Twilight saga, Eclipse, due out in June 2010); photo courtesy of the Photobucket.com (sorry the photo is blurry- a fan did take this photo at Comic Con, apparently). Career info pulled from Wikipedia.org.

Buy at AllPosters.com

Buy at AllPosters.com

Both pictures are of Ron Howard (father of Bryce Dallas Howard; famous for playing Andy Griffith's TV son, Opie Taylor, on The Andy Griffith Show, and portrayed Richie Cunningham on Happy Days. Now an accomplished director, he's directed the following films [and more]: Splash, Cocoon, Backdraft, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Frost/Nixon, The Da Vinci Code, and its 2009 sequel, Angels & Demons)

Former Late Night Host of The Tonight Show & current Late Night Host of Conan on TBS, Conan O'Brien (definitely my favorite redheaded man); picture courtesy of Photobucket.com.

 

 

 

Rachelle Lefevre (portrayed vampire Victoria in Twilight and New Moon); picture courtesy of Photobucket.com

Reba McEntire (Country singer, and star of Reba); picture courtesy of Photobucket.com.

 

 

 

 

Sarah Ferguson, Dutchess of York; picture courtesy of Photobucket.com.

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of Art.com (buy/see photo here). The now infamous celeb & natural ginger Lindsay Lohan (yeah, she's forever changing her hair color, but she can't deny her roots)

 

 

 

 

Other famous natural redheads: Actress Nicole Kidman (Far and Away, Moulin Rouge, The Hours, Australia, and the movie musical Nine ); Actress Lauren Ambrose (of the hit HBO show Six Feet Under), Actress & singer Alicia Witt (was on the TV shows Cybil, The Sopranos, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent), model Lily Cole (who is also in the film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus), comedianne Kathy Griffin (from My Life On The D-List), David Caruso (who originally started on NYPD Blue, a show with some great writing and great acting; now he delivers cheesy one-liners on CSI: Miami); Scott Grimes (played Dr. Archie Morris on ER & was in the recent movie Robin Hood with Russell Crowe); Seth Green (actor and creator of Robot Chicken); Olympic Gold Medalist snowboarder Shaun White (he also skateboards professionally); and Malcolm X (yes, that Malcolm X [there's only one, so why are you even ASKING that question]-- believe it or not, black people CAN have naturally red hair, too).

These people... well, there's just no solid evidence that they are or aren't natural redheads, and I couldn't find any quotes from any of them about it, either. But again, because the general public is so used to seeing these with red hair, it's assumed that they're redheads. So who knows...but if you happen upon a website that can confirm what the following celebs natural hair color is, or better yet, a direct quote from the celeb themselves, then I can move them to one of the two categories above. For now, they stay here.

Photo courtesy of AllPosters.com (see/buy here); Actress Marcia Cross (of Desperate Housewives; was also on the original Melrose Place); I originally thought she was a natural redhead, but someone who viewed this page said otherwise, and I see the same debate when I google "Marcia Cross natural redhead" or "Marcia Cross natural hair color".

 

 

 

Laura Prepon (star of That 70's Show and October Road. All the sources I looked up for her all say different things, claiming she's a natural redhead, or a natural blonde, or a natural brunette; no one knows for sure); picture courtesy of Photobucket.com.

 

Other debatable redheads: Country singer Wynonna Judd (yes, I know she's known for her flaming red hair, but I couldn't confirm that it was naturally hers), actress Cate Blanchett (had red hair for a few movies, including 2008's The Case of Benjamin Button, and is rumored by some to be a natural redhead, but looks convincing as a blonde, so... you tell me), singer Geri Haliwell (formerly Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls; same hair color issue as Laura Prepon has), and, believe it or not, Molly Ringwald (some have said she's not a natural redhead, and yet I can't find a reliable source that confirms this).

Here are a few more webpages & websites dedicated to redheads:

• Redhead / F***YeahRedHair.Tumblr.com (Tumblr blog with tons photos of redheads; NOTE- I believe most of these photos are perfectly fine, as this is a blog I used visit frequently, but there might very well be a few NSFW photos that I missed or haven't yet seen, so proceed at your own risk; this is also why I can't link directly to the blog here on Squidoo, but I still wanted you to know about it; you can Google it to find it, or message me or leave & comment in the guestbook and I will send you the link)


• WeHeartGingers.Tumblr.com (another Tumblr blog with tons photos of redheads; again, most of these photos seem perfectly fine, as I've visited this blog, but there might be a few NSFW photos here too that I missed or haven't yet seen, so again, proceed at your own risk; can't link directly to the blog either here on Squidoo, but I still wanted you to know about it as well; no need to Google the name, just copy and paste the name above into your browser and there you go)


• Pictures / photos of red hair & redheads on my Cherry Ambition blog


• People.com's "Year of the Redhead" feature


• Marie Claire's Redheaded Celebrities page


• The Huffington Post's Redheaded Celebs: RED HOT Or Maybe NOT?" feature


• Wikipedia's Red Hair page


• The blog entry All About..... REDHEADS!!! on the Thoughts of a Crazy Redhead blog (features quotes from famous redheads)


• This YouTube Red Hair video from Spricket24 (a.k.a. Karen Alloy) is both informational and funny. And I would post the whole video here if it weren't for the use of certain PG-13 words in the video. Otherwise the video is quite fine, but this lens is rated G, and so I have to keep it that way. But now that you've been forewarned, you can choose whether or not you want to watch it. Though I will say you should check out Miss Alloy's other kooky & silly videos. She is a redhead herself, after all.


• Bryce Dallas Howard's Interview on Conan (from September 20, 2011; the first 4 minutes of this interview are redhead-focused; she & Conan O'Brien discussed Bryce's dad [Ron Howard; see "Famous Natural Redheads" section above], their kids' hair color, the fact that the world's largest sperm bank [NOT several or many sperm banks, as Conan makes it seem] is no longer taking donations from redheaded men because not many people want redhead babies, skin care protection, redhead bullying & redheaded women being more desirable than redheaded men; in other words, they cover all the redhead issues pretty quickly)


• NEW! MSN Wonderwall's List of The Top 12 Hottest Redheads (well, in American entertainment, really)


• MSN Wonderwall's Hairdos & Don'ts (For APRIL 7, 2011): Redhead Edition

NinaLee_CherryB (my personal Twitter page)

OR

Cherry Ambition (my official Twitter page for my Cherry Ambition blogs)

Here are some link directories I used for this page (yes, these take individual Squidoo lenses):

• Skoobe Link Directory