Difference Between Dark Blonde and Light Brown Hair?

[UP Lisa]

Does anyone know of any pictures anywhere that would show the difference between dark blonde and light brown hair? I don't know if I can still call my hair blonde at all.

Can anyone explain the difference?

[Beldaran]

That stumps me too. The one thing I know is that regardless of how dark my sister's hair is, NEVER call it brown, not even light golden brown. :scared:

[Dani]

I have no idea. They are pretty much one and the same to me. My hair is "dark ash blonde" or "light ash brown". It's more fun to call it blonde if brown seems too boring. That's about all there is to it, as far my brain goes. :p

[MandyBeth]

My hair is smack in the middle of dark ash blonde and light ash brown. Or, light mouse brown as I call it.

[SimplyViki]

I have no clue. My mom always called my hair blonde, so that's what I call it, too. Even though it doesn't really look all that blonde to me these days...

[coscass]

Try this. We had to learn to type hair like this in cosmetology school. http://www.headhuntershair.com/hair/newimagecolors.jpg

[Atlantic]

That stumps me too. The one thing I know is that regardless of how dark my sister's hair is, NEVER call it brown, not even light golden brown. :scared:

Exactly. I work on the principle that if it's on my head, then it's blonde, no matter how dark a blonde. ;) As the silvers come in, it's champagne blonde. Luckily my DH agrees.

[Akiko]

Long time ago, I asked about colors on this board. What I found out is what people call "blond" varies. Especially in the US, it seemed blond refers to a wide range of colors. What I see as "brown" is often called blond in this country, which puzzled me at first. Well it still does.

[Dreams_in_Pink]

i look at the eyebrows :D if they're darker than hair, i call it brown. If lighter, i call it blond.

[xoxophelia]

I just call my natural color blonette. XD

People seem to look at me when I called it blonde and say "you aren't blonde" and if I called myself brunette I would get the opposite. These people practically sounded offended! And personally, *I* consider it offensive when people call it dish water or mousy.

If your hair gets gold highlights under the sun, I here by dub thee blonette. :)

Sounds much prettier.

[Phalaenopsis]

Try this. We had to learn to type hair like this in cosmetology school. http://www.headhuntershair.com/hair/newimagecolors.jpg

Cool, that means that my hair would be pecan brown. :)

[redneckprincess]

good question...I always called my (well since its been growing out to natural color) light brown, but I have heard others refer to it as dark blonde, I think I like the sound of that better

[cmnt831]

I have a bad habit of calling anyone with hair lighter than mine, blond; and if it's darker I call it black. :o I have not, however, called anyone's hair mousy or dishwater. :)

[Elistariel]

good question...I always called my (well since its been growing out to natural color) light brown, but I have heard others refer to it as dark blonde, I think I like the sound of that better

Looking at your sig pics, I'd say your hair is definitely blonde. I've still got some wash-out dye in my hair so I can't tell what color my hair is based on that chart. Then there's the whole indoor vs outdoor lighting and are the colors showing true on my monitor, how good is my printer, etc.

[MandyBeth]

I don't call anyone else's hair dishwater or mousy. MY hair however is mouse brown, and thus it has had henna encounters because I want red hair instead.

[teela1978]

I have a bad habit of calling anyone with hair lighter than mine, blond; and if it's darker I call it black. :o I have not, however, called anyone's hair mousy or dishwater. :)

Its odd isn't it? Peoples perceptions of hair color? I was one of 2 white girls in my high school graduating class and was generally considered 'blonde' by a large proportion of the school because my brown was so much lighter than anyone else's brown on campus :shrug:

[ArienEllariel]

I just call my natural color blonette. XD

People seem to look at me when I called it blonde and say "you aren't blonde" and if I called myself brunette I would get the opposite. These people practically sounded offended! And personally, *I* consider it offensive when people call it dish water or mousy.

