The Big Redhead Book: Inside the Secret Society of Red Hair

by Erin La Rosa

The Big Redhead Book: Inside the Secret Society of Red Hair is an inside look into one of the most elite societies in the world—the real two percent. Well, you know, the two percent of the world's population that are natural redheads, at least. This book has equal parts pop culture, ginger facts, and humorous stories about what it's like to actually have red hair. It's loaded with everything you'd ever want to know about us reds; how we're scientifically different from the norms (non-redheads), how we've been stereotyped in pop culture, and the do's and don'ts of having a red in your life, among other things!
Whether you are a redhead, know a redhead, or are just an enthusiast, this book explores the realities, the myths, and where red hair actually originates (it's not Ireland). Author Erin La Rosa not only delivers the facts, statistics, and undeniable realities of being a ginger, but she also weaves in her own personal and hilarious stories about being red. Being a redhead is not just a hair color, it's a lifestyle—and this book is your own exclusive peek into that fabulous world.
Some surprising facts about redheads that you will discover include:
- The association between redheads and humor came from redheaded slaves in ancient Greece
- There are over 30 leading or recurring redhead characters in Disney and Pixar films… that's a lot when you remember we're only two percent of the world's population!
- Redhead women allegedly have more sex, more threesomes, and more orgasms than other women…or do they? Let's find out!
- Some Egyptian rulers dyed their hair red to assert their power (looking at you, Cleopatra)
- And redheads need more anesthesia at the dentist, because they're not going down without a fight.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor

240 pages, Hardcover

First published August 22, 2017

About the author

ERIN LA ROSA is the author of Plot Twist and For Butter or Worse, and on her way to writing romance, she’s also published two humorous nonfiction books, Womanskills and The Big Redhead Book. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and four daughters (two humans, two felines). Find her on Twitter and Instagram @erinlarosalit and on TikTok @erinlarosawrites.

Be sure to follow Erin on BookBub for the latest sales as well https://www.bookbub.com/authors/erin-...

Reviews

[Scarlet Cameo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book can also be title "Been a Red Hair is f***ing awesome...and you know it" 'cause this is a little travel trough the science of being ginger and how we are saw around the world.

Since I'm a kid my hair is red, more like (according to a random fashion magazine) cinnamon or ginger and when I grow up I decide use all the traditional hair color until I ended with a bright red that I love it, but when I was a sweet child I dont' get why my hair must have that undescrible colour so didn't like me, more when my sister was kind of blonde, my mom has an incredible brown hair, and the rest of my family were between that tones, which increase the fact that I didn't exactly fix (I blame that I was so clumsy, and quiet but when I talk I did at hyperfast mode).

This book also remind me that there's so many people with a mutation at the MC1R gene, and they look really different: dark skin, ultra pale, latin, africans and europeans. Increase their faces with a product or are naturally red hair, all of them gorgeous people that now know that aren't alone (actully almost 40% of population has a little of a red hair in their genes)...and that not of all them are witches :D.







A digital copy of this book was provided by NetGalley

[3 no 7 · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Big Redhead Book” is a great funny book, inspired by life as a person with red hair. It was a quick read, and enjoyable every step of the way. This is not a formula book with an overwhelming bunch of uninteresting facts just strung together to make readers think they are interesting; this information actually is interesting. And, I am not saying this just because I am a redhead. Well, maybe I am, but so what!
This book has many fun examples that reinforce society’s viewpoint about people with red hair, both those with natural red hair and those with “augmented” red hair. “Gingers” as redheads are sometimes called, are different from everyone else, and again, I am not saying this just because I am a redhead. There is science to back this up. Redheads are actually physically and genetically different from everyone else, thanks to the MC1R gene. This gene mutation means that redheads produce a protein called pheomelanin instead of melanin, and that makes that wonderful red hair color. Take THAT you disbelievers.

I received a copy of “The Big Redhead Book” from Erin La Rosa, St Martin’s Press, and NetGalley in exchange for my review. Seriously, this is a entertaining book to read, both for those with red hair and for those who know someone with red hair. But, be careful, you might just laugh out loud as you read.

[Allie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun read! As someone who isn't a redhead, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book when I was given an advance copy by the publisher.

La Rosa is a hilarious writer and what could have been dry facts were funny and engaging and made me actually LOL. I especially loved the chapter on what makes redheads physically different from everyone else. Who knew they can sense hot and cold better than everyone else?! I will look at red heads differently now and maybe I want to dye my hair red again?!?

