Hug a ginga promotion has some seeing red

A leading child psychotherapist has major concerns that tomorrow's Hug A Ginga Day will have negative effects on vulnerable children.
Tauranga's Augustina Driessen said bullies could use Hug A Ginga Day as a bullying tool and "take revenge".
"I think it could be taken quite negatively and it could be quite dangerous to kids who don't want a hug," she said.
Mrs Driessen said bullies could go up to children, hug them in a negative way and squeeze them, which would make a very innocent situation turn sour.
"I can see the very negative  ... effects."
Although Mrs Driessen said the day might have started out as a light-hearted and positive day, the negative effects could be traumatic for more vulnerable children.
She said many children did not have the courage to stand up for themselves and say "no, I don't want a hug" and would allow  one even though they truly did not want a hug.
However, Mrs Driessen did admit the day could bring some positive effects.
"Some nice things could come of it if you get the right people, but I am still a bit concerned about the vulnerable ones," she said.
"Hug A Ginga Day", promoted by The Edge radio station, has caused nationwide debate and over 30,000 people text-voted on Close Up last night.
Darren Merrick has had orange hair his whole life.
To match his carrot-top, he had blonde arm and leg hair, and pale skin, which burned easily in the sunlight.
Unlike many people with ginger hair, the 22-year-old was proud of his colouring.
"I've never dyed it and I never want to change my hair colour. It makes me stand out and makes me unique."
Mr Merrick is a builder for CBS Construction. He said he suffered ridicule from other children at school but was never bothered by their teasing.
"You definitely get a lot more attention being a ginga," he said.
"If you're standing in a room full of people with brown or blonde hair, of course you're going to stand out," he said.
The hardest time for Mr Merrick was going through high school. However, at that time his hair was blonder and he said there were other people there who were more ginger than him.
"There were only a handful of guys at school who were ginga and none of us were really teased too bad," he said.
"I wasn't really called names, it was more just 'ginger' and the occasional 'fanta-pants'."
Mr Merrick said many kids at school were bullied, not just those with orange hair.
"I think the more you get teased and the more you react the more it happens," he said.
The best way to deal with name-calling was to not let it bother you, he said.
"It didn't really  faze me, it's just a hair colour and it was all a bit of fun and games really."
Mr Merrick said people still occasionally shout out "ginger" as they walk down the street, to which he would reply "no s**t".
"There's no point trying to hide it but it's just hair, it's no big deal."
In the summertime, Mr Merrick's hair turns blonder and in the winter, it returns back to a more golden-blonde hue.
"I'm really proud of it, it's much more rare than brown," he said.
Mary Fay, hairdresser at inhair.Mt, in Mt Maunganui, said it was common in autumn to add foils to client's hair, to enhance auburn or copper tones.
"There's no pattern but in autumn more clients ask for foils, such as copper or copper-based reds," she said.
 She said most of her clients were "comfortable in their own skin" and often enhanced their natural colour rather than drastically change it.
Mrs Fay said red hair was sometimes harder to colour but it also depended on the texture of hair. However, she said there were a number of benefits of having red hair.
"When they start going grey, they go a lovely strawberry-blonde colour which is very hard to recreate," she said.
Mr Merrick was really looking forward to the day and said it was "absolutely awesome" to be celebrating such an event.
"I can't wait, I'm going to be giving and getting lots of hugs," he said.
Principal of Otumoetai Primary Geoff Opie, said children at his school would be discouraged from participating in Hug a Ginga Day.
"It's a stupid social experiment. It singles them out for attention. It's highlighting differences and not celebrating diversity."
Mr Opie said  there were redheaded children at his school and on occasions, they did get picked on.
He said event was basically saying lets be nice to redheads for one day of the year, but it's okay to pick on them for the rest of the year.
"To single out one group of children because of how they look isn't fair. We don't hug people with big noses or big feet."
THE TRUTH ABOUT REDHEADS
Red hair is the rarest natural hair colour in humans.
Approximately 2 per cent of the world's population have red hair.
The highest percentage of natural redheads in the world is in Scotland (13%), followed closely by Ireland (10%).
Red hair is associated with fair skin colour due to low concentrations of melanin throughout the body.
Redheads seem to be more sensitive to pain.
Redhead Day is the name of a two-day Dutch festival that takes place each first weekend in September, in the city of Breda, Netherlands.