If your hair gets gold highlights under the sun, I here by dub thee blonette. :)

Sounds much prettier.

thank you. :)

[cmnt831]

Its odd isn't it? Peoples perceptions of hair color? I was one of 2 white girls in my high school graduating class and was generally considered 'blonde' by a large proportion of the school because my brown was so much lighter than anyone else's brown on campus :shrug:

My problem is probably thinking of hair color in very simplistic terms. You're either blond, brown, red, black, gray or white. I hope I don't have to start a support group for people who think of hair color in overly-simplistic terms.:p Because that title would be too cumbersome.... This is pretty interesting, though. The people I hang out with off the internet don't discuss these kinds of topics.:D

[rhubarbarin]

Like some PPs I just don't call it anything since either way people correct me. I've been on the border of brown and blond since I was about 8 (was light blonde as a baby). When I was in the Midwest it was definitely brown but here in the East people are conflicted.

It grows in different shades (and types) on different areas of my head, and sun shows up mostly in the last 1/3" of my length. Confusing. On that chart I would say it's 'russet' instead of 'pecan'! I've never thought of myself as having red hair tho I know it's a very warm tone.

I like 'hair-colored'.

[sweet*things]

Up until recently I considered myself blonde, because I used to get very blonde if I spent a lot of time in the sun, and I was a platinum blonde child until I was 7 or 8. But, I haven't spent time in the sun for several years, and my hair is getting darker and darker and darker. I've got light brown hair now, with red undertones.

Good news for me is that other people with a similar starting colors seem to get very natural looking chestnut reds with henna. I'm going to start using cassia and henna glosses, and I'm hoping my results are similar (I live in fear of Bozo orange, lol!).

[Firegarnet]

Hmm...pecan brown then for me, on the crown. The length, when compared to hair color samples in the grocery store, still comes up as Medium Golden Blonde-probably honey blonde on that chart. My ends are even lighter still.

Shrug. In the sun, it looks golden, so I'm going with blonde still.

I get told I'm not a blonde though, when my hair is up and I'm inside. Outside, in the sun, I am hardly recognizable. ;)

[xoxophelia]

Firegarnet: to me, your hair looks like it is definitely blonde.

And also, I don't really care if somebody else wants to call their own hair dishwater. I do think it shows that somebody dislikes their natural haircolor if they do so, but they are free to change it if they like.

I once had a stylist tell me, "oh you have the hair color I see most people come in to get it colored. So many people don't like dishwater hair."

And actually, maybe she is right. But with everybody my natural color changing it, the color just becomes more unique. I took a walk on the dark side but have been going natural for about 5 months now :)

[myrrhmaiden]

Judging by your avatar, it looks more blonde than brown to me. If I was asked to describe you, I would call you blonde. ;)

[tralalalara]

I get mad when people say that my hair is light brown.
According to that chart, I'd have Pecan growth in winter, but from the ears down it transitions to Sunlit Beige, which is three shades lighter and on the blonde side.
=/

[Fractalsofhair]

I'm not sure. I think if it's cool toned, it's brown, if it's warm toned, it's blonde. Per Coscass's chart, I'm platinum mist mixed with some midnight hairs in the back, naturally, and have been since I was 12 or so, and I'm currently flame or cherry cola depending on the lighting!

[christine1989]

Its a debateable subject but yours definatly looks blonde to me.

[Mearwynna]

I've always thought of my hair as mousy brown, but recently a dear friend mentioned my "shining chestnut" hair. Shining chestnut sounds so much nicer than mousy brown or dishwater blond.

[ali beast]

i've definitely gotten into debates with a friend about my hair color- i insist on dirty blonde, she says light brown... and she says that east coasters/ nyc metro area people must be obsessed with blonde hair. there's some merit to her point that it seems to be a regional thing, and it looks like hair color is pretty subjective based on previous posts.

just to be bratty though, when i got my hair cut, i asked the stylist what color she thought my hair was, and she said dark blonde.

HA! i win!!! :joy:

[Avalin]

I have this problem too. My hair is really warm in color and the tips are naturally very blonde so I just say blonde even though I think my roots are a true brown color. My hair looks darker when it is up.

[RedButterfly]

This is something that has always puzzled me too. Many people who I thought had light golden brown hair are sometimes called blondes.

