s/o Craziest things strangers have said to you

[Ginevra]

That I have the nicest "real" boobs that he's ever seen. :tongue_smilie:

They *are* not surgical, and for a middle aged, overweight mom of 3, pretty nice. How he knew that they haven't had an assist :confused:?

 

I have to laugh! A friend of mine who had had a little surgical "help" there got a similar remark about how she wasn't like all those other women with fake booKs. :lol:

 

I dated a guy for a couple of months once and he said something about my "awesome naturally curly hair." I stared at him a minute and said, "my hair isn't naturally curly - it's a perm." He was totally crestfallen! I thought, Gee, you dope. Every 3rd girl has a perm (this was barely out of the 80's) and you assume mine is naturally curly?

[scholarly]

I was holding my 15 month old son at the zoo the other day when a lady asked how old "she" is. I answered that "he" is 15 months. She said, "Oh, sorry. I thought he was a girl with that red hair."

 

I guess only girls are supposed to be strawberry blond!

[Mom-ninja.]

I know nothing about the intricacies of redhead genes, but I know that when I see non-redhead parents with a redhead child that it had to come from somewhere up the line (assuming it's a biological child, which I usually do assume). When a parent is a redhead and has a redhead child, I think, "Cool!" 'Cause doesn't the gene usually skip a generation, and you have to have the genes in both parents or something??? (showing my ignorance)

 

As far as I know there is no red hair in my family. My dad has black hair but all his 8 siblings have blond hair. His parents both had dark blond hair. My mom has dark brown hair as do all her siblings. Her parents both had dark brown hair. I and my siblings have brown hair.

 

My dh has dark brown hair but a red beard (when he grows it out). Two out of his three sisters have red hair. My in-laws did not have red hair. There are 8 grandchildren and three have red hair. So, it's obvious that the red hair comes from DH's family. I once asked my in-laws which one of them the red hair came from and neither of them knew. They just happened to have two red headed kids out of five and now have three redheaded grandchildren out of eight.

 

Here's an even neater twist on the genetics. Both my red headed sils have blue eyes, and my two red headed nieces also have blue eyes. My red headed ds has brown eyes. :lol:

[Jenny in Florida]

I dated a guy for a couple of months once and he said something about my "awesome naturally curly hair." I stared at him a minute and said, "my hair isn't naturally curly - it's a perm." He was totally crestfallen!

 

One summer while I was in college, I briefly dated a guy I met doing market research surveys in the mall. (No, not relevant. I just couldn't get into the story any other way.)

 

We'd been on a couple of dates, and we were having that early-in-the-relationship conversation about why each of us was interested in the other. He told me he'd always wanted to date a redhead.

 

I didn't have the heart to tell him it was dyed. And I just couldn't get over how shallow it was.

 

Needless to say, that was our last date.

[Ginevra]

One summer while I was in college, I briefly dated a guy I met doing market research surveys in the mall. (No, not relevant. I just couldn't get into the story any other way.)

 

We'd been on a couple of dates, and we were having that early-in-the-relationship conversation about why each of us was interested in the other. He told me he'd always wanted to date a redhead.

 

I didn't have the heart to tell him it was dyed. And I just couldn't get over how shallow it was.

 

Needless to say, that was our last date.

 

Yeah, that would end it for me, too. :glare: We didn't last long beyond HairGate, either.

[dangermom]

I saw a little girl at McDonald's today with the most BEAUTIFUL shade of red hair I've ever seen. It was long, too. I immediately thought of this thread and kept my mouth shut.:lol:

Well, that was nice of you; my own little redhead loves her hair, but gets very selfconscious when other people mention it--which of course they do all the time! (And indeed, there is red hair on both sides of the family, though more on mine.)

[eternalknot]

He told me he'd always wanted to date a redhead.

 

I didn't have the heart to tell him it was dyed. And I just couldn't get over how shallow it was.

 

There are guys who hit on me, and I know the only reason why is because of my job or my ethnicity ... both of which they harbor fantasies of "being with" based on long-standing social assumptions. It's usually the younger guys who are attracted to my job, and the older guys (Vietnam War era guys) who are attracted to my ethnicity.

