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On the eve of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day<\/em> premiere, Kaitlyn Paulk was touching up her roots with a box of L\u2019Oreal True Red dye. The 27-year-old is a natural blonde\u2014the kind of pale cornsilk that costs $600 a session at Warren Tricomi\u2014but she\u2019s pretty annoyed with her hair color of origin.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is blonde,\u201d says the real estate assistant, a Georgia native who moved to Manhattan for college. \u201cI\u2019d rather be noticed than just to conform to what people \u2018say\u2019 is pretty, which is why I love being a redhead\u2026 You know, like Sadie Sink. I love Sadie Sink.\u201d<\/p>\n Paulk isn\u2019t alone in her adoration. Ever since Sink joined the Netflix mega-hit Stranger Things<\/em> in 2017, the natural redhead has garnered millions of social media followers (and considerable Hollywood clout) thanks to her talent, her gracious fan encounters, and her knack for picking scream-it-out projects\u2014the feminist parable John Proctor Is the Villain;<\/em> the Renaissance fable Romeo and Juliet<\/em>\u2014that appeal to bright young women who know the girlhood game is rigged.<\/p>\n Sink is now 24, and her fiery hair has become a green flag among fans that represents intelligence, rebellion, and deeply-felt emotions. The surest proof is the music video for \u201cAll Too Well,\u201d starring Sink as Taylor Swift\u2019s younger self and hitting screens in 2022, right when most of Gen Z was in peak adolescence. At the end of the movie, the [RED]<\/em> singer appears as a redhead herself. The film has 112 million YouTube views\u2014three times the total population of California.<\/p>\n Big tech has been tracking The Sadie Sink Effect, and the numbers are staggering. Google Trends reports a 5000% increase in searches for \u201cSadie Sink Hair Color\u201d since 2025. Over 1 million TikTokkers have tuned into a video by Arizona colorist Chrissy Rasmussen titled, \u201cI want Sadie Sink red hair.\u201d On Reddit, thousands of armchair analysts break down Sink\u2019s hair color and texture. The actor is a living, breathing human navigating the batshit world of online fame with real grace and smarts. But her hair has also made her a living hashtag.<\/p>\n Tommy Buckett has been working on Sink\u2019s hair since the actor was 15. Based out of New York\u2019s Marie Robinson Salon, the hair artist says he\u2019s been \u201cflooded\u201d with DMs and salon calls about Sink\u2019s hair color. \u201cWhat\u2019s exciting is it\u2019s so many young women being like, \u2018Can I get this? Can you do this to me?\u2019<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Buckett has a theory about why Gen Z is gravitating to the color, \u201cI’ve seen a lot of nudie blondes come through the salon asking to be red,\u201d he says, describing \u201cnudie blonde\u201d as a wheaty, darker shade. \u201cThey\u2019re worried they look exactly like everyone else on TikTok. They look like every other girl on a [dating] app. They need a digital point of difference for who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n