For instance, I always thought of Shirley Temple's curls as light honey brown or light golden brown. Yet, many people call her hair during her childhood blonde. My four-year-old daughter has naturally curly that is a similar color. I always think of my daughter's hair as a honey brown or a light golden brown. She actually looks a lot like Shirley Temple with smaller (3a/b) curls instead of Shirley's roller-set curls.

[Bonkers57]

Thanks for the chart! I guess my color is 'Pecan' :D


Try this. We had to learn to type hair like this in cosmetology school. http://www.headhuntershair.com/hair/newimagecolors.jpg

[redneckprincess]

Looking at your sig pics, I'd say your hair is definitely blonde. I've still got some wash-out dye in my hair so I can't tell what color my hair is based on that chart. Then there's the whole indoor vs outdoor lighting and are the colors showing true on my monitor, how good is my printer, etc.
thats OLD BLEACH Im trying to grow out

[Bonkers57]

She sounds like a little doll :D


My four-year-old daughter has naturally curly that is a similar color. I always think of my daughter's hair as a honey brown or a light golden brown. She actually looks a lot like Shirley Temple with smaller (3a/b) curls instead of Shirley's roller-set curls.

[countryhopper]

Try this. We had to learn to type hair like this in cosmetology school. http://www.headhuntershair.com/hair/newimagecolors.jpg

Looks like I'm a chocolate/walnut!

Sounds like a cookie flavor................yum.:cheese:

[GlassEyes]

There's a pretty distinct difference to me, in most cases. It can depend on the light, though.

Light brown TYPICALLY is more ashy, while dark blonde has more golden tones. :shrug: Not ALWAYS the rule, but a generally good guideline.

[UP Lisa]

Wow! Lots of replies. I have to say that the hair coming out of my head is a light brown. And not really a golden brown. The length is lighter, with red undertones. I think the red must be from my water, since my hair is never in the sun. It is always up when I am outside.

[FrannyG]

I am a dark blonde, (now mostly white under the dye) and my daughter is a dark blonde. It was very light as a child, but it's still definitely dark blonde now. It's an ashy tone though. It's sort of a taupe shade. When she is out in the sun she gets definite blonde highlights.

Looking at your photo, I think you are definitely a dark blonde, as is SimplyViki. And yes, hard water can change your colour.

[walterSCAN]

Huh, thanks for the chart coscass... According to that, I was born with midnight that lightened to something similar to pecan (in some places... in others it was a little more walnut, others sunlit beige, others russet-- hence why I tend to call it 'woodland-creature-brown')...

IMHO, based on her avatar, I would call OP's hair pecan...

[Katze]

i look at the eyebrows :D if they're darker than hair, i call it brown. If lighter, i call it blond.

yay, then I'm totally blonde!!! :D

I have always used these criteria too. As a formerly blonde kid who went dark as a teen, then started bleaching, I have always felt I 'deserve' to have my childhood hair color. I was the only blonde in a dark haired, dark eyed family, got asked if I was adopted, then found out I resembled my (also not really blonde) norwegian grandmother.

Blonde is basically subjective. When I lived in NYC, I was blonde, even if I hadn't dyed much of the time. Here in northern Europe I am a brunette. :(

Blonde is such a loaded concept - since so many blonde children go dark it is associated with youth, beauty, etc. I know I felt better blonde, but I prefer my non-fried hair to its condition when I bleached and dyed it.

DH has almost the same hair color as me, but with natural platinum streaks around his face. He is considered blonde by more people than I am, though he has dark eyebrows and a dark beard, although our hair colors are extremely similar and I have 'clear', light ash blonde eyebrows. Today we were talking about whether he is blonde or not, and he said he has also heard mixed things depending on where he is - in southern Europe, he is definitely blonde! I also think it is funny that the latest James Bond was referred to as 'blond' without question - though he also has this borderline, cendre, ash-colored, hair-colored, etc etc etc hair color - I think the definition categories for men are even more simplistic, but can you imagine a (straight) man saying, 'well, I have chestnut honey colored hair with amber highlights and walnut lowlights"? :D

Oh, our baby, in typical blonde fashion, still has very little hair at 10.5 months. Some people get worried about this, since most babies have more hair now, but we always answer 'oh, we were both just as bald as she is.' Actually she does have very lovely, very very fine white blonde fuzz that is up to 2 inches long in some parts.

