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Blond (or blonde, see below) is a hair color found in certain people 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, going from the very pale blond caused by a patchy, scarce distribution of pigment, to reddish "strawberry" blond colors or golden brownish blond colors, the latter with more eumelanin.

Contents 1 Etymology, Spelling, and Grammar 1.1 Classification 2 Origins 3 Relation to age and distribution on body 4 Distribution 4.1 In Europe 4.2 Recordings of Blonde Hair 4.3 Non-European Distribution 5 Blondism Today 5.1 Popular Culture 5.2 Blonde Hoax 6 In History 7 Notes 8 External links

The word blonde was first attested in English in 1481 and derives from Old French blont and meant "a colour midway between golden and light chestnut". It largely replaced the native term fair, from Old English fæger. The French (and thus also the English) word blond has two possible origins. Some linguists say it comes from Middle Latin Blundus, meaning yellow, others say it comes from Old Frankish *blund which would relate it to Old English blonden-feax meaning grey-haired, from blondan/blandan meaning to mix. Also, Old English beblonden meant dyed as ancient Germanic warriors were noted for dyeing their hair. The linguists who support the Latin origins however say that Middle Latin blundus was a vulgar pronunciation of Latin flavus, also meaning yellow. The word was reintroduced into English in the 17th century from French, and was for some time considered French, hence blonde for females/noun and blond for males/adjective.^[1]

Writers of English will still distinguish between the masculine blond and the feminine blonde^[2] and, as such, it is one of the few adjectives in English with separate masculine and feminine forms. However, many writers use only one of the spellings without regard to gender, and without a clear majority usage one way or another. The word is also often used as a noun to refer to a woman with blond hair, but some speakers see this usage as sexist^[2] and reject it. (Another hair color word of French origin, brunet(te), also functions in the same way in orthodox English.)

The word is also occasionally used, with either spelling, to refer to objects that have a color reminiscent of fair hair. Examples include pale wood and lager beer.

Many sub-categories of blond hair have also been invented to describe someone with blond hair more accurately. Examples include the following:

• Platinum blond and towhead - Pale blond, nearly white; found naturally almost exclusively in children, but occurring rarely among some adults
• Ash blond - usually quite fair, with some ashen (grey) tones
• Sunny blond - Very bright, ranging from almost yellow to light yellow.
• Sandy blond - similar to sand in color
• Golden blond or honey blond - lighter, with a gold cast
• Strawberry blond - reddish blond
• Bottle blond or bleach blond - artificially dyed blond hair
• Hazy blond or zebra blond - streaked blond and brunette
• Dirty blond or dishwater blond - dark blond
• Brownish blond - darkest shade of blond which sometimes looks light brown and other times dark blond.
• Pool blond - Blond tinted with green due to exposure to copper in swimming pools, there are many words for this form of blond.

[1]

Europeans used to have mostly black hair and dark eyes, which is predominant in the rest of the world.^[3] Lighter hair colors occur naturally in Europeans and as rare mutation in other ethnicities.^[3] Based on recent genetic information, it is probable blond hair became distinctly numerous in Europe during the last Ice Age.

Why have certain European populations quickly evolved high incidences of blond hair and wide varieties of eye color? If the changes occurred by the usual process of natural selection, it should have taken about 850,000 years.^[3] However, modern humans, emigrating from Africa, reached Europe only 35,000-40,000 years ago.^[3] A number of theories have been proposed, as follows.

Canadian anthropologist Peter Frost published a study in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior which says blond hair evolved very quickly at the end of the last Ice Age by sexual selection.^[4] The appearance of blond hair and blue eyes in women made them stand out from rivals at a time of fierce competition for scarce males. Sustenance in northern Europe came from roaming herds of mammoths, reindeer, bison and horses; and finding them required long, arduous hunting trips leading to a high ratio of surviving women to men. The study concludes women with blond hair posed an alternative that helped them mate and thus increased the number of blonds.

The study argues blond hair was produced higher in the Cro-Magnon descended population of the European region because of food shortages 10,000-11,000 years ago. According to the authors of The History and Geography of Human Genes (1994), blond hair became predominant in Europe in about 3000 BC, in the area now known as Lithuania, among the recently arrived Proto-Indo-European settlers though the trait spread quickly through sexual selection into Scandinavia, when the area was settled because men found women with blond hair attractive.^[5][6]

The frequency of blond hair in infants and children coined the term "baby blond." Blonde natal hair usually falls out quickly and adults rarely have blond hair.^[7] Blond hair tends to turn darker with age, and many blonde children develop light, medium or dark brown hair before or during their teenage years. True blonds often have platinum blond hair as children; pale skin with little pigment, pale eye-lashes and grey eyes. If their hair darkens with age, it tends to turn a darker ash-blond; not the rich brown of a brunette. Eyelashes and eyebrows remain fair. (Eyelash color is probably the best marker for prediction of adult hair color.)

