The sibling founders of redhead beauty website 'How to be a Redhead' and the annual National Love Your Red Hair Day, have revealed all of their beauty and style secrets in a new book released last week.
Sisters Stephanie and Adrienne Vendetti from Providence, RI know how to be redheads, but only through having made all the mistakes that come with trying to deny your red hair or the pale skin that comes with it.
Spurred on by all they learned growing up as they gradually embraced being red heads, the sisters decided they had made those mistakes so others wouldn’t have to. On realizing they had a wealth of tips and advice that just wasn’t available in any other place, they began to combine their knowledge of the best beauty choices to suit their hair color, culminating in the website HowToBeARedhead.com and their latest book dedicated to the rarest of hair colors.
After all, although only 2 percent of the world’s population has red hair, that still means over 140 million redheads are not being referenced in other beauty books. One in ten Irish people has red hair, which means 10% of our population is being ignored by the beauty industry.
“Stephanie and I were the only redheads in our school and I think we had a hard time adjusting because when you’re growing up girls are experimenting with new makeup or going to the beach. We had such a hard time because everything we did was different. We had freckles and very pale skin and everybody else was super tan,” Adrienne told IrishCentral.
“You never felt like you could fit in so you’d have to find your own self-confidence. To be able to express that took a long time so I think that was kind of the hardest.”
Read more: Celebrate the first National Love Your Red Hair Day
Although now hoping to begin a movement of redhead confidence with the mantra “Rock it like a Redhead,” both Stephanie and Adrienne struggled with either their hair color or their pale skin and freckles as they grew up.
Stephanie hated her red hair and wanted to change it completely. So she dyed her locks blonde from the time she was in the fourth grade.
“I didn’t think that it was me so I covered it up for a while,” she said, “and then around the time I was in college, I finally went back to my natural roots and I haven't changed it since … I was finally ready to embrace who I was.”
Adrienne, on the other hand, always loved her red hair but it was the desire to look sun-kissed and tanned that turned her against her own skin tone and freckles.
“I hated my pale skin and I was obsessed with sunless tanner,” she states.
“In my senior picture of high school I am bright orange and I thought it was so great. I would wear all of this heavy makeup because I wanted to be tan and it took me so long to embrace my pale skin. I look back and I can’t even believe I walked around thinking I looked so great.
“Now I love my pale skin, I don’t put anything on it. I love it and I just wish I felt that way growing up.”
That desire to have confidence in their own rare qualities as redheads while they were growing up is something that inspired both sisters as they put together their beauty book, hoping to teach younger girls that red hair and pale skin is nothing to be ashamed of but something to be embraced.
“Lindsay Lohan was a really big symbol to redheads growing up and she went through that cosmetic surgery to get rid of her freckles. Stephanie wanted to do the same thing so we have a whole chapter of our book just dedicated to embracing your freckles because they are so beautiful and it takes girls a long time to feel that way,” Adrienne told us.
Telling their own trying personal stories, such as clothes destroyed by tanner and make-up and the combat they had with their naturally curly hair, the Vendetti sisters have also enlisted the help of other famous redheads to prove that there really is nothing better than having red hair.
The list of contributors includes Julie Klausner, Nicole Miller, Julianne Moore’s hairstylist, Marcus Francis; Reba McEntire’s makeup artist, Brett Freedman; and Christina Hendricks’s hairstylist, all sharing their do’s and don’ts, their favorite redhead friendly products and advice on everything from eyebrows to nail color.
“We also wanted to connect with some of Hollywood’s top celebrity makeup artists so we have Julianne Moore’s hair stylist telling us how to get one of her most famous looks from when she won the Oscars last year, and we have Reba McEntire’s makeup artist who talks about one of her most famous looks,” Adrienne told IrishCentral.
“We include a lot of amazing quotes from all different types of redheads, whether they’re beauty editors or they’re famous redhead actresses,” Stephanie continues.
“That was important because we wanted to showcase these wonderful empowering women who have embraced their red hair and share their stories with our audience.”
“How to be a Redhead” is currently on sale in bookstores and on Amazon and Stephanie and Adrienne are bringing their redhead revolution around the country with a book tour that includes a beauty station where redheads can meet with Paul Mitchell hair consultants to get tips on their hair-care needs.
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