[Marjolein]

Oh, our baby, in typical blonde fashion, still has very little hair at 10.5 months. Some people get worried about this, since most babies have more hair now, but we always answer 'oh, we were both just as bald as she is.' Actually she does have very lovely, very very fine white blonde fuzz that is up to 2 inches long in some parts.

That reminds me of something my mother told me about when I was born. She had been hoping for a baby with lots of hair and was really pleased to see that I came out with lovely thick dark hair. But once the nurses had washed me I was bald as a bowling ball. Apparently blood crusts and thick hair look very similar to my mom :rolleyes:. (sorry for the graphic story).

Anyway, my hair didn't even come in until a few months later and it was just as fine and white as your daughters. I believe I was 4 years old when my mother could first make a teeney tiney tail in it.

[chopandchange]

I used to call my hair "dirty blonde" back when it was lighter, but I once said that to someone who hadn't heard the expression before and they obviously thought I meant it literally and that I never washed my hair.

I call my hair brown now!

[Marjolein]

I too believe that if you where blond as a child, you keep regarding yourself as a blond.

I vividly remember the first time someone considered me a brunette. Instant dislike for that women :angry:.

[Beesweet]

White blond as a child. Brief strawberry blond period during early adolescence. Then dirty blond for a long time.

Then I had kids and assumed it was brown. I went to a hairdresser last year who looked at my roots and said that I was definitely stiff considered blond. Surprise to me.

I do agree with the person who said if your hair highlights in the sun, you are a blond, but I do have a brown-haired daughter who definitely gets very light brown, reddish highlights from the sun,so I guess if your hair gets blond highlights in the sun, then you are blond.

[Masara]

I've always considered my hair to be brown (from the chart, I would say light chesnut) but I've had hairdressers tell me that my hair is dark blond.

I prefer to work on the principle that if you had blond hair as a child and it has darkened, then you are blond. But that doesn't work for my daughter who had very blond hair as a child and now has very dark brown.

[cmnt831]

I've always considered my hair to be brown (from the chart, I would say light chesnut) but I've had hairdressers tell me that my hair is dark blond.

I prefer to work on the principle that if you had blond hair as a child and it has darkened, then you are blond. But that doesn't work for my daughter who had very blond hair as a child and now has very dark brown.

This is exactly what happens on my dad's side of the family. None of them consider themselves blond - even though they were as children - since their hair is so dark now.

My husband likes to say he's light brown, but I say he's blond. He gets natural platinum highlights in his hair and his eyebrows are platinum, as well, even though his beard is dark.

[Hiriel]

Long time ago, I asked about colors on this board. What I found out is what people call "blond" varies. Especially in the US, it seemed blond refers to a wide range of colors. What I see as "brown" is often called blond in this country, which puzzled me at first. Well it still does.

Yeah, I seem to think hair is darker than a lot of Americans. As in, what I would definitely call brown, a lot of Americans would call dark blonde. I have a vague theory about this being because Norwegians in general have fairly light hair. We have, for example, a larger number of natural light blondes than most other places, which means that what an American might call dark blonde would seem brown to us. Maybe. Deep thoughts today :p

[UP Lisa]

Well, my hair was very light as a child. Practically white, I think. However, I have always had dark eyebrows. I remember a dentist asking me if I bleached my hair once because my eyebrows were so dark. That was when I was just a kid.

I'm going to get a new hard water shampoo, and see if it changes the color of my length. It just doesn't seem like this red could be natural.

[myotislucifugus]

Try this. We had to learn to type hair like this in cosmetology school. http://www.headhuntershair.com/hair/newimagecolors.jpg

Hmmmm... I'm russet pecan... and hungry...

[myotislucifugus]

Although my hair looks more ashy in my siggy...
not so hungry anymore...