 

I figure shallow is as shallow does; I let them buy me a drink before I knock my job/ethnicity off of the pedestal they've put 'em on LOL.

[Joker]

Well, that was nice of you; my own little redhead loves her hair, but gets very selfconscious when other people mention it--which of course they do all the time! (And indeed, there is red hair on both sides of the family, though more on mine.)

 

Older dd is self-conscious as well when people mention her red hair. People will usually go on and on about her hair and completely ignore younger dd who has brown hair. It makes us all feel bad and sometimes they go on so long I say something. Younger dd has a great attitude about it though.

[goodgollycr]

I know nothing about the intricacies of redhead genes, but I know that when I see non-redhead parents with a redhead child that it had to come from somewhere up the line (assuming it's a biological child, which I usually do assume). When a parent is a redhead and has a redhead child, I think, "Cool!" 'Cause doesn't the gene usually skip a generation, and you have to have the genes in both parents or something??? (showing my ignorance)

 

Ours did skip a generation. My MIL has the red hair. None of her children do. Incidentally her sister has red hair also, but all 4 of her children have red hair and some of their children are red heads.

 

I saw a little girl at McDonald's today with the most BEAUTIFUL shade of red hair I've ever seen. It was long, too. I immediately thought of this thread and kept my mouth shut.:lol:

 

:lol:

 

I was holding my 15 month old son at the zoo the other day when a lady asked how old "she" is. I answered that "he" is 15 months. She said, "Oh, sorry. I thought he was a girl with that red hair."

 

I guess only girls are supposed to be strawberry blond!

 

One of my boys is strawberry. My mom always says it's such a waste on a boy. (said admiringly) My other redhead is auburn.

 

Does it seem that red hair has gone up on the desirability scale? When I was a kid it didn't seem that the comments were all that complimentary.

[Sparkle]

The big family thread made me recall an incident when I was out and about with The Boy, who was maybe 6 months old and sitting up in my ring sling. A lady in Wal-Mart came up to me and asked, "Does he not have any legs, honey?"

 

:001_huh:

 

I just laughed at first, but then I realized that she was serious, so I lifted him out to show her that he did, in fact, have legs. I wonder what she would have said if I had told her that he didn't. What kind of person even asks a question like that?

 

What about you? What crazy things have strangers said to you?

 

:eek: How bizarre!

 

We had someone ask older dd for a lock of her hair. :001_huh: Dd has beautiful red hair and the lady wanted to take it to her beautician to match the color.

 

:svengo: Wow, I wonder what goes through people's minds? Sure, have a lock of hair, we're giving out free samples today! Crazy!

[goodgollycr]

There were studies done or something... so in 1997 (am I remembering this correctly?) there was an announcment made that red hair (the allele for phaemelanin that allows red hair) is a recessive gene. I can see that, but I also wonder if there aren't maybe other things going on with some types of red hair...

 

My dh has a rather rare shade of red hair (that has darkened to nearly brown now that he's older). Dd has this exact shade. I can understand that I may carry a recessive gene for phaemelanin, but the exact shade (and the accompanying skin tone) has *got* to come solely from dh. I think there's something dominant going on in this case, too.

 

Interesting. My mil has auburn, it skipped a generation. I have two. One strawberry, one auburn.

 

My mil's sister was more a red, red. Her four children all had it. Now some of their's do too.

 

I wonder if it makes a difference the type of red it is.

[dangermom]

 

Does it seem that red hair has gone up on the desirability scale? When I was a kid it didn't seem that the comments were all that complimentary.

 

It's become much more fashionable, I think--in the US anyway. When I was in my teens, I lived in Denmark for a while and red hair was still considered a terrible affliction!

 

Older dd is self-conscious as well when people mention her red hair. People will usually go on and on about her hair and completely ignore younger dd who has brown hair. It makes us all feel bad and sometimes they go on so long I say something. Younger dd has a great attitude about it though.

Yeah, my older daughter is a brunette--she has amazing shampoo commercial hair--and no one ever mentions her when they're rhapsodizing over my little one's red hair. It's kind of depressing for all of us, but they're both good sports about it. Maybe someday someone will comment on my daughters' obvious brains and talent!:p

[Scarlett]

Interesting. My mil has auburn, it skipped a generation. I have two. One strawberry, one auburn.

