blonde

Blond (or Blonde, see below) is a hair color found in certain mammals characterised by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin and higher levels of the pale pigment pheomelanin, in common with red hair. From degrees of light brown to pale blond, the various hues of blondness are found in a little less than 1.8% of the world's population.

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 (strawberry blonde is an uncommon hair color which is also known as ginger) or golden brownish blond colors, the latter with more eumelanin. True blonds have the thinnest strands of hair while the strands of red hair are the thickest. Blond hair can be found in humans and certain breeds of dogs and cats, among other mammalian species.

Etymology, spelling, and grammar

The word blond was first attested in English in 1481 and derives from Old French blont and meant "a colour midway between golden and light chestnut". The French (and thus also the the English word) has 2 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 dying 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 until recently still felt as French, hence blonde for females and blond for males.^[1]

Some writers of English still distinguish carefully 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 people 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 blonde 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 dolls' hair, pale wood, and lager beer.

Origins

Lighter hair colors occur naturally in humans of many ethnicities, which started as rare mutations^[3] , but at such low rates that it is hardly noticeable in most populations, or is only found in children. In certain European populations, the occurrence of blond hair is more frequent, and often remains throughout adulthood, leading to misinterpretation that blondness is a uniquely European trait.

Based on recent genetic information, it is probable that humans with blond hair became distinctly numerous in Europe about 11,000 to 10,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. Before then, Europeans had dark brown hair and dark eyes, which is predominant in the rest of the world.^[3]

A long standing question has been why did certain populations in Europe evolve to have such high incidences of blond hair (and wide varieties of eye color) so relatively recently and quickly in the human evolution timescale? If the changes had occurred by the usual processes of evolution (natural selection), they would have taken about 850,000 years.^[3] But modern humans, emigrating from Africa, reached Europe only 35,000-40,000 years ago.^[3] Canadian anthropologist Peter Frost, under the aegis of University of St Andrews, published a study in March 2006 in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior that says blond hair evolved very quickly at the end of the last Ice Age by means of sexual selection.^[4] According to the study, 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. The study argues that 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. Almost the only sustenance in northern Europe came from roaming herds of mammoths, reindeer, bison and horses and finding them required long, arduous hunting trips in which numerous males died, leading to a high ratio of surviving women to men. This hypothesis argues that women with blond hair posed an attractive alternative that helped them mate and thus increased the number of blonds.

Other geneticists believe that blonde hair originated more recently. It is estimated by these geneticists that the gene for blond hair originated about 3000 BC in the area now known as Lithuania among the recently arrived Aryan (Proto-Indo-European) settlers of the area (Lithuania is still the country that has the highest percentage of people with blonde hair); it is thought the gene spread quickly through sexual selection into Scandinavia when that area was settled because men found women with blond hair attractive. ^[5][6]

Relation to age and distribution on body

Blond hair is common in infants and children, 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 natal hair usually falls out quickly. Blond hair tends to turn darker with age, and many children born blond turn from anything between a light brown to even black before or during their teenage years.

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. 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.

Distribution among humans

Fair hair is a stereotypical characteristic of the people of Northern Europe, particularly in the British Isles, Scandinavia, Russia and the other Nordic countries and for this reason very pale hair is often referred to as Nordic blond. Apart from Europe, blond hair is present proportions in the Middle East, South Asia though not as popular there, notably found amongst Syrians, Lebanese, Persians, Kurds, and other Iranians in Iran, Punjabis of India and Pakistan, and Pashtuns and Tajiks of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Generally, blond hair in Europeans is associated with paler eye colour (blue, green and light brown) and pale (sometimes freckled) skin tone. Strong sunlight also lightens hair of any pigmentation, to varying degrees, and causes many blond people to freckle, especially during childhood. Aboriginal Australians, especially in the west-central parts of the continent, also have a fairly high instance of yellow-brown hair.^[7][8] The trait among Indigenous Australians is primarily associated with children and women and generally the hair turns to a darker brown color as they age.^[9]

Cultural reactions

Some dark-haired people have historically found pale hair to be interesting, and even wished to emulate it. The dark-haired women of Rome used to buy wigs made from hair from the flaxen- and red- and dark-haired Celtic and Germanic tribespeople and Greek poli with whom their civilisation came into contact. In modern Western culture, the bleaching of hair is common, especially among women. Bleached blond hair can be distinguished from natural blond hair by exposing it to ultraviolet light, as heavily bleached hair will glow, while natural blond hair will not. Those Vikings who had darker hair colours often bleached it to be blonde or reddish blonde with a type of soap.

Some research suggests that fair hair, being characteristic of young children, evokes parent-like feelings of affection and protection in others.^{citation needed]} This association with children may also be the cause of the common Western stereotype of blonds as being unintelligent.^{citation needed]} Two notable sex icons of twentieth-century America who helped popularize this image were Marilyn Monroe and Jean Harlow. Monroe, who was blonde as a child though her hair darkened, and Harlow, a natural ash blonde, both frequently portrayed "classic" dumb blondes in their films, yet were known as intelligent people. Jean Harlow is often credited as being the person who made it acceptable in Western culture for ordinary women to artificially bleach their hair blonde without being perceived as prostitutes.^{citation needed]}

In the early twentieth century, blond hair was sometimes associated with an Aryan master race, promoted by Nordicists such as Madison Grant and Alfred Rosenberg, although brown and/or dark hair was (and still is) more common in races that supremacists considered 'Aryan'.

Many sub-categories of blonde hair have also been made to describe someone with blonde hair more accurately. Examples include the following: Platinum Blonde (nearly white; almost only found naturally in children, but occurring rarely amongst some adult ethnic Finns and Swedes); Towhead (same as platinum blonde); Sandy Blonde (similar to sand in color); Ash Blonde (usually quite fair and has some ashen (grey) color to it), Dirty Blonde, Dishwater Blonde (these three are much the same, describing a dark blonde shade, though the last two may be considered offensive); Golden Blonde (lighter, with a gold cast); Bottled Blonde (i.e., someone who bleaches their hair); Strawberry Blonde (with a reddish hue); Pool Blonde (greenish hair some people get after habitual use of a chlorinated pool); Hazy Blonde; Zebra Blonde (blonde/brunette with natural blonde/brown streaks in their hair; often occurs when hair is in a design that hides some hair under other hair while out in the sun for long periods of time).

In 2002 there was a worldwide hoax that scientists predicted blondes were eventually going to become extinct. The hoax cited WHO as the source of the scientific study. (see "Disappearing blonde gene" below).

Notes

1. ^ Origin of "blonde", from Etymonline.
2. ^ ^a b "Blond/Brunet" from The American Heritage Book of English Usage (1996)
3. ^ ^a b c d "Cavegirls were first blondes to have fun", from The Times. Note, the end of the Times article reiterates the Disappearing blonde gene hoax; the online version replaced it with a rebuttal.
4. ^ Abstract: "European hair and eye color: A case of frequency-dependent sexual selection?" from Evolution and Human Behavior, Volume 27, Issue 2, Pages 85-103 (March 2006)
5. ^ Cavalli-Sforza, L. Luca; Menozzi, Paolo; and Piazza Alberto The History and Geography of Human Genes Princeton, New Jersey: 1994 Princeton University Press Page 266 -- Map of the incidence of the gene for blonde hair in Europe.
6. ^ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
7. ^ [1]
8. ^ [2]
9. ^ [3]

Gallery

See also

• Black hair
• Brown hair
• Red hair
• Disappearing blonde gene (an unfounded hoax)
• Blonde jokes
• Dumb blonde
• Platinum Blonde
• Recessive genes
• Strawberry blonde