[Lady Danger]

Try this. We had to learn to type hair like this in cosmetology school. http://www.headhuntershair.com/hair/newimagecolors.jpg

Now that's really interesting. My natural color was always considered a dark, ashy blonde. I was full blonde as a child, then darkened to a color that just wasn't dark enough to be brown, but also wasn't yellow blonde. It did highlight in the sun. Anyway, I clicked open the link and immediately found what I considered closest to my natural color - "Cinnamon" - which is considered a red? Interesting; no wonder I lit up strawberry blonde in the sun as a teen. Guess I was really meant to be red. ;)

[Firegarnet]

Firegarnet: to me, your hair looks like it is definitely blonde.
Thank you! :p That photo is in a very yellow (well and browns, odd wallpaper) room with a very yellow lighting. No natural light there at all. Brings out the gold. Office fluorescents are what make me look browner. Maybe.

Actually, I really do think of myself as blonde. Just in real life I'm in the minority with that opinion. Shrug. :rolleyes:

My mother and maternal grandmother both started out with hair exactly the same color as mine. Grandmother ended with a champagne like (not corresponding to the chart, much lighter) color (I assume she dyed her hair) and mother ended up with very dark brown with strongly contrasting white hairs (few grays). She doesn't dye. I'm interested to see what I get in another 10 or so years.:eyebrows:

[Topaz]

I ~think~ I'm butterscotch, according to the chart. But that's not really it either, is it? :confused: Gosh it's rough being an in-between color!

(BTW, I sure hope nobody here at work noticed me with the ends of my hair pulled up to the computer screen with me staring almost cross-eyed at it)

[Topaz]

LOL! And now I've pulled the ends of my hair up to the computer screen to compare with my signature photo, and my hair in real life doesn't even match my picture. Oh lawsy, what's a girl to do? :p

[GlassEyes]

That chart seems to have forgotten what I call 'light ash brown', which is what a lot of former blondes seem to darken to as they get older. It's almost a grayish color in certain lights, and a lot of people seem to dye over it, but I find it to be quite a lovely color. :shrug:

Going off of LHC members, I'd call FrannyG a light blonde, Simply Viki a medium blonde, and you a darker, golden blonde--but not the darkest blonde I've seen. I'm going to have to look to find someone who fits the definition. xD;

Edit: AHA. Igor fits the dark-blonde I'm thinking of, I think.

If I remember correctly, pdnky(numbers here) is a light ash brown.

[nellreno]

I don't know if there is a difference between the two. I naturally have dark blonde/ light brown hair. I call it brown, but a lot of people have referred to it as blonde. :doh:

[Roseate]

If you just took my underlayer, you would call me brown, but the upper layer is lighter and gets natural highlights, meaning most people call me blonde. I don't mind it either way.

On that chart I'm like a combination of russet/pecan/honey. And, for whatever reason, my eyebrows are "coffee bean"; always been darker than any hair on my head.

[Trixie]

This is so weird - I was sitting in one of my engineering classes today and was looking at a couple of girls' hair in front of me, and I couldn't decide if they would be considered blonde or brown! I'm kind of in that nebulous range as well. My hair is definitely brown, except in the sun where it's very golden. I definitely was not a blonde as a child though - if anything my hair has lightened as I've aged!

[julliams]

My daughter has this kind of hair. Her teacher called it "fair". It's probably one of those things that depends on the person. One might say magenta, the other might say maroon and mean the same thing if you know what I mean (not a good example - sorry).

My daughter was standing next to a friend of hers who has almost the same colour as her but a touch darker. If I was to call it, I would say my daughters was dark blonde and her friend was light brown - but there wasn't much in it.

[FrannyG]

My daughter has this kind of hair. Her teacher called it "fair". It's probably one of those things that depends on the person. One might say magenta, the other might say maroon and mean the same thing if you know what I mean (not a good example - sorry).

May daughter was standing next to a friend of hers who has almost the same colour as her but a touch darker. If I was to call it, I would say my daughters was dark blonde and her friend was light brown - but there wasn't much in it.

It really takes a practised eye to be able to see the difference between dark blonde and brown. And I'll tell you this. Most non-LHC men and non-hairdressing men ALWAYS think that dark blonde is brown.