 

My mil's sister was more a red, red. Her four children all had it. Now some of their's do too.

 

I wonder if it makes a difference the type of red it is.

 

See people you keep saying it 'skipped a generation'. According to that study I read the reason some of you don't have red hair is because both parents didn't have the gene!

[Sasharowan]

My mom and 2 of her siblings had some shade of red hair. Mom and her sis were auburn while the youngest brother was flaming red when younger that deepened to a rich red/ auburn as he aged. None of mom or her sis's kids were red, but my uncle had a brunette, a redhead, and a blonde, all girls with blue eyes. Both the brunette and the red head have red head boys.

[tadbhoward]

My toddler has a great scowl. She wears it on her face most of the time when we are out and about, especially in a crowd. At the library a man came up to me and said, "Wow, she has perfected the stink eye! So angry, she is. She's German right?" Huh?

 

My husband's employer forgot to log in that he worked one Monday on a week when he made several hours of overtime even without Monday being entered. When they paid him they paid him regular pay, not overtime pay. They couldn't understand why my dh thought he was owed overtime pay since the day that wasn't logged was Monday, the first day of the work week. They really thought he was trying to scam them out of more money. :confused:

[goodgollycr]

See people you keep saying it 'skipped a generation'. According to that study I read the reason some of you don't have red hair is because both parents didn't have the gene!

 

I see. It has more to do with the other parent than the type of red. If there's red on my side it must go way back. :)

[Forget-Me-Not]

Re the red hair, I have naturally dark blonde hair with a lot of red highlights. DHs hair is almost black. But I've gotten far fewer questions about my girls, come to think of it, since I started dying my hair dark red a few months ago. . .In fact one woman commented on DDs hair and said, "Oh I see she comes by it naturally." I replied, "She does. . . I don't" LOL

Edited July 21, 2011 by LemonPie

[dakarimom5]

Here are my two...

 

When my DH and I first started dating his brother asked him if I was a "real" redhead (I am). DH said yes. BIL didn't believe him so he asked, "what color is her...(carpet)? DH replied,"She doesn't have any...." BIL response? "Then how am I supposed to know if she is a real redhead?":001_huh:

 

Dh and I were at WM one day with DD who is curly blond. We ran into a co-worker of DH's. The man asked my DH how he got a blond child if he has dark brown hair and I am a redhead? My DH's reply? The milkman!

[Tap]

DD4 came to us when she was 5mo. About 2mths after we finalized her adoption, my MIL asked me "are you bringing dd to dinner?" She was 2 years old at the time......:confused: (children are always at every family event) I don't even know if I answered her or not....I was so stunned that she thought we would exclude one of our children from a holiday dinner.

 

 

My sister likes to wear empire waist dresses. SHe has a bit of belly, so while they are comfy to her, she looks very pregnant in them (my sister doesn't think she looks pg). One day, we were in a baby department shopping for my son. The sales lady was loudly talking to my sis, trying to sign her up for a baby promotion. Saying things like "when your baby is born..." MY sister declined. The sales lady kept after her, yelling across the department all the details of the program. My sister, who had been declining graciously, was getting a bit miffed and finally YELLed back "I'M NOT PG-leave me alone!!!". The lady gasps and crawled back in her hole.

 

In about 2mths time when I was 30 ish, my mother told me

"you look better now that your butt is getting bigger" and "you were the prettiest when you were a teenager with long hair". Gee, thanks mom. After the butt comment, I told her that she was to never (!) discuss or comment on my body ever again.

 

My mother who is naturally thin and my sister who is in xl sizes, were at a my sister's drs appointment (I don't know why mom was there). My mother told the dr that my sister "D was much prettier when she was skinny". :001_huh:

 

When dd 4 was a baby, I had several Asians tell me that dd4 looked like me. LOL :lol: It was funny to me because I am a tall thin, blue-eyed blond and resemble someone like Meg Ryan. DD4 is very Native American looking with a gorgeous dark complexion, dark brown almond shaped eyes and long dark hair. She had massive cheeks as a baby and was very, rolly poly round. LOL There is not a thing about us that looks a like. I guess it was an Asian version of 'all Americans look alike. :D It never offended me, I just laughed.

