It’s a tough gig being a redhead. Anyone with naturally red hair will have, no doubt, endured legions of ‘ginger’ taunts growing up – even after Geri Halliwell almost made it cool for 30 seconds in the 90s. And despite the fact that more women dye their hair red than any other colour (true story), the stigma is still firmly attached when it comes to childhood bullying.
It’s a pain that redhead sisters Adrienne and Stephanie Vendetti know all too well. But rather than be ashamed of their fiery locks, they are empowered by them – indeed, they’ve built a bona fide business out of their fiery manes, with their blog How to Be a Redhead.
Running for four years, with a team of 20 people, this is no small feat: a celebration of all things ginger (well, except Mick Hucknall – there is a limit), where fellow reds, dyed or otherwise, can be as out and proud about their hair colour as the site’s founders.
‘Stephanie and I launched the website because we are natural redheads and had experienced this outcry from people not knowing where to go to feel beautiful and feel empowered,’ Adrienne tells The Debrief over the phone from How To Be A Redhead's New York office, from which a stellar daily dose of ginge-focused fashion and beauty content is dispatched.
Not that you have to be a redhead to work with Adrienne and Stephanie, of course. ‘We don’t discriminate at all,’ Stephanie laughs when we ask if they have a ‘reds only’ policy. ‘It’s all about empowerment and confidence.’ (That said, we defy you to check out the site and not want to dye your hair red – if only for a while.)
A desire to help redheads feel comfortable and confident in their own skin (or hair, you could say) is at the core of the website, which hopes to dispel the many myths redheads encounter about what you can and can’t wear.
‘We’ve always been told that redheads can’t wear pink, neutral colours, or even red – because why would you wear red when your hair is already red?’ Adrienne says. ‘But we don’t believe that. We think that redheads can wear anything and we prove that a lot with the fashion stories on our site.’
The girls believe it’s all about working with what you’ve got. ‘If I wear something white, I might make my make-up a little bit more intense so I don’t feel washed out, and if I wear a bright blue or something, I’m not going to wear that much make-up because I already have a lot of colour going on.’
It’s basically as simple as ‘getting to know what works for you,’ she suggests. Which is true of any hair colour and skin tone, let’s be honest. Um, how much do we wish there was a site for brunettes and blondes, too?
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The posts vary from super helpful beauty tips – new summer products for redheads and sunburn treatment for redheads – to pithy listicles like all the compliments a redhead gal likes to hear on a date. For Stephanie, her favourite redhead myth-buster is that bright lipstick is out. ‘I love to wear a bright red lip to make my red hair pop even more,’ she says. ‘It’s great because we don’t have to wear a lot of accessories because our hair is the accessory.’
With the amount of empowerment that runs through everything on How To Be a Redhead, it’s no surprise to learn that women with every colour of hair love the site. ‘People will come to us and say, “This site makes me want to be a redhead!”’ Stephanie laughs. ‘They tell us that they come here because it’s about confidence.’
The confident spirit that comes from both sisters is indeed infectious. ‘I love that my red hair makes me stand out,’ Stephanie says. ‘We always say that red hair is more than a colour, it’s a lifestyle. It defines you to such a degree that we just wouldn’t be the same people if it wasn’t for our red hair.’
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There’s never been a better time to be a redhead, it seems – whether you’re embracing your natural ginger, or adding a bit of colour to your hair to make you what the sisters call ‘chosen’ redheads. ‘Those guys weren’t born redheads, but they have their fieriness in them and believe that they were supposed to be redheads, so they dyed their hair red,’ Adrienne says.
Among the women whose flame-haired style they admire are Jessica Chastain, Florence Welch, Amy Adams, Julianne Moore and her daughter Liv Freundlich. ‘It’s very rare to find a mother/daughter duo with beautiful red hair,’ Stephanie notes.
The holy grail of redhead style for both sisters though is former creative director of Moda Operandi, Taylor Tomassi Hill. ‘Her style is just so effortless, and her hair looks like it’s never really been combed, either,’ she says admiringly.
‘At the end of the day, it’s about what you feel comfortable with,’ Adrienne says, on learning to love and embrace the fieriest style. ‘You know, you’re the one in your skin, and it’s about what makes you feel confident.’
If you’ve ever heard a better style principle to live by, red-haired or otherwise, we’d like to hear it.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.