Truth About Red-Headed People

Southland Times, Issue 23838, 8 June 1939, Page 14

Truth About Red-Headed People

Both Compelling And Vital

You may love or hate red-headed people, but you cannot ignore them, comments an Australian writer. There is something compelling about their personalities. Often they are arrogant as well as vital. What part in character does their unusual colouring play? The story of a woman who was said to have lost her man to a redhead was told recently in'a Melbourne court. Sueing him for £499, she alleged she had discovered that the “other woman” in his life had Titian hair—a great mis- ' fortune, which caused her to give up all hope of keeping him for herself! Red hair is the fashionable colour for women this winter, and though “roseblonde” is the newest, “port-wine red” is the finest shade of all. The blondes and brunettes, even the champagne blondes, have thus to retire gracefully into the background, or adopt the all-conquering henna. With this decree of fashion, it would appear that although Paris still dominates the manner of female dress, it is the United States which rules the matter of hair dressing, for red hair has been the vogue in America for the last six months, due, it is alleged by some, to the craze for colour photography in the films. For red hair, with the curious white transparent skin which accompanies it in its natural form, gives more pleasing effects than either a dark or a fair coiffure.

Easy as the new colour is to acquire, it is not so easy to acquire the attributes of those who are to the manner born, belonging to those whose admirers call the shade “Titian,” “red-gold,” “auburn” or "copper,” and whose detractors hurl at them the uncomplimentary “ginger” or “carrots.” According to the psychologists, red hair goes with a definitely strong personality. The titian-crowned are fiery, impulsive, imaginative and intelligent, as well as, sensitive and proud, but not always to be trusted. This last is no modem discovery of today. It dates back for centuries and has been enshrined in verse, like “Beneath red hair Lies guile and snare.” While another author voices his opinion in the quatrain, “I’ve rarely seen a tall man wise, Nor a short man lusty, Nor a short man meek and mild, Nor a red man trusty.” Certain proverbs also show up the red heads’ shortcomings: “Fiery head, fiery temper,” says the Midlands. “Red hair, hot temper.” The French declare, “Lodge not in the house of red-headed people.” They are also distrusted in Norway and Sweden. The Lord Chief Justice of England, Lord Hewart, is credited with the observation that red-heads are more liable to suicide than other people, a fact denied by Sir Arbuthnot Lane, who avers that they have more vitality than brunettes.

An investigation by an American university showed that they have more brains and are more studious than blondes or brunettes. An American physician, Dr. Dawkins, has stated that they take longer to anaesthetise than their dark or fair contemporaries. Sir Frederick Still even says they are more liable to St. Vitus’ dance and another authority avers that they blister more readily than people with differently coloured hair. From time immemorial red-heads have stood out among their contemporaries. Queen Hetepheres, who lived in the thirty-first century, 8.C., had red hair, while Helen of Troy, the classic vamp, was another. Another woman whose auburn hair played havoc with man’s hearts was Cleopatra. And don't forget red-haired Salome, or Sappho of the "burning hair.” Coming down to more modem times and the famous names in British history, five of our sovereigns had ruddy hair. William of Normandy was the first, and his son, Rufus, the most cruel and wicked of the Norman kings, was the second, while Henry VIII.’s ruddy hair, immortalised by Holbein, was transmitted to his daughter, Elizabeth, who, however bewiaged she was in later life, always emphasised the redness of her natural colour. Mary, Queen of Scots, too, was as auburn as her English rival an 1 kinswoman. Thought of England’s sovereigns in-

evitably suggests Charles H.’s favourite, Nell Gwyn, while a modem royal favourite is Madame Lupescu, who has played so prominent a part in the life of King Carol of Rumania. It has been said that in the days when her influence roused most antagonism among his people, she had no fewer than twelve women made up to resemble her as closely as possible in order to safeguard her from attack. Shakespeare had ruddy hair. So had Swinburne. The red-haired tradition in literature is emphasised to-day by Mr. George Bernard Shaw, whose hair and beard flamed among the Fabians at the end of last century. Other well-known writers are Miss Elinor Glyn and Mr. Sinclair Lewis, probably the only red-haired author to win the Nobel prize. Great writers have, likewise, immortalised those whose hair is red —among them Fagin and Uriah Heep are conspicuous among men, while Becky Sharp flourishes among the women. On the stage some shade of auburn is frequently selected for a comic character and in the days when Shylock was so regarded, he was always acted in a flaming red wig. In art, Mr. Augustus John represents the red-heads and Paderewski, still one of the world’s greatest pianists, in spite of his 70 years and more, stands for music, though he is white now. A prominent place must be accorded to Miss Elizabeth Siddal, who was Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s famous model, sitting to him during the most prolific period of his artistic activity from 1852 until she became his wife in 1860. “The redgold cataract of her streaming hair” is a conspicuous feature in his pictures. The stage has been prolific in redheaded actresses. Among them are Sarah Bernhardt, undoubtedly the greatest of them all, while in the list of the moderns are Fay Compton, who has more than once been asked what dye she uses to obtain her characteristic colour.

Clara Bow, the creator of “It”; Jane Welsh; Billie Burke; Anna Lee; Katherine Hepburn; Janet Gaynor; Myrna Loy; Marjorie Mars, and, of course, Ginger Rogers.