Edited July 21, 2011 by Tap, tap, tap

[FlockOfSillies]

Yes, he's full Korean.

 

My oldest dd is strawberry blonde, with freckles and very fair skin, but neither dh nor I are redheads. DH has some red in his beard, though. I have a couple of uncles with red hair ("Big Red" and "Little Red" -- seriously). So I think it's just a recessive gene showing up.

[La Condessa]

My aunt is Japanese, and when she saw my newborn baby with a full head of hair, she said, "But aren't all white babies bald?" A bit later, when she learned that my husband is part hispanic, she proclaimed that that explained it!

[Lolly]

See people you keep saying it 'skipped a generation'. According to that study I read the reason some of you don't have red hair is because both parents didn't have the gene!

 

I have a feeling it is much more complicated than that. The article was treating it as a basic dominant recessive case. Most things involving color/texture involve more than that.

 

The red skips a generation in my family. I have two red headed (auburn) siblings and a couple of red headed (carrot top) cousins. I also have red headed great-uncles on my father's side. No reds in my children's generation (though you can see the red possibility fairly strong in the hair). My dad tells me that none of his greats had red. He expects great grandchildren with red. I won't be surprised if it happens!

 

Oddly, on my mother's side they swear there is only my aunt with red hair. Hers comes from a bottle. I know of no red there for at least 4 generations. (Small town:lol:. They still don't tend to move away.) Of course, there could always be a little red from the wood pile...

[TracieT]

When dd 4 was a baby, I had several Asians tell me that dd4 looked like me. LOL :lol: It was funny to me because I am a tall thin, blue-eyed blond and resemble someone like Meg Ryan. DD4 is very Native American looking with a gorgeous dark complexion, dark brown almond shaped eyes and long dark hair. She had massive cheeks as a baby and was very, rolly poly round. LOL There is not a thing about us that looks a like. I guess it was an Asian version of 'all Americans look alike. :D It never offended me, I just laughed.

 

That's funny because the only person who has ever said anything about either of my kids (adopted) looking like me was an Asian lady. She told me my youngest looked just like me. I'm white, reddish brown straight hair, fair skin, green eyes. Ds has darker skin than me, dark brown curly hair and big brown eyes.

[TracieT]

I don't know why my last post as that little, red angry face at the top and I dn't know how to fix it! I'm not angry!

[SunD]

Here's an even neater twist on the genetics. Both my red headed sils have blue eyes, and my two red headed nieces also have blue eyes. My red headed ds has brown eyes. :lol:

 

Oh! I had totally forgotten about this!

 

We had our 2 DDs, niece, and nephew at the zoo. Older DD has medium brown hair with a reddish tint, younger DD is sort of dark dirty blonde, nephew's hair is auburn and niece's is very pure red.

 

An old lady followed us for a long time. At first I thought she was trying to decide whether all 4 were ours because I look really young. But finally she walked up to us and said "So sad. The beautiful redheads could have USED those lovely hazel eyes, and they were wasted on the dingy brunettes!" :001_huh:

[Scarlett]

I have a feeling it is much more complicated than that. The article was treating it as a basic dominant recessive case. Most things involving color/texture involve more than that.

 

The red skips a generation in my family. I have two red headed (auburn) siblings and a couple of red headed (carrot top) cousins. I also have red headed great-uncles on my father's side. No reds in my children's generation (though you can see the red possibility fairly strong in the hair). My dad tells me that none of his greats had red. He expects great grandchildren with red. I won't be surprised if it happens!

 

Oddly, on my mother's side they swear there is only my aunt with red hair. Hers comes from a bottle. I know of no red there for at least 4 generations. (Small town:lol:. They still don't tend to move away.) Of course, there could always be a little red from the wood pile...

 

From this link many pages back---

 

http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=245

 

So there you have it. Recessive traits like red hair can skip generations because they can hide out in a carrier behind a dominant trait. The recessive trait needs another carrier and a bit of luck to be seen. This means that it can sometimes take a few generations to finally make its presence known.

 

It seems pretty straight forward to me. If there are no carriers or redheads in both parents you won’t get a redhead.

 

 

Then again I am not a scientist.

