Platinum, light, cool, and sun-kissed. These are all adjectives to describe the ideal shade of blonde hair. My natural hair color is a dirty or dishwater shade of blonde. However, I’ve been highlighting and dying my hair color since I was in high school.
I, like many women, prefer a lighter shade of blonde hair than I was originally born with. I think the engrained beauty standard of blonde hair is someone like Marilyn Monroe with her platinum blonde hairdo. The beauty standard for someone with dark blonde is pretty much nonexistent because it isn’t the “ideal” beauty standard we’ve been conditioned to believe.
While beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder, I think there are certain standards and looks of beauty that have been put on a pedestal. Have you ever noticed that when a pop star suddenly makes it big, they dye their hair from dark blonde or brown to a platinum blonde? Some examples of female and male singers include Avril Lavigne, Ingrid Michaelson, and Justin Bieber.
There is nothing wrong with this by the way. It is up to each individual how they choose to represent themselves. I am simply making the point that even the adjectives, dirty and dishwater, used to describe dark blonde hair are laced with a negative connotation. It implies that blonde women should somehow feel ashamed that their hair is not the idealized shade of platinum blonde.
I have to wonder if brunettes and redheads have this same sense of shame thrust upon them because they don’t have the most attractive shade of brown or red hair? Do they feel compelled to head to the nearest beauty salon to dye their hair? Is this beauty standard and idealized image of beauty a derivative leftover from the 1950s and the heydays of Marilyn Monroe? Who is creating this beauty standard and how do we as a society change it to include the many different forms of beauty?
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This post was previously published on Change Becomes You and is republished here with permission from the author.
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