One of Our Many Woes

Any type of hair colors comes with its pros and its cons, there will always be people that will make fun of you or tell you how much they wish they had your hair. Maybe it derives from the "grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" idea, but I feel like people with red hair are born with more stereotypes than any other hair type. I've already discussed a few, such as their fiery temper or devious mind, but there is an old wives tale that I think very few people are familiar with. It comes from the generation that were at the ends of their lives when we just learning how to walk, so it I can't remember how much it affected me, but my mother will tell stories about it whenever the opportunity arises.
The tale goes that anyone who rubs the head of someone with red hair will receive good fortune. This let to little 2 year old Jenna waddling through the supermarket, accompanied by her mother and enjoying an adventure in a new and exciting place, when old women would pass by and rub my head. Some would stop first and comment on how beautiful the color was, while others would simply touch as they walked by. This started happening as soon as I was old enough to be brought out into public, before I could walk or talk, and would be sitting in my car seat that could be placed in a shopping cart. The women who would just reach out and caress my hair without saying a word would sometimes get weird looks from other customers, even the occasional evil eye from my mother if she was already having a bad day. The only humorous part, according to my mother, was my reaction. From the beginning, I hated having strangers touch my hair, but I soon lost patience for it all together, swatting at these women's outstretched hands as if swatting away flies. In a way, I'm proud of baby me-standing up for myself even to these things much larger than me, that logically I should be afraid of.
My first and major problem with this is it is just plain rude. At least some people made an attempt engage in conversation with someone before petting their child's hair, but the fact that random people walking the streets who have never said a word to me could have touched my head doesn't seem right. I'm sure part of it is that those women grew up in a different era, where everyone knew everyone and were comfortable with strangers. These days, everyone is full of what-if's that consume our life. In this instance, what if I had a very low immune system? I could catch something from them and end up in the hospital. That's a very dramatized version of what could happen, buy who ever accused gingers of being under dramatic.
I have to wonder where this superstition came from. Most things that we find lucky are things that are rare, such as a four leaf clover, or things that are beautiful, like a rainbow, or sometimes they're both, for instance a shooting star. Other things that represent luck are completely random (or at least they seem to be in our eyes), including a horseshoe or a wishbone. Maybe read heads can fall into all of these categories, a little rare, a little beautiful, and a little random.