Redhead banned from school just weeks before her A-levels - for being too GINGER

A teenage girl has been banned from school just weeks before her A-levels as her hair is too GINGER.

Emily Reay was told she would need to change her hair colour to be allowed back into class

Emily Reay, 17, was told she cannot return to lessons until she dyes her trademark look to a more 'natural' colour.

Pretty Emily, who is naturally auburn, has sported the same hair colour for three years but has now been told her redhead locks are inappropriate.

Teachers hit her with the bombshell when she returned to Trinity School in Carlisle, Cumbria, after the Easter holidays and believes the ban could affect her exam prospects.

Emily, a talented musician, said: "When they told me I just burst into tears – I was so angry.


"I've had the same colour for the past three years, and nobody at school has commented on it.

"Everyone knows me as that 'young ginger singer'.

"For me it is all about confidence.

"If I had to dye my hair brown, I would lose that."

Her parents Julie and Andy went to the school to discuss the matter with sixth-form headteacher Andrew Winter.

Julie, 44, said: "The school's uniform policy clearly states no unnatural hair colours, like blue or green.

"Is ginger not a natural hair colour?

"They had Emily in tears.

"They don't realise what her hair means to her.

"Her hair might naturally be auburn, but she's had this colour for so long now it is part of her.

"It's like living in the Victorian times."

Determined not to miss out on important lessons, a defiant Emily says she will return to school with her hair pinned up.

She said: "I have to hope nothing is said.

"It is too damaging at this stage of my education."

On behalf of the school, Mr Winter said students are told of the uniform policy at the start of each year.

He said: "Trinity School sixth-form students are role models for the rest of the school.

"We have a policy of maintaining high standards.

"All sixth form students are issued with information about what is acceptable or unacceptable at the start of the academic year.

"The vast majority of parents are very keen on our high standards."


Credit: Daily Mirror