Love yourself before you can love anyone else.
At one time or another, we have all been given this advice.
It might have been amid our adolescence, or when our first relationship came to an end, or when we began navigating through the rough patches of our adult lives. In any case, this is a basic principle that I wish I had utilized much sooner.
Each redhead has their own story about when it was that they started embracing their red hair. For me, this did not happen until I was in my mid-twenties. So, for years, I had become accustomed to looking down at my feet in a crowd, not wanting to stand out. I was selfishly wallowing in my own discomfort in my appearance and focusing on how awful I felt about myself. The second that I began to open my eyes and look at my hair as something unique and different, I was noticing that I wasn’t likely the only one trudging through this battle.
The biggest advantage to this epiphany is that once you love your own red hair, you’re able to appreciate others for their red hair too!
Suddenly, you’ll walk by other redheads in public and admire their shade of red, giving them a knowing glance that you understand what life is like for them. There truly is an unspoken connection between all of us redheads, which we do take for granted if we are always looking down on ourselves.
However, by loving and accepting ourselves for everything that we are- red hair, freckles, pale complexions, light eyelashes and all- we can then learn how to support each other. I have found that the redhead community is one of great comfort and positivity, where you simply cannot be judged. This is because everyone in the community has experienced a lot of the same things that you have, and they will always welcome you.
Now in my late twenties, I enjoy these unspoken connections daily. Sometimes, all it takes is a smile from a fellow redhead walking past, or a small redheaded child in the grocery store to look up at you to make you feel content and lucky to be a redhead!
