Why do many people pretend to be blonde?

[ultrasun]

Why is it that in the UK there seems to be quite a high proportion of people who ‘pretend’ to be blonde. I’m not talking about a brunette who has obviously dyed their hair blonde, I’m talking about people who deny using dye/highlights. Dyeing ones hair is okay! I have met several women in work who swear dead that they are naturally blonde, and don’t dye it, but I see the roots and the change every few weeks!

Is it because many were blonde as children and then it’s darkened?

I’ve noticed that far fewer women in their 20s seem to be dyeing their hair blonde now- brown seems to be more popular.

I don’t dye mine currently (it’s naturally brown), but I dyed it blonde when in my teens- I think it was a case of being blonde as a child, and wanting to ‘maintain’ that.

I have natural highlights, I'm in my 40s but don't have much grey. People probably think I'm lying about not colouring my hair, I don't care, it doesn't affect me what they think

I always describe my current natural hair colour as “mousey” as I was very fair until late teens but then it changed. My hairdresser and every box dye has my current natural shade as “dark blonde” or “ash blonde”

Dishwater is more like it but marketing and hairdresser flattery is a funny bugger so it wouldn’t surprise me if many people just repeat what they read on the box 🤷‍♀️

I have colourless eyelashes and finding an eyebrow pencil that isn’t too dark is a pain in the arse (MAC Fling is the best for not being too warm or brutal btw)

It seems bizarre that anyone ever asks tbh - surely it’s apparent that I’ve not got jet black or luscious auburn locks if I’ve slapped a head of blonde highlights over the top and have a cm of ashy regrowth? It’s one of those “Have you spent some time/money/attention on yourself: should you have?” questions that women plague one another with...

I have met several women in work who swear dead that they are naturally blonde,

I find it a bit weird that several woman from your work are all saying the same thing to you. Do you think they are teasing you?

Naturally blonde hair is unusual in adults in the majority of countries worldwide. So is seen as a desirable trait.

On the subject of men’s hair colour preferences - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and But Marry Brunettes were novels by Mary Loos in the 1920’s.

I have never pretended to be blond, I am blond, although accepted people’s disbelief over the years from a very young age, very blond up until my mid forties which is when I started to have a few highlights to lighten the dark blond I am becoming. My eyebrows and eyelashes are dark and I tan quite easily, DS has the same colouring and he’s also got the longest thick dark eyelashes. DD11 has the loveliest of colours, honey blond with lots of different shades, looks highlighted but can assure you it’s not, again with dark eyelashes, this may darken as she gets older as she’s not as blond as DS and I, more like her dad who had auburn tones in his hair when younger.

I’m a natural blonde at 39. I have no greys. I get my hair cut four times a year at a cost of £20 a time. I honestly have no clue how people afford to have it dyed in a salon. I’m hoping I’m rich by the time I need to do it. I’ve never dyed my hair at home so would have no clue.
I spend just as much time dying my brows and lashes dark though!
I have a friend whose hair is just as fair as me. She’s the only other natural blonde I know.

I think the term blond(e) is subjective,

Years ago there was an advert for coke or pepsi that started with a man's voice talking about a film he was writing and saying a woman was 'blonde, like Denise Richards (quick google to find the ad )

The first time I saw it I thought, 'who's Denise Richards?', and then, 'she's not blond'.

So some people claim they are blond, believing they are, but to some other people they are mousy or brown haired.

Then of course there are people who look like they have highlights who don't. I'm going grey but the overall look is that my hair is blond because of the way I have lost hair colour, you don't notice the grey.

Also the first grey, is now white, and it is the hair around my face, exactly where a hairdresser would put highlights.

I've never come across anyone pretending to be blonde. I have naturally light blonde hair that never darkened from childhood and a couple of people have accused me of lying about being blonde in the past. Which is particularly hilarious because if that was true I'd also be dying my very light blonde eyebrows which seems a huge faff.

I'm 36 and naturally blonde (Scandinavian dna) and have never dyed my hair. A lot of people have correctly identified that my hair is natural. A few haven't and have asked me if I dye it. Of course I tell them it's natural; they often don't believe me.

Their problem not mine. Don't ask if you don't like the answer.

I was really blonde as a child, now it's still blonde, but in that 'natural highlights' way where some of it is blonde (the front cm of my annoying widows peak bit is alway really blonde) but it's darker in other places, especially underneath and in winter.

