Red Hot!

It's official - red hair is hot! With the likes of Florence Welch, Lily Cole and Karen Gillan flying the flag for gingers everywhere, red is fast becomming the only colour for the style-savvy girl. A natural brunette, Paloma Faith opted to become a redhead when she launched her music career having been inspired by the iconic pin-up girls of the '40s, whilst sex-symbol du jour, Christina Hendricks, has been dying her hair red since the age of ten. Looking at the current wave of flame-haired beauties has got me seriously contemplating reaching for the hair dye myself.

Redheads have never been strangers to playground taunts, but it's definately time for negative opinions to be changed. I was shocked to hear that Nicole Nagington, a twelve-year-old schoolgirl from Telford, had been bullied so relentlessly that she was driven to bleach her hair. Her father Ian described her treatment as 'sickening'. He said, 'pupils used to throw bottles at her and send her horrible notes. They said they were going to kick her head in if she didn't leave the school.'

Nicole, be proud of being a redhead - you're certainly in good company.