Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that calling hair 'mousy' is an insult, not a description of the colour

194 replies

JustT · 28/03/2017 16:28

My daughter has beautiful long hair that I call 'golden brown'. It was blonde as a baby but has got darker as she's got older and she's now 8. She's always been really happy with her hair colour and I'm pleased because I remember my own mum putting lemon juice and 'sun-in' in my hair when I was a kid to desperately try and keep it blonde for longer. I want my daughter to be happy with her hair as it is. So I was a bit upset when she was having her hair cut last week and the hairdresser said that her hair was 'mousy'. This doesn't sound like a colour to me, it actually sounds like an insult and a way of saying that it is an unattractive colour. Since then my daughter's actually said that she doesn't like having 'mousy' hair and that it isn't a nice colour. I'm so upset as she's never expressed this before and I want her to have confidence in her appearance. Not sure what to do now or whether to speak to the hairdresser about it. Surely she should know that this isn't a nice way to describe a little girl's hair, or even a neutral description of colour. It's an insult right?

OP posts:
BoyFromTheBigBadCity · 28/03/2017 17:04

Yabu. My hair is finally 'dark' but it's still mousey in tone. It's not rich chestnut, or particularly warm. It's (to me) like being an 'ashy' blonde. I once dyed my hair a warm rich brown, as dark as my own, and it really didn't suit me.

littlefrog3 · 28/03/2017 17:05

I don't think it was meant as an insult.

Mousy is an actual hair colour.

Many Caucasian women have it in the UK. It's not that bad, and it's not an insult. Although many women do like to have it lightened a couple of shades.

YABU.

steff13 · 28/03/2017 17:07

I'd consider it an insult. When I think of mousy hair, I think of brown hair that's sort of flat, without any shine or natural highlights or anything like that. One-dimensional, I guess.

Urban dictionary (not an official source, really, but still representative of the average person, I think) calls it "a really ugly boring hair color."

TondelayaDellaVentamiglia · 28/03/2017 17:08

As the hairdresser was snipping your daughter's hair she said "this is a mousey colour" ?...out of the blue, for no reason and with all the implied insult she could muster?

Seems unlikely to me tbh.

Doyouwantabrew · 28/03/2017 17:09

No it's rude and always was.

Thing is op let's face it most girls change their hair colour so she will anyway probably by 13. Your hairdresser is a silly cow though.

previously1474etc · 28/03/2017 17:11

Mousey has been a colour as long as I can remember, but people have tried to make it sound more glamorous by calling it dark blonde when it is actually light or mid brown. If it has blonde streaks/highlights then it would be dark blonde to me.

Similar to someone I know who went a mix of mouse and grey and called it ash blonde, which it really wasn't, it was salt and pepper.

People see things differently. Some mice are brown, some are grey Grin

JammyGeorge · 28/03/2017 17:12

Mousy brown hair is a totally normal description round here wouldn't of entered my head that it was an insult.

QuizTeamaAguilera · 28/03/2017 17:13

I'm slowly growing out my reddish-brown and embracing the mouse! I know what you mean though, it doesn't sound the most appealing word but the colour itself can be really lovely, and really trendy as someone mentioned upthread. I first dyed mine at 13 and at 31 would now quite like my original mouse back after having been anything from raven to peroxide blonde.

Sciurus83 · 28/03/2017 17:14

As someone with natural mousey brown hair, yes, I think it's a descriptor that comes with a negative value judgement

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 28/03/2017 17:14

If your dd is genuinely upset about this and you're not over analysing the mousey comments because of your own mother's comments, then take inspiration from littleFrog's picture.
Show your dd some women with beautiful mousey hair online.

Maybe try not to make too much of an issue out of it though. She's still young.

lljkk · 28/03/2017 17:15

Hunh? Not an insult. It's a colour. It doesn't mean ugly or frizzy or dirty. Weird.

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 28/03/2017 17:15

My mum called my hair "dirty blonde" which is probably worse. Grin

BabyDubsEverywhere · 28/03/2017 17:18

mousey hair is a totally standard description round here... I don't get how its insulting?

BipBippadotta · 28/03/2017 17:19

I wouldn't take 'mousy' as an insult, any more than 'strawberry' or 'chestnut' (mice are just as nice as strawberries or chestnuts, aren't they?) I've got mousy hair and I suppose I could call it 'rich luxuriant beige' but I'd feel a bit of a twat TBH.

PuppyMonkey · 28/03/2017 17:19

I'd take it as an insult. Bet that hair colour the model has wouldn't be described as "mousy" on the box. Grin

manicinsomniac · 28/03/2017 17:20

Oh, I've never thought of it like that. I always describe my hair as mousy brown - ie, the same shade of brown as a mouse. Like this:

media.kids-myshot.nationalgeographic.com/2014/08/53f8989532629DSC_0088_large_medium.jpg

Never considered that it could be an insult.

originalbiglymavis · 28/03/2017 17:21

It's just an expression and I've never heard it used as an insult. I'm sure you won't hear someone getting bullied over having mousy coloured hair or having arses yelling ' you mousy [fill in your own expletive]'.

The very worst is that it implies that the colour is a bit boring.
You never heard of a 'kick a mouse' day or have parents told to dye their mousy baby's hair, or that they hate mousy babies and would drown their baby if they had brown hair.

As a redhead, I really don't see the issue. Mice are gorgeous. 🐁

Venchi · 28/03/2017 17:22

I describe my own hair as mousey but I wouldn't say it to somebody else, I'd say, um, fair I think. Fair hair. Or pale brown. I nearly always make my hair either lighter or darker. There is no celebrity with my colour hair because they make it lighter or darker.

ILostItInTheEarlyNineties · 28/03/2017 17:22

Good point actually Puppy, I've never seen a mouse hairdye!
It would be described as dark ash blonde.

lemontoast · 28/03/2017 17:22

Mouse that model doesn't have ' mouse like hair. Her colour has too much depth. Almost a hint of red.
Mouse coloured hair is flat. A cold almost transparent brown!
You actually don't see it that often... most hair in the UK has a hint of something else!

Roomster101 · 28/03/2017 17:23

She probably didn't mean it as an insult but nobody really aspires to have mousey hair so it was a bit thick of her to say it. A huge proportion of the population in the UK have that hair colour as older children/adults though including plenty of models so your DD is in good company.

PerspicaciaTick · 28/03/2017 17:24

Mousy - the colour of mouse fur. Not an insult.

Roomster101 · 28/03/2017 17:24

You actually don't see it that often... most hair in the UK has a hint of something else!

A hint of hair dye (e.g. blonde/red highlights)

PuppyMonkey · 28/03/2017 17:25

Here is an example of a dictionary definition

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mousy