'My mum hates ginger hair so much she's made me dye it for seven years'

A woman has shamed her mum for forcing her to dye her bright copper hair throughout her childhood because she wanted a 'Barbie blonde' daughter rather than a ginger child

By: irishmirror.ie

Jun 16 2024
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'My mum hates ginger hair so m

A woman has slammed her 'entitled' mum who hated her natural hair colour so much she made her dye it blonde for seven years. The now 34-year-old shared how her mum would drag her to a salon for highlights when she was 12-years-old because she couldn't stand having a ginger child.

Passing it off as 'mother-daughter time', she only started to question the routine visits when she moved away to college and was no longer living under her mum's rules. On Reddit, she said: "When I was 12, my mum started bringing me to a salon to get my hair highlighted.

"I didn't care about stuff like that and it was weirdly out of character for her budget, but it seemed so important to her like some sort of "mother-daughter bonding" or something so I just agreed to it and never really thought about it much. I had strawberry blonde hair and she'd add a lot of blonde highlights to it.

"When I went to college I didn't go and highlight my hair myself because I never cared in the first place." But when she would return home to visit her mum during school holidays, she would again try to drag her to the salon to lighten up her hair.

She added: "I had roots showing and I said no, I don't want to anymore, and she had an absolute psychotic meltdown and almost crashed the car. Hello, alarm bells... I hear you now."

The lass said it took her 19 years to realise she has "full-blown bright copper" hair, not strawberry blonde locks. She added: "I was strawberry blonde, until puberty. Now I'm a redhead and my mum hates it. I've been a happy ginger for 15 years but to this day whenever I visit family, people still say 'Oh, I see you're still wearing your hair red'.

"No, I stopped letting [her] change my appearance over a decade ago. I look way better as a redhead anyway because I have the complexion for it and it suits me better because that's what I am. But if she knew how to use Photoshop or beauty apps she would absolutely still be trying to pass me off as blonde Barbie on social media. I don't hate her; it's not as dramatic as that.

Her mum started dying her hair when she was 12-years-old (stock) (Image: HRAUN via Getty Images)

"But I recognise that there's something very wrong with her, and I'm glad that it didn't affect me in worse ways (eating disorders, etc.). It's like some kind of compulsive 'dysmorphia-by-proxy' for people like her and it's just really sad."

While most users shamed her mum for her "strange" obsession with her hair colour, others praised her for embracing her true shade. One user said: "I'm glad you chose to be yourself! I really don't get people's fixation on phenotypes. Nobody cares about the hair colour of a stranger. Or anything else for that matter."

Another user added: "A lot of abusive mothers will dye their children's hair blonde from a young age... they want their daughters to have a very specific 'ideal' image to bolster their own egos."

A third user said: "That's very scary and I'm glad you seem so level-headed and sane about it all. Also, redheads for the absolute win. My wife often says the only thing she'd change about herself is to be a ginger, as she feels I'd love her even more. I wouldn't because that's not possible. But, yeah, gingers all the way."

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