Hello, George,
The appropriate way to customize the header cell elements is to use the ViewCellFormatting event. Please refer to the following code snippet which demonstrates how to change the color of the header cell for a particular column.
private void radGridView1_ViewCellFormatting(object sender, CellFormattingEventArgs e)
{
if (e.CellElement is GridHeaderCellElement && e.Column.Name == "ProductName")
{
e.CellElement.DrawFill = true;
e.CellElement.GradientStyle = GradientStyles.Solid;
e.CellElement.BackColor = Color.Red;
}
else
{
e.CellElement.ResetValue(LightVisualElement.DrawFillProperty, ValueResetFlags.Local);
e.CellElement.ResetValue(LightVisualElement.GradientStyleProperty, ValueResetFlags.Local);
e.CellElement.ResetValue(LightVisualElement.BackColorProperty, ValueResetFlags.Local);
}
}

I hope this information helps. If you need any further assistance please don't hesitate to contact me.
Happy Holidays
Regards,
Dess | Tech Support Engineer, Sr.
Progress Telerik
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