From Mary-Kate Olsen to Gigi Hadid and Hailey Bieber, the message is loud and clear: put down the bleach.
Why 2021 Is the Year I Stop Highlighting My Hair
Fran Lebowitz once wrote, “The most common error made in matters of appearance is the belief that one should disdain the superficial and let the true beauty of one’s soul shine through.” Now, I don’t know what exactly the world-class wit thinks of bottle blondes, but, if we take her words at face value, they seem to suggest that our God-given hair color is perhaps not what suits us best. While I tend to agree with Lebowitz on just about everything (the value of a uniform; the idiocy of lounge chairs in Times Square), this is where we diverge.
A few weeks ago, I was scrolling through my colorist’s Instagram when I spotted a photo of myself that stopped me in my tracks: I look like everyone else, I thought, appalled. From this vantage point, I was just one of the many masked, mouthless, wannabe baby blondes posing in the same black salon robe, against the same black backdrop, with the same head full of expensively placed highlights. It was enough for me to cancel my follow-up appointment—permanently.
And it turns out I’m not the only one: Who could forget Gigi Hadid’s star turn in Jacquemus's fall 2020 collection, when the newly pregnant mom-to-be flicked her mousy (yes, mousy!) lengths, and, in a single motion, dispelled the age-old adage that blondes have more fun? Gone were her signature sun-kissed streaks—one of the world’s most famous towheads had grown up. Just a few weeks later, she made her debut appearance on The Row runway, and one couldn’t help but wonder if her darker—dare I say, duller—tresses had helped her earn a spot in the ultimate purveyors of discrete chic’s lineup. After all, at some point in the mid-2010s, Mary-Kate Olsen herself seemingly abandoned dye entirely.
This story originally appeared on: Vogue - Author:Zoe Ruffner
