I have a confession to make. It's hard to say it, but you had to know some time. Now, please, try not to judge me. I'm hoping you won't, I mean, after all you're lovely, book-reading types, aren't you, you wouldn't get all judgy on me now, after nearly six years, would you? Oh no, I'm babbling now. OK, well, here goes.
I'm a redhead.
Yes, folks, I'm a redhead. Titian gold. Carrot-topped. Ginger. A Pre-Raphaelite stunner! And that's why 'Red: A Natural History of the Redhead' by Jacky Colliss Harvey recently caught my eye.
'Red: A Natural History of the Redhead' is... erm... all about redheads. It covers the subject from a range of angles, drawing on science, history, art, fashion, advertising and more to try and make sense of the stereotypes and attitudes attached to the small but noticeable percentage of the world's population with hair of a red or orange tint. Why are redheaded men and redheaded women seen differently? Is red hair really becoming scarcer? And what the heck are all those redheads doing in Breda each year?
I was really excited about this book. To be honest, I've never really taken much notice of my hair colour (well, you don't really if you've got your nose stuck in a book), although others with the colouring have always stood out for me in popular culture (think Elizabeth I, Satine in 'Moulin Rouge' and Elizabeth Siddal in John Everett Millais' 'Ophelia' to name just three.) I hoped that this book would provide some insight into what it means to be a redhead.
Well, it does and it doesn't. On the one hand, it has clearly been very well researched, so draws on everything from recent medical studies of links between hair colour and pain tolerance or certain illnesses, such as Parkinson's disease, to historical references to redheads in Greek and Roman texts. On the other, for some reason, hardly any of the information seemed to stick or be funnelled down to the personal level.
While the book is highly readable, it does feel detached and like an A Level essay. It starts with the genetic origins of the hair colour and keeps going until the present (skipping most of the 1700s, perhaps because not much was happening on Planet Redhead). I think this may be part of the problem. Perhaps the book would've worked better if grouped by themes rather than chronology, allowing the author to cherry pick the most interesting information and set the pace herself rather than having it set for her. The issue of prejudice against redheads comes up a number of times, an issue she clearly cares about, but the topic feels shoehorned in. A different structure might've allowed her some room to manoeuvre, as well as translate her wonderful research into something individuals can relate to more easily.
The amount of research by the author shows that she has a real passion for the subject, but somehow I felt that it was lost in the published text, possibly because of the time-based structure. My favourite sections drew on her personal experience, for example, when she visited the redhead festival in Breda, Holland, or talked about attitudes towards her related to her hair colour. Unfortunately, there weren't many of these sections. This made everything feel more abstract and separate, like the book was ABOUT redheads rather than FOR redheads.
On the whole, this book was a bit disappointing, not just for me as an interested reader, but because it's clear a lot of work has gone into it and it didn't quite work, for me at least ('Red: A Natural History of the Redhead' received excellent reviews when it first came out.). I'd really like to see something on the same subject that has more of a factoid-based structure, so that I find myself thinking "That's interesting." every other page. Unfortunately, 'Red: A Natural History of the Redhead' isn't it.