It's also worth mentioning that while that colour chart is excellent, it's really only good if you're seeing a hard copy in your hands. The variations of colour on individual computer monitors renders it almost useless. The colours varied drastically on the three different computers in my home.

[Khiwanean]

I've struggled with what to call my hair too. Once my boyfriend's sister asked me what color I called my hair and I said "dirty dishwater blonde." She replied "I asked what color your hair was not what your washed it with." Right then and there we decided to call it sunset blonde, no longer terribly blonde, but not yet full on brunette. That converstation still makes me smile.

[Tangles]

Look at hair dye packages and you'll get a good reference point. Typically, I call hair that shines with yellow light, blonde. To me, light brown is actually a pretty distinct color, like toffee.

[Merewen]

My darkest color seems to be between "walnut" and "pecan" (so... brown) but my lightest color is much closer to either "sunlit beige" or "champaign" (light blond). Maybe I'll have to concede "brown" someday, but it's still blond enough I think I can pull it off.

[MissManda]

I just polled my boyfriend and another friend. They both said that the difference is that dark blond has moe of a warm, yellow tone to it than light brown. It depends on the person, I suppode.

I agree with the looking at the eyebrows. It makes it sort of easier.

As for you are blond if you were born blond, then my boyfriend would be a "blond" even though he has expresso-colored hair and he was born blond. I, on the other hand, was born with very thick (like, enough hair for 4 babies thick), expresso-colored hair that has lightened to the chocolate and chestnut (with a little russet) color on the chart. I was always considered as having very dark brown hair by my family because almost everyone is some shade of blond.

The only time that I have been called light brown or DEEP blonde was by a hairdresser, which I really disagreed with. I think my hair is too dark to be considered to be light brown, but it isn't dark brown. So it's a nice medium shade.

[melikai]

I agree with the person who said that blonde hair tends to reflect light as more golden than brown hair does. Even people with very dark brown hair can get bright sun highlights, so I don't think that can determine alone whether someone is blonde or not. The eyebrow thing doesn't work either - my boyfriend is definitely a mid to dark blonde, and he has very dark brown eyes and eyebrows, and some people with white blonde hair have black eyebrows and eyelashes etc.

I think many people get into denial mode about their hair still being blonde, which I don't understand seeing as light brown hair and brown hair in general is a really lovely colour and enviable in its own way and for its own reasons.

[jeno]

I think it depends on where you live actually... In my teens I played in a school orchestra (in Sweden) and we had some exchange with a German orchestra. The germans considered us blond, all of us, and I thought they had something wrong with their eyes... Then I saw the two orchestras playing together and realised that swedish people with what I called brown hair had a certain blond tone to their hair.

[Neddy]

I think you can honestly just tell by looking at it. I'm pretty observant about these things, and if I look at a person in at least two types of light, I can usually tell what color hair their is. It's a combination of factors that's hard to explain, but you can just look at the darn hair and tell. Glow the hair has and looking at it in sunlight. But there is a very definite difference between dark blonde and light brown. It may be because people always disagree over my hair color, but I'm pretty good at picking up the differences in that murky area. Blondes always think I'm a brunette, brunettes always thing I'm a blonde.

I find that holding hair up to the light can make apparent some things that are harder to see in lower light.
ex) my hair looks ambiguously colored, but held up to the light it's obvious the base color is dark golden blonde. My friend's hair looks black, but when you hold it up to the light you see it is a deep brown.

[PiroskaCicu]

I have no clue what my hair colour is.... In pure sunshine, it looks golden/"rusty" red, and the ends become nearly blond. In darkness or in indoor lighting, it is a medium brown.

:S

[renarok]

Try this. We had to learn to type hair like this in cosmetology school. http://www.headhuntershair.com/hair/newimagecolors.jpg


I just found my hair color, I am a snowy mink....:cheese:

[Schnee]

My hair doesn't really fit any of the colours in the given link, but it doesn't make me less blond.;)

I find that it isn't really the dark/lightness of the hair, but rather the tone of the colour that decides. