Psychology of Hair Colors

Girls with different hair colors — Photo: Depositphotos

Blondes are attractive but not intelligent, redheads are feisty and untrustworthy, while brunettes are reliable and intelligent. We all have heard these stereotypes and even worse ones. Deep down we feel that hair color should not make any difference in how someone is perceived or treated, yet it still happens and are you really free of having any ingrained preconceptions?

Studies and Surveys

In a study of 13,000 women, the University of Queensland found out that blondes make 7% more money than their darker-haired sisters. Which is interesting, since blondes are also the subject of many jokes all expressing that they are not thought to be very intelligent.

The Scandinavian Journal of Psychology also conducted two tests of how men react to different hair colors in a clearly defined range of circumstances, and over the past years there have been several reporters who went blonde for a day to see if they were treated differently.

And the results confirmed it. Blonde women were approached more often by men, they got better tables in restaurants and were considered to be alluring, flirtatious, and gentle, yet with a gullible side. Brunettes couldn't complain about a lack of attention either, however it was clearly less; at the same time, they were approached with more friendliness by other women.

Surveys also showed that brunette women were considered to be better in their profession, have more successful careers, better grades in school, and are, in general, smarter when it comes to making financial decisions.

The results of all of those studies and tests are very similar, and they do confirm some of the clichés that are out there. Blonde women do, in general, get more attention and are considered to be more fun and vivacious, but also naive, easygoing, and ditzy.

Women with different hair colors — Image: AI illustration

Brunettes are viewed as more elegant, more sophisticated, trustworthy, stable, and dependable, while Redheads get very mixed reviews with passionate as the common denominator and feisty, sexy on the positive side, bad-tempered and insincere on the negative.

Perception

The perception of hair color and associated attributes is perhaps as old as civilization. Even in ancient Greece, the gods were assigned different hair colors, and in Caesar's days, the women of Rome had ways to dye their hair blonde and when it got too damaged, they used wigs. Fair hair then was a sign of nobility. The worst part of the story of blonde occurred in the middle of the 20th century when blonde hair and blue eyes were considered to be the outward features of a superior race.

Red hair was not highly sought after for many centuries and got many women in fatal trouble during the times of the Inquisition. It happened regularly that red hair and unfortunate events in a village were enough to bring a woman to the pyre. Red as the hair color of the witch has later been used in cartoons and various movies.

Blonde today is the color of the trophy wife, the models, the sexy sirens and also the color of innocence and childlike playfulness. Red, especially since Rita Hayworth, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman stands for luxury, seduction, and confidence. Newer movies like "Legally Blonde" have done their part to boost the image of that color, and the stereotypes are gradually changing.

Happy girl with a beautiful hair color — Photo: Shopping King Louie/Canva

Brunette is perhaps the most neutral color, since black, with all of its boldness, still inspires visions of strength, power, and seductive sensuality.

It is still the blondes and the redheads that get the most attention. And the jokes. Both colors in their natural form are very rare, with blonde accounting for only about 2 percent of the world's population and red even less, with 1-2 percent. The tendency is that both colors are about to be extinct.

But don't despair, we have chemistry and a multi-billion dollar industry that does its best to kindle our desire to change our hair color whenever we feel the need for a change. Many women have gone through a range of colors in their lives and can perhaps, from their own experience, confirm that different hair colors may indeed result in a different way their peers are treating them.

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