Those who turn brunette as teens usually have more pigment to begin with; a slightly golden skin tone that tans a little more easily than the paler skin of true blonds, often (but not always) a richer, more golden-blond hair color, dark eye-lashes and bright blue, green, hazel or (in rare cases) brown eyes.

The body hair of blonds is also blond, although terminal hair elsewhere on the body may be darker than hair on the head, and even brown. Facial hair is often reddish. Vellus, on the other hand, may be very light or even transparent. Hair that grows from a mole or from a birthmark may be dark.

Blonde hair is at the highest frequency in countries of Northern Europe. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Germany, Austria, Iceland, and the Netherlands have the highest frequencies in the world. Most of these countries have nearly 50% of their population being blonde. For example, in Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands, approximately 50% (a range of 45-55% for each) of their native populations are blonde. In some of the other countries, the rate is even higher, with Iceland, Sweden and Finland each having ranges that go up to 70%.^[8] However, Switzerland, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus, parts of Great Britain, parts of France, Northern Spain, and Northern Russia also exhibit frequencies of blonde hair, but most of these countries have rates that are drastically lower than those seen in Scandinavia, Germany, Netherlands, Estonia, and Austria.

Generally, blond hair in Europeans is associated with gray, blue, green and light brown eyes along with pale (and sometimes freckled) skin tone. Strong sunlight lightens hair of any pigmentation, to varying degrees, and causes some blond people to freckle, especially during childhood.

Some Guanches populations, particularly the now extinct aboriginal population of Tenerife, one of the Canary islands of the African Atlantic coast, were said by 14th century Spanish explorers to exhibit blond hair and blue eyes.^[9][10] Blondness was also reported among South American Indians. In Central and South Asia the same types of features were exhibited by certain groups. It is still found in higher frequency among some populations of Central Asia, particularly among the Kalash of Pakistan and the Nuristani people of Afghanistan.

Aboriginal Australians, especially in the west-central parts of the continent, have a fairly high instance of natural bright yellow blond-to-brown hair,^[12][13] with as many as 90-100% of children having blond hair in some areas.^[14] The trait among Indigenous Australians is primarily associated with children and women, and sometimes the hair turns to a darker brown color as they age.^[14] Blondness is also found throughout other parts of the South Pacific especially in Melanesia in high numbers such as in the Solomon Islands again higher incidences in children but here many adults too carry this indigenous blond mutation. Blonds are found in North Africa in Morocco, Tunisia and northern Algeria, and in South West Asia as well.^{[citation needed]} The Iranians and related groups have a higher frequency of blonds in the Middle East (there's a very high incidence of blondness among the people of northern Iran, especially in Azerbaijan, and also to some degree in Gilan and Golestan near the Turkmen border), which includes the Kalash of Pakistan and Nuristani of Afghanistan.^{[citation needed]}

Many mixed-race Europeans exhibit blond hair or hues of blond: often golden, brass, or copper toned.^{[citation needed]}

In northern Europe fairy lore, fairies value blond hair in humans. Blond babies are more likely to be stolen and replaced with changelings, and young blond women are more likely to be lured away to the land of the fairies.^[15]

Blond hair was commonly ascribed to the heroes and heroines of European fairy tales. This may occur in the text, as in Madame d'Aulnoy's La Belle aux cheveux d'or or The Beauty with Golden Hair, or in illustrations depicting the scenes.^[16] Only Snow White, because of her mother's wish for a child "as red as blood, as white as snow, as black as ebony," has dark hair.^[17]

Two notable bleached sex icons of twentieth-century America, who started causing an unrealistic, more or less scandalous and otherwise negative image of real blond hair, were Jean Harlow and Marilyn Monroe. Monroe, who was pale blond as a child though her hair darkened to brown and Harlow, a natural ash blonde, both frequently portrayed stereotypical dumb blondes in their films.

In the media and in culture, blonde women are often portrayed as "promiscuous", and thus "have more fun." Blonde jokes are a class of jokes based on a "dumb blonde" stereotype of blonde women (or rarely, blonde men) being unintelligent, sexually promiscuous, or both.

In 2002 there was a worldwide hoax that scientists predicted blonds were eventually going to become extinct. The hoax cited WHO as the source of the scientific study. See recessive alleles for more information on the genetic basis of blond hair.

In the early-mid twentieth century, blond hair was associated with a master Aryan race promoted by the Nazis. Blond hair was one of the traits used to select Slavic children for Germanization.

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See also: Hair coloring · Category:Hair color

• "United Blondes" (A dating site exclusively dedicated to blonde women)