It’s a regular, mind numbing day of school. You’re walking down the hallway, when out of the corner of your eye, you catch a glint of red. At first, you think nothing of it. But after a few moments pass, another flash of red appears in your vision. Then another, and another! It’s gingers, and they have you surrounded!

But as you look closer, you notice these crimson hues are a bit too full, a bit too bright. You see black roots and blonde eyebrows, and you realize—these gingers are fake!

At school it seems like there are redheads everywhere I turn. But what could be causing this change in the infamous 2 percent number used to describe the alleged loss of the world’s ginger population? Spontaneous hair coloration? Red dye contaminating our shower water? TikTok?

As it turns out, that last answer may not be so far off. TikTok and celebrity hair choices can heavily influence trends showing up everywhere. Hair colorists and fashion magazines alike have taken note of the drastic uptick in ginger dye jobs. With the rise of actors like Sadie Sink and Barbie Ferreira, both the natural and dyed redhead looks are becoming more popular. 

Some in the ginger community might harbor bitter feelings toward new redheads, but I say the more the merrier! Maybe the popularity of red hair will finally offset the trend of redheaded bullies in the media—characters like Buddy aka Syndrome from the Incredibles and Buzz McAllister from Home Alone always had me wondering if I was destined to run the playground with an iron fist. 

My advice for any prospective gingers is to be prepared for 80 percent of your personality to begin to revolve around your hair color, whether you like it or not. You’ll get a lot of attention—both negative and positive. While being a ginger has never gotten me outright bullied, I do get more than my fair share of strange comments, ranging from “I would like to cut your hair off in the middle of the night and tape it to my head” to “Wow, it’s a Weasley!”

Whether or not this uptick in the ginger population lingers or not, I’m glad to be seeing more redheads around. For those of you reading this now– remember, you are magical– Disney wouldn’t have half the mermaids or ogres they do without us.