Rouge trader: 'I've never met anybody who didn't like being a red head,' says Christine Jones

'I HAVE very red hair, as do most of my family. It's a big part of who I am, so I've decided to explore the red hair in our genetic make-up for my second-year photography exhibition. I thought it'd be interesting to photograph other red heads of all ages and showcase them to draw attention to the similarities and differences between us. We all have the common trait of being red heads but we're all individuals as well. There are lots of personality stereotypes out there about red heads but the only I can confirm is the one about being stubborn – that's quite true of me.

I'm originally from LA. I'll be here a year in March. I'm going to finish out my photography degree in Dublin. I was going to art school in LA but I wanted to push myself to do something different and explore the world a little bit. So I decided to transfer to a college somewhere in Europe. I chose Ireland because I've family here and wouldn't be completely on my own. My grandparents moved from Dublin to LA in the 1950s and a lot of their brothers and sisters live in the Dublin area.

I think most red heads would agree that their hair colour has definitely influenced their life, in one way or another. It's made me very accepting of looking a bit different and being in the minority. Over the past year in Dublin, I've noticed that more people are made fun of here for being red-haired, whereas in the US people are really praised for it. It's seen as something really special and really unusual. Growing up in LA, all the way into my 20s, I'd have some random stranger come up to me at least once a week and tell me they love my hair. I don't think that's ever happened to me here.

I guess you're not very likely to see many red heads in LA or around the rest of the US for that matter. It's only something like 1% of the American population that has red hair. Being so fair-skinned in a hot climate meant putting on SP 80 sun screen everyday, without exception, from the time I was a baby. I just got into the habit of it. I'm totally used to the heat. You acclimatise. Being in the sun is normal to me. The cold and rain feels less normal.

Being of Irish descent has always been very integral to my family. Most of the Irish in the US came over two hundred or more years ago but my family have only been in LA from the '50s or '60s, so a lot of them still have very strong ties and accents. One of my great-aunts, who moved over with my grandmother, opened an Irish dancing studio. That meant that all my cousins in LA grew up doing Irish set-dancing rather than ballet.

I'm not all Irish. My dad is half-German and whatever else is mixed in there from pre-Revolutionary War. The Irish red-haired gene is just unbelievably strong in our family. It usually tends to be recessive but that's not been the case for us. My grandmother has very red hair like me and she had seven kids, five of whom have red hair. Then of the 11 grandkids she has, seven of them have red hair. One of my aunts who has the same red hair that I do, married a man of Cherokee Indian and Hispanic heritage and the first three kids all have red hair and fair skin. It's crazy. He has black hair, almost black eyes and super-tanned skin, but three of his kids are red heads.

My hair colour has never been a negative thing for me. I like how it makes me an individual. It gives me a little extra to stand out and makes me more independent. I've never met anybody who didn't like being a red head."

In conversation with Claire Ryan