Blondes have more fun...
My good friend, Disco Dee, and I did an experiment over the winter months. We have been bleaching the heck out of our hair for years now and thought: "Hey, let's give our poor frazzled locks a rest and go brunette."We coloured our hair in October.
January comes around and Dee and I are having a drink, discussing our experience being brunette.
Dee: "Do you notice how people treat you differently when you are a brunette?"
Me: "Yes, I feel almost invisible. I can't get service. Nobody looks me in the eye. I never get hit on." (not that it matters, but it was interesting for arguments sake)
Dee: "I KNOW! It's like I went from being respected and included and noticed to being totally inconsequential."
Now, that Dee and I have spent so many years being blondes, we saw a huge difference. If you've been brunette all of your life, it may not seem like a difference at all. As well, if you have been a blonde all of your life, you may not realize that there is any differential treatment. But there is that saying, "Blondes have more fun" and the plethora of blonde jokes that abound tell me that some people have a bone to pick with the hair colour.
Malcolm Gladwell discusses Brian Mullen's study of the Reagan/Mondale election in "The Tipping Point", where he surmises: "Simple physical movements and observations can have a profound effect on how we feel and think." (Gladwell, The Tipping Point, p.79) So, what if the tone of a woman's hair is one of those observations that is so culturally ingrained that it profoundly effects how people feel and think about that woman?
So, what does blonde say about a woman? I would say that blonde is an 'attention commanding' hair colour - because of it's lightness, it stands out in a crowd. Blonde, being that 'attention commanding' colour, denotes a certain amount of gregariousness, or an outgoing personality, which would make blondes seem more approachable. Some people will say that blonde is seen as 'stupid' but 'glamourous', a stereotype, perhaps, tracing back to Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe.
20/20 did an unscientific study in late 2004 where they put a blonde wig on a brunette woman and a brunette wig on a blonde man to see if they were treated differentially. They were. The woman, after removing the wig and going back to her day to day life mused, "I feel invisible as a brunette now."
Could being a blonde also trigger a subconscious difference in the way that you present yourself to the world as well. Because of the penetration of cultural stereotypes around hair colour, lightening one's hair could automatically make the subject become more outgoing and change their own cultural interactions, thus, enhancing people's reactions to them.
There have been loads of studies, scientific and unscientific on hair colour and the effect on socializing. Some of them conflict, some of them back up the statement that blondes have more fun.
All I know is that, even though sometimes subtle, Dee and I were treated different being brunettes.
I went back to blonde (but cut my hair quite short) in April. Dee is in the process of going blonde as I write this (she was sitting with blue shampoo on her head, trying to take the yellow out of her tone - a trick bleachers know well).
Since I've gone blonde again, I do feel more noticeable. I get quicker service. I find more people smiling at me on the street. I also find conversations easier to strike up (nobody is in a hurry to scurry). This gives me more confidence in general, which feeds back into my outgoing nature, which wins me more smiles and conversations and service. At the same time, the short hair seems to bring on more respect than my previous long, blonde locks. I don't get hit on as much (still okay by me) and when I talk on a subject that I'm passionate about, people listen closer.
It may not be the thing for everyone, but I've found that for me, YES, blondes DO have more fun.
1 Comments:
Yep - found the same thing as my hairdresser had me going blonder and blonder after david split.... now with summer, (dropping 30 lbs since Christmas too), and being outside the colour is getting REALLY blonde .... yep - brunette? Not going back there anytime soon! Ciao - Shalalalala
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home