In defence of redheads

I doubt many people reading this have much sympathy for Prince Harry, but spare a thought for those who have become the collateral damage in all the Harry hate: his fellow redheads.

Our precarious fortunes seem to be pegged to the popularity of the most famous male member of our kind. When Harry was loved, people would tell me that he was the ‘only ginger they fancied’, but now that he’s in the doldrums, his hair colour is spat out with scorn. It’s often the first thing people attack about him. Nasty comments about red hair are nothing new. But since the whole ‘Ginge and Whinge’ phenomenon, I’ve heard more negative comments about red hair, in the media and just in ordinary conversation, than I ever have previously. That is certainly not the same for any other hair colour of a controversial figure. In Harry’s case, his hair only seems to add insult to injury.

Francois Mauriceau, writing in 1688, warned in The Diseases of Women with Child that red-haired wet nurses were to be avoided because they were ‘amorous’ and loved to drink wine, which soured their milk

I am curious, what is it about red hair? Is it the bright colour itself which can be polarising to the eye, or is it as J.K.