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

[JustT]

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?

but the urban dictionary isn't very nice (I say this as a person with Mousy hair)

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mousy%20hair

Yes it's an insult and I remember adverts for hair colour would feature Unhappy women with mousy hair, beaming smiles once they went chestnut or auburn or whatever shade was the "warm" brown. It's is the grey brown non-shiny hair colour.

I call my hair mousey colour in a sort of self-deprecating way but if someone , particularly a hairdresser, called it mousey I would be slightly offended. I think you should tell the hairdresser that some people find this offensive.

Odly though, mousy blonde is a trend. Maybe mousy brunette is be one too.

"Will" not "is"

Never heard it as an insult. We've all got mouse brown hair here.

Ds (9yo) has just read that over my shoulder and went to admire his hair in the mirror and is now very proudly telling his friend on Minecraft that his hair is an animal and he bets they can't guess what. We've had squirrel and hedgehog so far.

Afraid I use it as a stupid term of abuse (never aloud). It makes me feel better about my greying brunette hair and many other physical flaws of mine. Pathetic isn't it?

DD2 has mousey brown hair: proper mousey with grey and almost greeny tones. It was also a bit coarse and fizzy so we kept it in a cute, jaw length bob. DD1 on the other hand had long silky rich dark brown hair which made DD2 feel very hard done by.

I always said, "Well your hair isn't your best thing but you are pretty good looking overall." And pointed out that hair is easy to change compared to your nose or your teeth, if you still dislike it when you are grown up.

At 17 she is mostly, but not always a redhead and the frizz has become gorgeous silky curls and waves.

I would mainly concentrate on not making an issue of it. Little girls shouldn't be fretting about their hair.

I can't believe people think this is an insult!?
It's a very good description of a colour!

I get annoyed when mousy or brown hair is called blonde. I hated the pepsi ad when the guy said, 'blond like Denise Richards' then it swapped a blonde actress for a decidedly mousy / light brown Denise Richards.

Yes I know DR is often blonde but in that add she wasn't.

I couldn't get worked up about it. It's a common term for that hair colour, it won't have been meant as an insult, just a description.

I have mousy hair, and I really like it. It's quite fashionable these days (although some magazines call it dark ash blonde/light ash brown). But it's mousy.

I have mousy hair. I've never thought of it as an insult just as a description of the colour of my hair!!

My new sil called my hair mousey & i felt it was an insult. Looks like a lots of people don't see it as an insult though.

Urgh yes I hate 'mousey' brown and have always taken it as a bit of an insult. It isn't a nice word! Who wants their hair to be compared to a mouse! Nobody would ever say 'what lovely mousey hair you have'. I always preferred golden blonde or light brown. Though I'm dark brown nowadays.

Mousy hair goes with soft colouring, and lots of anglo-saxons have it. It may be "dull" but it suits the people who own it, who tend to look completely washed out if they dye their hair platinum blonde or black or red. I have mousy hair, I don't take offence if someone calls it that, because that's what it is.

One of my sons has lovely hair, but it is very mousy, as is the hair of 95% of his classmates.

It's just a description of a (dullish) brown colour imo. Not an insult.

It's clearly an insult! Synonym for dull, boring, unimportant. I'd be very cross if it were used to my face, though i wouldn't complain to the salon in your circumstances. I wouldn't go back though.

What's wrong with simply saying plain brown?

My hair is mousy and I've never found it an insulting description. Yes, it's an 'inbetween' colour, but I'm fine with that as it's accurate!

I have the same worry with this as I do with people insisting that their own/children's hair isn't ginger. They are perpetuating the erroneous assumption that ginger is not a beautiful colour hair. I always find it sad when children I teach describe their hair as 'strawberry blonde', when their hair is actually a beautiful ginger! Children/people should not ever be ashamed of their looks. One of my absolute favourite moments of teaching was when two children with stunning red hair confidently and proudly branded themselves 'the ginger ninjas'. Just brilliant :)

My hair has been 'mousey' for nearly 50 years!
Is it heck an insult!
It's a description of a colour that is near brown than blonde ( or former blonde!!)
I personally. Think you are being ridiculous getting wound up about it.

RhubarbGin Tue 28-Mar-17 19:44:56
What's wrong with simply saying plain brown?

Because 'mousey' is describing a particular shade of brown.

'Brown' or 'light brown' or 'mid-brown' are neutral. 'Mouse brown' has connotations of dullness and lack of distinctiveness (as does the same term applied to someone's personality). It's the kind of cliché a creative writing teacher tries to eradicate in the first class. 'Emma had always been a dull, timid girl -- her mousey hair and high-necked blouses made her look, at twenty, like a retired librarian. Her friend Soraya, on the other hand, was a bubbly blonde...'

It does have some negative connotations but it's a language thing rather than a reflection on the colour I think. There are loads of pictures of celebs with dark blonde/light brown hair that could be described as mousy and look gorgeous so you could show her some of those - try Rosie Huntingdon Whiteley, Cara Delevigne, Millie Mackintosh?

I have only ever heard it used to describe hair as boring dull ash toned. At my school it was definitely not a compliment.

DH kept describing DDs hair as mousey, I said FFS don't say that in front of her, its an insult but he only meant it as a colour description. Perhaps it is a regional thing?

I describe DDs hair as caramel. It is a warm colour and very glossy, certainly not mousey. So there.