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who says blondes have more fun? This book was hilarious and informative. As a brunette myself, this book taught me a lot about my redhead friends and their history and rarity. I'll never look at a redhead (IRL or cartoon) the same way again! Definitely recommend for a funny, quick read.

[EO · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun and funny trip through the history, culture, and science of redheads! The author has a great grasp of the subject matter, and a really fun comic tone. Highly recommend to those with red hair, those who aspire to have red hair, and those who love folks with red hair.

[April Davila · Rating 5 out of 5]

La Rosa is one of my favorite non-fiction writers and this book doesn't disappoint. It made me want to be a redhead. Seriously.

[Tiffany Tran · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author is so witty and super hilarious, I was completely engaged from start to finish! Buying a copy for all my ginger friends, i learned so much from this book!!

[PJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a natural redhead, I am always interested in reading more about my uniqueness! ;) Unfortunately, the sampler I received was 99.9% what I had already read elsewhere. However, I am still interested in reading the rest of the book. I would recommend this book to anyone who hasn't already read about redheads or others interested in learning more about them.

[Valerity (Val) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was kind of a quick, cutesy ode to all things redhead, mentioning examples of famous and infamous reds throughout history. It might be a fun gift for your favorite redhead, most of us have at least one or more of them in our lives that we treasure. Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Griffin, and the author for giving me an ARC in return for my review.

[Angy Potter - Collector of Book Boyfriends · Rating 2 out of 5]

Now what I expected.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

{3.5} A quick & sassy read about why being a redhead is pretty awesome. :) I doubt non-redheads would find this very exciting though.

[Rebecca Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

truly one of the best redhead books I have found! as a read head female raising a redhead male I found the information in this book spot on. I know the redhead gene was only discovered in the late nineties but I do hope more research becomes available. reading about us magical unicorns is just fascinating!
I have a small collection now and I really appreciate that the author has kept true to the Real vs fake reds. I have read several book with more information on fakes and that's not what I'm looking for. so if your looking for the real deal red then I suggest you grab this book to start.

[Justin McFarr · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun book! Who doesn't love the 2% of the world's population? Redhead facts, fables, freckles, and fabulosity! A terrific read.

[Becky Feldman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was SUCH a fun read and Erin La Rosa did an incredible job compiling facts, figures and her own insights to show what it's like to be a redhead and how people perceive you. It's funny, empowering and makes a great gift for any redhead and redhead admirer.

[Alison White · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much! I'm a natural redhead and I always love hearing stories from other Redheads and how they have embraced their hair. This book is filled with great tips and secrets about the community of redheads. If you are a redhead then you should definitely buy this book. Erin La Ross is definitely a redhead genius #redheadsunite

[ギーカミ BOOKMARK°S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, past-me didn't expect to ever end up writing a review on a book that is primarily about a hair color, but here we are, so yeah, enjoy. 👨🏻‍🦰👩🏻‍🦰

My unordered thoughts:
- The book is a tad bit too much self-praising/indulgent, sometimes to a degree that is misleading: The MC1R mutation that causes red hair is also correlated to lighter skin - which in turns allows for a higher vitamin D production (p. 13). That fact is presented as a super big advantage and celebrated. This is not wrong, but it is not at all mentioned that at the same time lighter skin has also a disadvantage: Less protection against the harmful rays of the sun, that can cause skin cancer. I don't say that overall lighter skin is better or worse, but only mentioning the positive side of things even if it comes at a detrimental cost in other circumstances is not objective or scientific enough to claim to have an "evolutionary advantage" (generally speaking).
Many other "advantages" like more pain-threshold are miniscule and pretty much meaningless in everyday life.

- Sometimes I think that - apart from being partially subjective but still phrasing it as a logical arguments - that the points given conflict with each other. E. g. at one point La Rosa says, that as a parent you should make clear that your red-haired child is more than just its hair, and generally she gives of the impression, that gingers don't want to be called that way or be reduced to their hair as the feature that defines them. But then she goes on to say, that you can tell other people

"Mine is the little redhead", is an easy way to tell someone which kid is yours.

I mean, to be fair, you are its parent and thus have more right to call your child that, but still it seem that in order to find as many pro-points for her kind she stretches and bends logic differently to her needs in every instance (or she forgot what she preached beforehand).

- Many things are mentioned repeatedly, which makes the book repetitive and boring to read at times. The same fact or kind of gag is mentioned several times in succession even.

- I have nothing against trivia, but: It often feels like I'm reading a list of semi- or pseudoscientific assumptions that support the authors subjective opinions. At least they are openly claimed as such, but I'd still would have wanted to get more pragmatic rules of thumbs or experiences redheads share instead of this force-feeding of Mrs. La Rosa's views/preferences upon the reader.

