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Blondes, Brunettes, and Redheads

Printed From: HairBoutique.com
Category: Hair Talk
Forum Name: Hair Politics
Forum Description: The politics of Hair is a slippery slope...
URL: https://talk.hairboutique.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=8535
Printed Date: March 28 2024 at 12:26pm


Topic: Blondes, Brunettes, and Redheads
Posted By: JerkyFlea
Subject: Blondes, Brunettes, and Redheads
Date Posted: January 11 2000 at 9:33pm
Asked this question in my response to Jeff, but I think it may have gotten lost in the shuffle:Are blondes taken less seriously than brunettes? And how do redheads figure into the stereotype?Related Link:JerkyFlea's Celebrity Hair Spray

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3 pm is simultaneously too late and too early to start anything.



Replies:
Posted By: Ally
Date Posted: January 11 2000 at 9:35pm
JF!I am the /ideal/ person to answer this question, because I have been all three!Here are my observations:** Guys dig blondes. Especially blue-collar guys. Even though it wasn't my most flattering shade (by a longshot), my male friends still urge me to embrace the bleach again. People also assume that blondes are ditzy, approachable, and promiscuous. Men in clubs were a lot more aggressive, and I got a lot more attention on the street. Whenever I did or said something dumb, no matter how uncharacteristic, firends would joke that I was "being blonde" or "having a blonde moment." Men often treated me like I was a pet or a doll, offering their assistance and smiling at me condescendingly.** Redheads have their own following. I went red, a la Kate Winslet, immediately after seeing Titanic. I noticed a sudden fallout in my nightclub admirers. Friends observed that it made me look "more intelligent." Women would compliment me on the shade, whereas they were always trying to get me to dye the blonde.Not a lot of guys are especially into redheads, but the ones who are, /really/ are. Guys who /did/ whistle and catcall made an immediate reference to my hair.** Brunettes are taken the most seriously, I believe. My friend Anna always says, "Guys want to sleep with blondes, but they marry brunettes." My particular shade of brown, my natural color, is rather dark. I think it makes me look exotic. I get a warmer response from men then I did when I was red, but this could be because my own color is so much more flattering.I've noticed this is the only hair color that doesn't result in a nickname, i.e., "Blondie" or "Red." In fact, when I went dark again, my hair became a non-issue. It no longer stands out.Ally

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Posted By: Erika
Date Posted: January 11 2000 at 9:35pm
Hi,Well, I'm blonde myself, although my hair isn't light blonde. It hasn't been light blonde since I was about 11. My sixth grade school pictures look like I had been bleaching my hair and decided to grow it out. In fact, my parents both thought that it would darken all the way to brown, like theirs did, until it became obvious when I was about 16 that it had stopped darkening at a medium to dark blonde shade. I do get occasional teasing from my good friends about "blonde moments," but I don't get any more attention from men than my friends with brown hair do. (I might mot be the best of examples for this, though, because I rarely dress to show off my figure. I'm more of a T-shirt and jeans type.) I think that there is a difference in the way people precieve light blondes and darker blondes. After all, the color of my hair is so different from light blonde that I sometimes wonder why both are called "blonde."> People also assume that blondes are> ditzy, approachable, and promiscuous.This is a cultural thing that can be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome. Unfortuantely, I don't think that is's going away anytime soon.> ** Redheads have their own following.> Not a lot of guys are especially into redheads, but> the ones who are, /really/ are. Guys who /did/ whistle> and catcall made an immediate reference to my hair.This is very true. I had a lab partner about a year ago who was into redheads, and every week he and the guy at the station next to us would talk for the enitre time we worked about such and such a redhead that he'd seen.Erika

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Posted By: Jess
Date Posted: January 11 2000 at 9:36pm
Whenever I meet a guy who preferrs a particular hair color, I wince. Why should potential mates be weeded out just because of hair or eye color? I've liked dark haired guys, light haired guys, redheaded guys... Healthy looking longish hair attracts me the most. Sometimes it makes me wonder if certain guys like "blondes" just because it makes them look macho to their friends to have a "ditzy blond" for a girlfriend. As if they think having a dumb blond girlfriend would make them feel smarter and "more cool". I hate the blond stereotype, being dark blond myself, although it seems as if a lot of girls dye their hair blond just to live in that stereotype. Actually, I get the worst of both worlds: people might say I'm a dumb blond, but my hair isn't light blond enough to be considered "bombshell beautiful". And yet I get obnoxious guys hitting on me who believe my hair indicates that I have potential for being a "good passive ditzy girlfriend". In some ways my hair color makes me uncomfortable because people expect me to be bubbly and bouncy and airheaded because of my hair, when in reality I'm more like the stereotyped "dark brunette" in personality-- cooler, artsy & more intellecutal. If I had my personal choice I would have dark brown hair, since I've always admired how clean, sophistocated and steel-belt strong and thick it looks-- and I also like the more beige complexion dark-haired people have. I have that corn-fed pinky yellow skin tone.None of you women reading my post should feel as if being born blond is a privelege. People expect you to act a certain way and have a perfect Barbie face and body before they even meet you. They also expect you to have sky-blue eyes (mine are brown, and I've had many rude guys tell me that my eyes don't "go" with my hair). I burn quickly in the summer and never get tan, so I end up with pink skin and light eyebrows and eyelashes in the summer. Most of us "blondes" have naturally dishwater blah hair that no one would want, anyway. Only 1% of all natural blondes I see have that coveted "platinum" look that people dye their hair to achieve. And even then, natural planinum blondes have no eyelashes or eyebrows to speak of. Many colors I can't wear and don't look good in, unlike dark brunettes who can wear nearly anything.I exaggerate the pain my natural hair color brings me, but I just want everyone to know that they shouldn't feel inferior because they aren't born blond, because it's a real pain in the @$$ sometimes. I don't despise my hair: it's healthy and I like the waves I have, but it is a total farce that being born blond is a privelege or that it makes you automatically sexier. Most of the famous blondes out there are dark haired women who bleach (ie Pamela Adersen, Madonna, Marylin Monroe)anyway.Sorry for my long-windedness.

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