How do I prevent my hearts (♥) from turning red?

It happens only when I am on Facebook and when I send e-mail on outlook.com.
Whenever I hit ♥ (alt +3), the heart turns red after hitting send. I just read that if you put the next word right next to the heart, without a space, that would keep it black. I tried it and that doesn't work, either.

Is everybody else just pasting the symbol from elsewhere instead of creating it using ALT +?
If I wanted it red, I would make it red. I didn't even realize that it happened in e-mail until TODAY. (Imagine my dismay!) Just one of those annoying little things it would be nice to fix.

Thank you.

It is a feature. If you don't want the red hearts, don't use the emoticon shortcut.

_________________
stephen boots
Microsoft MVP 2004 - 2020
"Life's always an adventure with computers!"

I have never used an emoticon feature in my life.
I am using alt + or >, but thank you for the suggestion.