- I really enjoyed the quotes of other persons of interests! The people picked seemed quite known and relevant, and the contents of what they said fit into the chapters and were interesting in and of themselves.

While the rest of the species is descended from apes, redheads are descended from cats. - Mark Twain

The section about historic figures with red hair was just as interesting and entertaining! :) (For the record: I skimmed over the make-up parts though.)

- Overall too much commendation imho. Don't know what I expected, but sometimes I feel like it's borderline racist (in the sense of stating that generally (not even statistically) gingers are more attractive/healthy than the norm). It's one thing to state that in a closed circle of friends or in private, but writing this into a published book is a bit bold. Generalization is always a bit sketchy. But due to the fact that I cringed so hard about those passages, they don't really make me seriously critical about the ethics:

Let's all sing "We're the best, arounddd… " (p. 177)

(This is not taken out of context, btw). The absoluteness and grandeur in which La Rosa speaks of reds and their hair, sometimes give me Trump-speech vibes. She uses just the bestest of words for the bestest of people..

'[...] it's essentially suggesting we're unwanted. And as we've all learned, that's just false. Everyone wants us. And if someone says they don't want us, it just means they' re afraid we'd reject them' (p. 189)

or the suggested compliment

'I'm thinking of funding a study based om my theory that all redheads are smarter then the rest of the population' (p. 189)

Yeah no, if you claim all members of an unspecific group of people that you are a part of are smart, then you refuted yourself. Even if at the end of the day, red hair does look out of the ordinary and special.

- The author makes many situations seem like only reds go through them, and thus only them can relate to it. Obviously there are many other groups of people and especially minorities that go through situations of feeling alienated by societies or "normies", regardless if you stick out visually or because of the way your personality is.

- The "how to respond" to inappropriate behavior sections are a funny idea, the suggestions are often cringy or cheesy though. A bit cheesiness is okay, but some would be downright embarrassing to hear and maybe even reinforce the general impression that redheads are feisty and cheeky - which is the stigma that the book deems bad. Have a taste:

When someone tries to suggest you're kissed by fire, put out the flames with these: [...] "I wanna do bad things to you, like stab you with this fork."

People ask dumb questions most of the time out of curiosity, not because of malevolence, so it should be stated that answering boring, nicely or honestly can also be an option. What I want to say is: Those proposed rebellious reactions make the author seem more insecure and self-conscious then strong willed. Offensive or inappropriate questions by strangers can and propably should be retaliated by likewise answers of course, but staying cool-headed (even as a red-head …sorry) can be more effective in the end, if you ask me.

-Some discussions were pretty interesting, especially the realization that redhead women are associated with rather positive properties (fierce temperament, high sex appeal), but ginger men with rather negative attributes. The media portrais the women mostly as independent, often femme fatal character or strong willed heroines, but men often as either antagonists or weak comedic-relief side kicks. It tries to analyze the reasoning about that, and even though it doesn't come to a final conclusion, it embraces ginger men's potential to be alluring.

- The section about bullying was actually quite informative and up to the quality standard of writing, that I expected from the book. Also the last chapter was quite entertaining and more embracing/celebrating red hair then sounding exclusive/elitist about it, like in previous chapters.

[Casey McDermott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and witty but definitely lacking in substance. Slightly repetitive and relies heavily on the audience not having prior knowledge of the history of redheads.

[Nannette Demmler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this book a few months ago, when I was looking for books that had main characters with red hair. I had no idea that there was a nonfiction book about my hair color and I was intrigued enough that I knew I had to get my hands on it. And I wasn’t disappointed. This was truly a very interesting book, especially the science part of it. I actually learned quite a bit from it.

The book goes into many aspects of people with red hair. You can find the genetics, the myths and cultural stereotypes as well as some basic beauty tips. It was a very comprehensive study of what it means to be a redhead.

I especially really enjoyed the genetics aspect of the book. I had always known that red hair was a recessive gene, but I didn’t know that that gene has a mutation that makes the hair red. It also doesn’t skip generations. You really have to have the right combination of genes to get the elusive red hair. I now know that there was only a 25% chance that my two dark haired brunette parents could produce a female redhead. It was probably even a smaller chance that they would produce a redheaded boy, but they did that too! Redhead males are apparently rarer than the girls. I am also part of the exclusive club of blue eyed redheads (only .17%) Which I was surprised at as well. (My brother’s were brown) Neither of us have children with red hair, although I think if I had had more than one child, I might have had a better success rate. My husband’s family does have red hair in their ancestry, so the recessive gene is probably there.