[Scarlett]

I had the Chinese owner of our local Chinese restaurant ask me if I am Asian. I am darkheaded, greeneyed...light skinned...

 

Then oddly enough a few weeks later dds11 had a kid in his music camp ask him if he is Chinese. He has big round eyes.

[lailasmum]

My sister and I were always asked if we were twins, constantly. We are two years apart but I came to the conclusion that I just look really young since I still get id checked on a regular basis and I am 32.

I think that overruled any times when she was obviously a toddler while I was obviously not, that kind of thing, and she used to use it to her advantage as she used to get into the bar where I worked because everyone assumed she was over 18 because they knew I was and thought we were twins.

 

On the subject of red hair, both my sister and i have red hair but different types of red, my sister's is dark auburn and leans towards the brown end of the scale and very coarse whereas mine is much lighter, more true ginger with blonde high lights. We have the same parents. Plus my sister went grey at 25 and I don't have a single grey hair and I am the eldest.

 

Both dh nd I have red hair in our families so we expected red haired kids but they are blonde.

Edited July 21, 2011 by lailasmum

[Sputterduck]

DD4 came to us when she was 5mo. About 2mths after we finalized her adoption, my MIL asked me "are you bringing dd to dinner?" She was 2 years old at the time......:confused: (children are always at every family event) I don't even know if I answered her or not....I was so stunned that she thought we would exclude one of our children from a holiday dinner.

 

 

My sister likes to wear empire waist dresses. SHe has a bit of belly, so while they are comfy to her, she looks very pregnant in them (my sister doesn't think she looks pg). One day, we were in a baby department shopping for my son. The sales lady was loudly talking to my sis, trying to sign her up for a baby promotion. Saying things like "when your baby is born..." MY sister declined. The sales lady kept after her, yelling across the department all the details of the program. My sister, who had been declining graciously, was getting a bit miffed and finally YELLed back "I'M NOT PG-leave me alone!!!". The lady gasps and crawled back in her hole.

 

In about 2mths time when I was 30 ish, my mother told me

"you look better now that your butt is getting bigger" and "you were the prettiest when you were a teenager with long hair". Gee, thanks mom. After the butt comment, I told her that she was to never (!) discuss or comment on my body ever again.

 

My mother who is naturally thin and my sister who is in xl sizes, were at a my sister's drs appointment (I don't know why mom was there). My mother told the dr that my sister "D was much prettier when she was skinny". :001_huh:

 

When dd 4 was a baby, I had several Asians tell me that dd4 looked like me. LOL :lol: It was funny to me because I am a tall thin, blue-eyed blond and resemble someone like Meg Ryan. DD4 is very Native American looking with a gorgeous dark complexion, dark brown almond shaped eyes and long dark hair. She had massive cheeks as a baby and was very, rolly poly round. LOL There is not a thing about us that looks a like. I guess it was an Asian version of 'all Americans look alike. :D It never offended me, I just laughed.

My son is Irish Korean.

Caucasian people used to say that my son looked like my husband, who is Korean, when we were still together. Asian people always say my son looks just like me and I'm Irish. I think he's got my chin and mouth and my personality (lol) but that's about it.

[TracieT]

I really think the reason people think a child looks like his parent whether he does or not is because they take on so many of our facial expressions. I notice silly things my kids do and then later realize I do the exact same thing. So even though they don't look a thing like me, we make the exact same expressions.

[Paige]

When my youngest was about 3 weeks old I had her in a little pouch carrier at the library with my other kids. She was tiny, probably under 6lbs at that age, but full term, healthy, strong, etc. As we were checking out the books, she got a little fussy so I got her out and let my mom hold her for a minute. Some lady behind me who had been in story time with us jumped and made a shocked sound, and then said, "I thought you had a puppy in there!!" :lol:

 

When my identical twins were about 3 I had a stranger come up, tell me they were cute, and then asked, right in front of them, which one was the evil one. :001_huh:

[gardening momma]

My sister and I were always asked if we were twins, constantly. We are two years apart but I came to the conclusion that I just look really young since I still get id checked on a regular basis and I am 32.

