Gingers Are Finally Getting Their Own Emojis; Redheads React

By Edward Leano, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, June 05, 2018

New emojis are coming out this Tuesday, June 5, and among the new bagels, llamas, and superhero figures are a set of new hair colors for a group that's been sorely under-represented so far — gingers and redheads.

This new release of the Unicode Standard, which marks the version 11.0 for 2018, has been fairly inclusive when it comes to hair types compared to the previous releases, as well. It's not just gingers that are getting new male and female versions of their fiery-colored locks, curly-haired dos are also coming with the new release.

There will also be white-haired variants as well, and even a bald version for both women and men, as can be seen in the latest charts from the Unicode Consortium. For those who would like to use them on social media or WhatsApp, there's still a bit of a wait for Apple, Google and other mobile OS and app makers to start featuring these new glyphs.

This new set of 157 emojis now bring the total of officially approved emojis to 2,823, according to Emojipedia. The news has excited many redheads on social media, some of which have waited for a long time to represent their hair type on messages.

"Glad to see the new additions. The lack of redheads has seriously impacted our inter-family emoji use. But no redhead superhero," Twitter user @matty13 pointed out, and hopefully, the new release will get his family using emojis more.

It's the same case for @thelogansmusic, who celebrated the reveal with a pledge, saying, "it's about time !!! as of june 2018, let it be known that i will be responding to every text and tweet with a redhead emoji bc i waited god damn long enough!!!"

Just as the new release has its fans, it also has its share of detractors, as well. Most of the critics were not all too happy with the particular shade of hair that will be included by default. "I've waited too many years for a redhead emoji for them to give us this neon Chef Boyardee spaghetti-in-a-can color," @ramseychandler posted on Twitter when the announcement came out.

Twitter has a history of being quick with an update as soon as a new release of emojis comes out, as Sky News noted. Apple and Google will typically wait until a new iOS or Android release to add the new symbols, and it remains to be seen if the upcoming iOS 12 will include them once it comes out.

Aside from new hair, Unicode 11.0 is also coming out with hot and cold face, partying face, woozy face, bagel, toilet roll, cupcake, test tube and DNA, as well as a set of superheroes and new animals. The Unicode consortium has thoughtfully included a leg and foot emoji as well, which will be available in different skin tones, too.