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Written By Admin on Friday, May 23, 2014 | 10:27 PM

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Blonde Hairstyles Biography

Blond or blonde (see below), or fair hair, is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some sort of yellowish color. The color can be from the very pale blond (caused by a patchy, scarce distribution of pigment) to reddish "strawberry" blond colors or golden-brownish ("sandy") blond colors (the latter with more eumelanin). On the Fischer–Saller scale blond color ranges from A to J (blond brown).

Etymology, spelling, and grammar

The word "blond" is first attested in English in 1481^[1] and derives from Old French blund, blont meaning "a colour midway between golden and light chestnut".^[2] It gradually eclipsed the native term "fair", of same meaning, from Old English fæġer, causing "fair" later to become a general term for "light complexioned". This earlier use of "fair" survives in the proper nameFairfax, from Old English fæġer-feahs meaning "blond hair".

The French (and thus also the English) word "blond" has two possible origins. Some linguists^{[citation needed]} say it comes from Medieval Latin blundus, meaning "yellow", from Old Frankish blund which would relate it to Old English blonden-feaxmeaning "grey-haired", from blondan/blandan meaning "to mix" (Cf. blend). Also, Old English beblonden meant "dyed" as ancient Germanic warriors were noted for dying their hair. However, linguists who favor a Latin origin for the word say that Medieval Latin blundus was a vulgar pronunciation of Latin flavus, also meaning yellow. Most authorities, especially French, attest the Frankish origin. The word was reintroduced into English in the 17th century from French, and was for some time considered French; in French, "blonde" is a feminine adjective; it describes a woman with blond hair.^[3]

"Blond", with its continued gender-varied usage, is one of few adjectives in written English to retain separate masculine and feminine grammatical genders. Each of the two forms, however, is pronounced identically. American Heritage's Book of English Usage propounds that, insofar as "a blonde" can be used to describe a woman but not a man who is merely said to possess blond(e) hair, the term is an example of a "sexist stereotype [whereby] women are primarily defined by their physical characteristics."^[4] The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) records that the phrase "big blond beast" was used in the 20th century to refer specifically to men"of the Nordic type" (that is to say, blond-haired).^[5] The OED also records that blond as an adjective is especially used with reference to women, in which case it is likely to be spelt "blonde", citing three Victorian usages of the term. The masculine version is used to describe a plural, in "blonds of the European race",^[5] in a citation from 1833 Penny cyclopedia, which distinguishes genuine blondness as aCaucasian feature distinct from albinism.^[6]

By the early 1990s, "blonde moment" or being a "dumb blonde" had come into common parlance to mean "an instance of a person, esp. a woman... being foolish or scatter-brained."^[7] Another hair color word of French origin, brunet(te) (from the same Germanic root that gave "brown"), also functions in the same way in orthodox English. The OED gives "brunet" as meaning "dark-complexioned" or a "dark-complexioned person", citing a comparative usage of brunet and blond to Thomas Henry Huxley in saying, "The present contrast of blonds and brunets existed among them".^[8] "Brunette" can be used, however, like "blonde", to describe a mixed-gender populace. The OED quotes Grant Allen, "The nation which resulted... being sometimes blonde, sometimes brunette."^[9]

"Blond" and "blonde" are also occasionally used to refer to objects that have a color reminiscent of fair hair. Examples include pale wood and lager beer. For example, the OED records its use in 19th century poetic diction to describe flowers, "a variety of clay ironstone of the coal measures", "the colour of raw silk",^[5] and a breed of ray.^[10]

Varieties

Various subcategories of blond hair have been defined to describe someone with blond hair more accurately. Common examples include the following:

blond/flaxen:^[11]^[12] when distinguished from other varieties, "blond" by itself refers to a light but not whitish blond with no traces of red, gold, or brown; this color is often described as "flaxen".

yellow: yellow-blond ("yellow" can also be used to refer to hair which has been dyed yellow).
platinum blond^[13] or towheaded:^[14]^[15] whitish-blond; almost all platinum blonds are children. Although it is found on people in Northern Europe. "Platinum blond" is often used to describe bleached hair, while "towheaded" generally refers to natural hair color.
sandy blond:^[16]^[17] grayish-hazel or cream-colored blond.
golden blond: a darker to rich, golden-yellow blond.
strawberry blond,^[18] Venetian blond^[19] or honey blond: reddish blond.
dirty blond^[20] or dishwater blond:^[21] dark blond with flecks of golden blond and brown.
ash-blond:^[22] ashen or grayish blond.
bleached blond, bottle blond, or peroxide blond^[23] terms used to refer to artificially coloured blond hair.

Evolution of blond hair

Natural lighter hair colors occur most often in Europe and less frequently in other areas.^[24]In Northern European populations, the occurrence of blond hair is very frequent. The hair color gene MC1R has at least seven variants in Europe giving the continent a wide range of hair and eye shades. Based on recent genetic research carried out at three Japanese universities, the date of the genetic mutation that resulted in blond hair in Europe has been isolated to about 11,000 years ago during the last ice age.^[25]

A typical explanation found in the scientific literature for the evolution of light hair is related to the requirement for vitamin D synthesis and northern Europe's seasonal deficiency of sunlight.^[26] Lighter skin is due to a low concentration in pigmentation, thus allowing more sunlight to trigger the production of vitamin D. In this way, high frequencies of light hair in northern latitudes are a result of the light skin adaptation to lower levels of sunlight, which reduces the prevalence of rickets caused by vitamin D deficiency. The darker pigmentation at higher latitudes in certain ethnic groups such as the Inuit is explained by a greater proportion of seafood in their diet. As seafood is high in vitamin D, vitamin D deficiency would not create a selective pressure for lighter pigmentation in that population.

An alternative hypothesis was presented by Canadian anthropologist Peter Frost, who claims blond hair evolved very quickly in a specific area at the end of the last ice age by means of sexual selection.^[27] According to Frost, the appearance of blond hair and blue eyes in some northern European women made them stand out from their rivals at a time of fierce competition for scarce males.^[28]

A theory propounded in The History and Geography of Human Genes (1994), says blond hair became predominant in Northern Europe beginning about 3,000 BC, in the area now known as Lithuania, among the recently arrived Proto-Indo-European settlers (according to the Kurgan hypothesis), and the trait spread quickly through sexual selection into Scandinavia. As above, the theory assumes that men found women with blond hair more attractive.^[29]

It is now hypothesized by researchers that blond hair evolved more than once. Published in May 2012 in Science, a study of people from the Solomon Islands in Melanesia found that an amino acid change in TYRP1 produced blonde hair.^[30]^[31]

Relation to age

Blond hair is most common in light-skinned infants and children,^[61] so much so that the term "baby blond" is often used for very light colored hair. Babies may be born with blond hair even among groups where adults rarely have blond hair although such natural hair usually falls out quickly. Blond hair tends to turn darker with age, and many children's blond hair turns light, medium, dark brown or black before or during their adult years.^[61] As blond hair tends to turn brunette with age, natural blonde hair is rare and makes up approximately 2% of the world's population.^[62]