My older sister and I are 26 months apart. When we were elementary age, people used to ask if we were twins. It didn't happen when we were teenagers, but when I was in 10th grade and she was in 12th, someone thought I was the older one. I lorded that over her for quite a while! :lol:

[zaichiki]

From this link many pages back---

 

http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=245

 

So there you have it. Recessive traits like red hair can skip generations because they can hide out in a carrier behind a dominant trait. The recessive trait needs another carrier and a bit of luck to be seen. This means that it can sometimes take a few generations to finally make its presence known.

 

It seems pretty straight forward to me. If there are no carriers or redheads in both parents you won’t get a redhead.

 

 

Then again I am not a scientist.

 

I still think there's something else going on there... maybe our scientists just haven't found it yet.

 

ETA: I'm wondering about a layering of hair color genes, actually, where the red either is or isn't present, but the underlying brown or blonde or what-have-you determines the shade of red. And maybe there are a few genes that determine the different shades... and maybe some are linked with a gene determining skin/eye color. What about incomplete dominance?

 

I've got to get that "red" book!

Edited July 21, 2011 by zaichiki

[Scarlett]

I still think there's something else going on there... maybe our scientists just haven't found it yet.

ETA: I'm wondering about a layering of hair color genes, actually, where the red either is or isn't present, but the underlying brown or blonde or what-have-you determines the shade of red. And maybe there are a few genes that determine the different shades... and maybe some are linked with a gene determining skin/eye color. What about incomplete dominance?

 

I've got to get that "red" book!

 

 

Well that is entirely possible! (the bolded)

 

The 'red' book, IIR, was more of a celebration of redheads from all over. Lots of gorgeous pic...the genetic explanation was not the main reason for the book...I just found it interesting. I can't remember the name!

[Jennifer3141]

I have a strawberry blonde son who to this day gets called a girl frequently. The thing is, he looks like a boy - a total boyish boy. For some reason, people think strawberry blonde = girl. :confused:

 

The weirdest thing a stranger ever said to me was when I was in a Meijer's with my DH. He'd clearly just come from ths hospital, he was still in his scrubs and had all his medical stuff in his pockets, etc.

This guy walked up to us and looked at me and asked if I was married to "the doctor." I answered affirmatively and then he asked DH if DH liked "performing autopsies" on me every night.

 

Uh. Ew. We guessed it was some weird sex thing for the guy but there's nothing particularly sexy about an autopsy. Ew.

 

So every once in awhile, when we fight DH warns me that he's going to start hacking things open if I don't back off. :D "It's autopsy time!"

[Lolly]

I still think there's something else going on there... maybe our scientists just haven't found it yet.

 

ETA: I'm wondering about a layering of hair color genes, actually, where the red either is or isn't present, but the underlying brown or blonde or what-have-you determines the shade of red. And maybe there are a few genes that determine the different shades... and maybe some are linked with a gene determining skin/eye color. What about incomplete dominance?

 

I've got to get that "red" book!

 

http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/92/3/125.full

 

This article is pretty good. Basically (to oversimplify), it isn't so simple as straight Mendelian genetics (as the first article linked suggested). We really just don't know.

[zaichiki]

http://qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/92/3/125.full

 

This article is pretty good. Basically (to oversimplify), it isn't so simple as straight Mendelian genetics (as the first article linked suggested). We really just don't know.

 

Thank you Lolly! Off to read -

 

ETA: I caught this: Furthermore the mode of inheritance of the red-hair phenotype was not clear: in some individuals two variants were found, each on a different allele compatible with a recessive model, whereas in others only one variant allele was identified, while in still others multiple changes were found on one allele.

Am I right to understand that scientists did a genetic study and found (in the group of red-haired people) that some had two recessive alleles, while others had only one? Meaning the allele was dominant? (And the third group had a mutation?)

Edited July 22, 2011 by zaichiki

[mandymom]

I thought of another one. When we found out we were expecting DD, we took a photo of a hotdog bun in our oven and mixed it in with some generic prints of our kids. We handed the stack of photos to DH's grandma and she got to the bun photo and promptly looked up at me and said, "is this your oven?" - to which I replied "yes". She then shook her head and said, "it's kind of dirty" and continued on with the photos. At this point, MIL stops her and says "do you realize what that photo means?" and she says "yeah, you're getting pretty old"!!

