In first or second grade, we colored pictures of mermaids in class. I believe they had something to do with learning to read music, because I strongly associate treble clefs with the picture in this memory. Anyway, I colored the hair on my mermaid purple. One of the other girls in the class complimented my mermaid's purple hair and my daring in coloring it that way. In response, I said that if mermaids could have red hair, then why not purple? The other girl told me that red is a natural hair color, and that she had a cousin with red hair. I didn't believe her at first, having never seen red hair myself, but started considering the possibility when she insisted.