What exactly is "dirty blonde" hair? And is there a more flattering name for it?

[Charlotte:)]

Some people say it's just dark blonde hair. Others have said that is blonde hair with a mixture of gold and ash tones. Some people say it is simply ashy blonde hair. Does anybody really know what it is?

As for the names, the only other one I know of is "dishwater blonde" which is also unflattering.

[Mountaingrrl]

I'd say ash blonde.

[ElusiveMuse]

Autumn blonde?

[luxepiggy]

I've always interpreted it as dark blonde.

ETA: So does dictionary.com (^(oo)^)
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dirty%20blond

[Katze]

Somewhere here there is a whole thread about better names for 'hair-colored','tawny' and so-on hair. Dark blonde/light brown, usually ashy, is what I think is meant. My personal contribution was 'puma colored.'

Here in Germany the term is 'street dog colored hair' - also not very nice.

However, since everyone seems to think I have brown hair now, even my mom, I guess I can't call myself any of these lovely names.

[shikara]

I like ash blonde - hmmm, I'm gonna have to check the hair dye section at the store again - I was looking at colors (to see names for - you guessed it - dirty blonde) and there were a few interesting names there....

[pepperminttea]

I quite like the tawny description (because hair that's owl-coloured just strikes me as awesome), but I generally call it dark blonde.

[Loviatar]

I say dark blonde if it's got golden tones and ash blonde if it hasn't, but my friend Steven calls it Russian Blonde! (He has this colour hair, btw)

[Mesmerise]

Ash blonde or light brown depending on the exact shade. A bit ligher and I'd go with Ash blonde, and a bit darker and I go with light brown

[frizzinator]

I would describe is as "fair" colored hair. Is a more detailed description necessary?