It does look like I have (bad) highlights, it's unevenly streaky (though symmetrical down my parting line!) and blonder at the ends, especially when it needs cutting and it's gone a bit frizzy. I used to dye it darker but it's been natural for a decade so pretty sure this is it!

DH was a blonde child and is a dark brown haired adult. My dad was a blonde child and then it was almost black when he grew up.

DD's hair is blonde (or yellow as she says), but at two darker than mine or DHs at her age, so I'm expecting it to turn darker.

I'm naturally very light blonde but hate it and have dyed my hair various colours over the years. I've finally decided to give up and go natural as my hair was being ruined, but to see me you'd probably think it was fake although my skin tone matches my naturally white blonde hair I also have white blonde eyebrows , that I try and make darker as otherwise naturally I have no eyebrows!

I tend to describe myself as fair. True enough in the summer. Probably deluded by March when its at its darkest. It has everything in there. The ends do turn to a darker blonde in the top layers. The underneath is a thicker, curlier dark brown.

I have been asked if I have highlights and I don't, not for over 15 years. Too much bother. I put a temporary mahogany tone on to brighten it up in the winter and the variations of tones make it look really vivid. The blonde seems to retain a slightly sandy tone long after it shoud wash out, but there are reds tucked away in there too.

I also have the darker eyebrows etc, but blonde leg/ arm hair.

I got a good deal

I'm previously auburn and now strawberry blonde. Because it's natural, sometimes it looks darker and sometimes lighter. It's also got lots of different highlights and lowlights running through it. I'm 55 and, frankly, I'm thoroughly fed up with the people who seem convinced that I'm actually dying it. So maybe you need to rethink whether, in fact, these people are actually telling the truth....

I also hate the term “dark blonde”. That’s just brown hair FFS.

My partner is a natural blond, looks darker if he’s used any sort of product but is unmistakably blond without.

I have been led to believe that natural blond(e)s are less unusual in the North of England, due to how the Saxons and Vikings took the island in their day?

My hair is mid brown- there’s no other way to describe it. Apart from when talking about hair dye colour, then it’s dark blonde! Once used a mid brown and looked like professor Snape...

Anyway, I have a couple of friends who are genuinely dark blonde but get highlights to enhance the colour- this makes their roots look much darker than how it actually looks when they have their natural hair. Both used to use dyes that were the same/a shade or two darker than their natural and I’ve seen how quickly it faded and their lighter hair showed through so switched to highlights instead. So it’s possible they are blonder than you think, it’s just the roots that deceive you!

The thing is, my hair comes out at the root a light brown (similar to Denise Richard’s in the video posted) but then gets lighter in the sun. The ends are a light blonde. So I say dark blonde to distinguish between my colour and the overall light blonde that some Scandinavians seem to have.

I've not met anyone who denies it, but I do find the preference for blond hair a bit tiresome. My daughter is very olive skinned with very dark brown hair. She is beautiful but has started saying that blond is more beautiful and she wishes she had blonde hair - she's only 7.

I know someone who does this! She also calls her daughter “blondie” when she clearly has brunette hair. Strange.

My sister has spent most of her life pretending she's a natural blonde, since her earlg teens. Obviously not believable to those that knew her as a child when she was a light 'mousey' colour. Couldn't tell you if she's greys now!!

Blonde has also seemed to been perceived as the preferable colour to dark for whatever reason.

I'm a (dark) red head so was doomed with hair colour from the start

As you get older I think you need to go lighter so you don't end up with that awful dark brown hair that really contrasts the skin

What's awful about dark brown hair? And how can it contrast all skin types?

I have highlights but I don’t deny it. Not sure if that makes me a pretender or not! I’m very fair skinned and my natural boring mousy brown really washes me out apart from in the summer when it does lighten naturally, so I have highlights all year round instead! I don’t pretend that I haven’t though

Oh meant to add my dad was blond and one of my sons is too. My cousins all have boys who are blond (whilst none of them are).

Not one girl or woman in the family is though!!

I dye my hair blonde (but with obvious roots showing for a while as I don't get it done every 6 weeks, I will stop the day roots go out of fashion again!) I'm very pale so find a lighter colour suits me better, and I have blue eyes.

But I find it so odd the amount of people who ask me if it's my natural colour or are surprised when they see photos of me darker. I have dark eyebrows and roots, of course I'm not naturally blonde?!