 

 

 

When I found out I was pregnant with my (surprise) youngest ds, I decided to send my mom a card that said "To the best grandmother of 8 that there ever was" thinking that I would get a call (she lives 4 hours away) as soon as she got it because, before the pregnancy, she only had 7 grandkids. So I wait and I wait and I wait. I never get a phone call. I called my sister to tell her the news and also to ask her if my mom had mentioned the card. She said she hadn't mentioned it but was SURE that my mom must not have seen it because it would be so obvious to her. So I called my mom. I asked if she had gotten the card, and she said had but added "You can't count though". I said, "Yes, I can." I still took her a few seconds to figure it out :001_smile:

[Lovemyblessings]

Well, that was nice of you; my own little redhead loves her hair, but gets very selfconscious when other people mention it--which of course they do all the time! (And indeed, there is red hair on both sides of the family, though more on mine.)

 

I was this way when I was young also. And it drove me' NUTS when people would ask me' where I got my red hair or freckles especially when I was with my dad who resembles a genuine leprochaun. Duh people....

[Laura Corin]

 

I've also been asked if my girls were twins. I guess I could get past the fact that one is blonde and fair while the other is brunette and a darker tone, but one was a 25lb baby while the other was a 40lb toddler.

 

 

They are three-and-a-half years apart in age, plus the elder has always been very tall and the younger on the short side. I think that because of the one-child policy, people in China were no longer used to recognising siblings who were not twins.

 

Laura

[Laura Corin]

Not really. I know of a mom who is white with red hair and an African American husband and they have dark skinned red heads.

 

 

If you think about African-American history, it's often for very unpleasant reasons. I remember watching 'Roots' as a child, and when the lead character got to the village he believed his ancestors came from, one of the things that struck him was how very black their skins were, compared to African-Americans.

 

Laura

[Mom-ninja.]

Thank you Lolly! Off to read -

 

ETA: I caught this: Furthermore the mode of inheritance of the red-hair phenotype was not clear: in some individuals two variants were found, each on a different allele compatible with a recessive model, whereas in others only one variant allele was identified, while in still others multiple changes were found on one allele.

Am I right to understand that scientists did a genetic study and found (in the group of red-haired people) that some had two recessive alleles, while others had only one? Meaning the allele was dominant? (And the third group had a mutation?)

 

That's what it sounds like.

[Ksol]

I saw a little girl at McDonald's today with the most BEAUTIFUL shade of red hair I've ever seen. It was long, too. I immediately thought of this thread and kept my mouth shut.:lol:

That was nice of you :) Honestly, I love all the beautiful red hair comments. LOVE them. But at the same time, my three year old gets so tired of hearing it several times a day. Half the time she tells me after that she didn't like that mean person talking to her. I try to explain they were not being mean, they were trying to be nice, but since she doesn't like all the attention, that is not her view of it.. I absolutely LOVE the rare person who realizes that she gets so much attention from strangers and points out something nice to say about my other kids because my other daughter especially feels ugly in comparison. :( (and she is just as beautiful!!)

[TracieT]

I do notice that when I usually comment on a child's hair or if they have extraordinary eyes they give me a look and I always say "I bet everyone tells you that, don't they?" And I have never asked anyone where it came from! I think that's the strangest thing to ask someone, especially a stranger! I mean, who even cares? If they say "My mother's aunt had this color hair" well, who cares?!

[Scarlett]

I do notice that when I usually comment on a child's hair or if they have extraordinary eyes they give me a look and I always say "I bet everyone tells you that, don't they?" And I have never asked anyone where it came from! I think that's the strangest thing to ask someone, especially a stranger! I mean, who even cares? If they say "My mother's aunt had this color hair" well, who cares?!

 

Maybe this is a regional thing? Because I have been known to ask it and I've heard it asked all my life....never with ill intent...It is just one of those things people say---all they really want to do is reach out and communicate with people--strangers---and it is their way of doing that and saying, 'wow what beautiful hair.'

[TracieT]

Maybe this is a regional thing? Because I have been known to ask it and I've heard it asked all my life....never with ill intent...It is just one of those things people say---all they really want to do is reach out and communicate with people--strangers---and it is their way of doing that and saying, 'wow what beautiful hair.'

 

That's true. It's probably just a way of making conversation.