The rest of the book was also interesting. Especially the cultural aspects of red hair and how redheads are portrayed on screens and in books. We have the reputation of being hot headed (I’m not by the way) and really good in bed (I’m not saying anything here). Red headed males are often portrayed as bullies, but there has been a few lately with more leading man roles. I was also deeply disappointed to find out that many of the redheads on screen are not true redheads. ( I knew in my heart they probably weren’t but I really wanted to see someone like me in the movies, you know!?)

The book on the whole was well written and very accessible, and also amusing. I liked that the author had a very tongue in cheek sense of humor, especially when talking about how soulless we are and how maybe we might be vampires. She does a nice job of capturing the red head mystique and how to react when someone makes assumptions about you because of your hair. The small part about red haired children and bullies was very well done.

If you are a redhead, or if you are close to one, or especially if you have a kid with red hair, this is a book that you should read. I wished there had been a book like this when I was a teenager, especially the beauty tips. I think it would have made my life a little bit easier.

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun read. As a redhead, I always just assumed as a child that I would get picked on and teased because of my hair, and I was, daily. I used to search the room on the first day of school, praying there would be someone else in my class with red hair so I wasn’t the only one, but usually I was. It never occurred to me that I was being bullied, but in hindsight I was. As I became a teenager, I was constantly teased for having freckles and my inability to tan. I just assumed it came with the territory. As a mother of two who I was disappointed did not inherit my red hair, I guess this means they should at least have a less stressful childhood. As an adult I am proud to be a redhead and like that it makes me unique. But as children it’s easier to fade into the background.

[Kathryn Levenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it, but I am almost 60, a redhead, and I felt like it was written in a style perhaps more enjoyable to a high school to 20-something. I gave it to my sister for Christmas so I will be interested to hear her views. It has sections such as celebrities who are "gingers." What you should not say to redheads. Medical points of interest such as needing more anesthesia, pain thresholds, etc. There are lots of little sidebars. It was interesting, but not as well researched or written as the other redhead book on my list.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our Italian grandfather called her “Cappa Rosa” (RedHead) which always sounded more like cabbaroos. And our Slovak grandfather called her “Chunkah”. But there was no mistaking who was being called when Father Welkie said “Carrot Top.”

Erin La Rosa’s “The Big Redhead Book” managed to teach me some little known trivia and lots of history about my BFF’s Michelle Greek hair color; an attribute she has dealt with gracefully her whole life, even when she experienced micro-aggressions. A light-hearted yet good reminder that words are powerful.

[David Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yikes!! I never knew being red was so complicated. This book will change the way you look at the people you know and meet that have red hair. Part fun and part serious it covers lots of topics like genetics, relationships, fashion, history, skin and hair care, celebrities, and so much more. A really fun read! (Yes, I do pay special attention when that red-headed woman walks into the room). I received this book for free from the Goodreads first read giveaway.

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

The science and fun tidbits are fantastic. If you’ve got a redhead in your life, please get them this. They will thank you a million times. Great makeup tips too, since most makeup is NOT made for the less than two percent of the human population. We redheads get it. The love and advice for if you have a child with red hair is great, with many tips on how to help; wish mine would have had that. A must-read for anyone. An easy read!

[Deirdre Brady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found out about this book on a Facebook post from some pop news website a few months back and bought it. Zipped through it this weekend. Was really enjoyable, relatable and also highlighted how I was lucky enough, not to have experienced some extreme of negative attitudes myself. A must read for fellow red-heads as its a gateway book into more books, (factual and fiction) about red hair.

[Susanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book from Goodreads. I would describe this book as pure delight. It was an engaging fun look into the lives of redheads. This would be the perfect gift for the redhead in your life.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book did have some interesting info about redheads in it, and I did really enjoy that part, but beware that if your purchase the nook version, quite a few pages are cut off and you can’t finish reading them - something to do with the formatting I guess.

[Lisa Trup · Rating 3 out of 5]

The problem with this book is that as it is American it quotes and mentions mainly American stars that I have never heard of.

The informative side of the book was fascinating.

[Melissa Paisley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought her facts and information was fun to read. I feel special as a redhead and a part of this cool club. However, I thought her bad language was NOT necessary.

[Heydi Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

I looked forward to reading this book so much because I am a ginger. I found little fact and stupid fiction! I was not amused!

[R Z · Rating 2 out of 5]

Skimmed through a lot of it. Also, I read it on kindle and it was in b&w so yeah...