Thursday, June 25, 2009

Going Blonde For The Economy

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There's no doubt the state of the economy could turn our hair greyer but apparently it’s increasing the number of blondes! I have a beautiful book 'The Vogue Book of Blondes' that details the history of colouring hair blonde - from the earliest Egyptians as well as the Greeks, Hebrew, Assyrians, Persians and the ancient Chinese. And the psychology of blondes in fairytales, religion, entertainment. We humans are so interesting aren't we... I know it’s not important, the colour of our hair, or even if we have hair or not, but I’ve given time to brunettes in past posts so am focusing today on paying homage to the blondes of the world.


Cleopatra’s Long Forgotten Blonde Period Original Painting from Art Meister (Cleopatra was in fact a blonde. That’s because she was not Egyptian. She was a Mac was a Macedonian Greek, with hair as blonde as Alexander’s.)

Yes I’m blonde. Yes I’d love to be a brunette – often in my dreams I have dark hair and olive skin - much more suited to playing in the outdoors than being fair. But dark hair just doesn’t look any good on me. It never has. I started off as a ‘white blonde’ child, progressing in my teens to dark blonde (or mousey brown depending on who’s describing it)…and have been various shades of blonde ever since. Yes I lighten my hair. And it’s currently the lightest it’s ever been…practically white blonde.


Vintage Nun and Choir Boys Music Box from The Bakers Daughter Too

I have a confession to make. I haven’t been to the hairdressers in 10 years. I like to do it myself. That includes cutting and colouring. My hair is very straight and I found myself having to repair the cut a day after visiting the hairdresser so I started cutting it myself and have become quite good at it I think. Currently I have a concave bob with fringe.

Chickadee Oh Chickadee I Dreamt You Wove My Hair For Me, original charcoal drawing from The Extent of Silence

I found that paying a hairdresser to colour my hair was expensive and not convenient. You know what dyed hair is like…one day it’s looking fabulous then seemingly overnight you see the colour growing out. When you do it yourself you don’t have to go through days of walking around feeling unkempt. You can do it that day. It only takes half an hour and voila no regrowth.

Handpainted Pillow by Sandy Mastroni

I only mix half the contents of supermarket purchased colour and only ‘do’ the roots so it’s very inexpensive. And with some good hairdressing scissors a little trim can happen at the same time and you always look as if you stepped out of the hairdressers. I also put in some blonde toner once a week so that I get that nice ashy look. Weird as it may sound though I enjoy watching hairdressers and beauticians work...it's soooo relaxing.



Cut your hair straight after shampooing when it’s wet. I comb then clip the top section up, cut the underneath, then take the clips out and do the top layer. Do err on the side of caution although the beauty of doing it yourself is you can take more off if you need to. And if you happen to make a mistake, don’t worry, it’s only hair and it will grow back.




The best color in the whole world, is the one that looks good, on you! Coco Chanel

14 comments:

JoMo said...

This part of the perception of blonde vs. non-blonde is so telling: "[Advertisers] want safe wholesome looking girls... who will reassure rather than shock the consumer..."
Wow. Them's Fightin' Words.
Great article!
Jo (not blonde)

Tumble Fish Studio said...

Hello my Chrisy friend! What an interesting global observation! I had not noticed the prevalence of blondes (since I left the once very Scandinavian South Dakota) but it has long been a very wholesome and coveted color. Brunettes seem to get the rep as being somewhat vixenish. I have black brown hair which over the last 10 years has started turning white - first in patches, now salt and pepper all over. I am only 43 so I hope to have pure white hair, as close to blonde as I will get, in the next few years. I can't wait! Anyway, I am a bit sad to see the quirky models be cast away. I love quirky! (not that you can't be quirky and blonde) Oh well, very interesting post.

By the way, I am MEANT to live in the seashell house below. Oh my goodness - it is sooooo ME! Thanks for all of your lovely visits to me. You are one cool chick!

marsha

elsie said...

like most brunette little girls I longed to be blond - but I've tried on blond wigs and well... nah, it's a no go...

love this post though, blondie!!

Jetta's Nest said...

Very interesting. I guess blonde hair and blue eyes is quite wholesome....but I'll stick with my purple-black hair and green eyes anyday of the week for wholesome I am not!

Oh and I cut my own hair too and have for years. I'm always much happier with it when I do it myself.

Jade said...

Great post! My blonde story is a bit like yours - except I have a good friend who works for Wella so it's not too expensive for me either :) After trying many times to go darker it always fades fast and last trip to get my hair done last month saw me very blonde again - perhaps i was doing my bit for the recession without realising it??? he he

LillyShayStyle said...

I'm blonde but dye my hair red, lol. Yep, I dye my own hair as well :) I enjoyed the make up vid!

Sam said...

Oooh! You're a blondie! :) I'm a brunette - I've done the lot hair colour wise. I've even done blond and it really did me no favours! Love lady ga ga - she's such fun! I'll be back to check her out and the chanel cat walk show! Have a lovely weekend Chrisy!

Hey Harriet said...

Interesting! I tried the blonde look a very long time ago...bleached white and it looked awful on me. I jumped in a pool shortly after for a swim and my hair then turned green. Strangely enough it suited me better than the blonde! I always cut my own hair also. Sadly it is quite obvious that I do ;D

Anonymous said...

I went white blonde after getting the shits with the "grey stripe" of re growth. Blonde is now closer to my "natural" color...read grey...

So who cares? Interesting that fashion has tuned to a safe option...

Chrisy said...

Well we're a multicoloured lot aren't we...the thing that really shocked me when doing the research for this article...something I'd never taken any notice of before..was the use of blonde haired characters in fairy tales and fables as suggestions of goodness, youth, birth, strength, untarnished brightness, high value! Oh dear!

robin dudley-howes said...

Very hip blog. Thanks for flying over to my nest!
robin

Jen said...

This is so interesting! Thanks for the post!

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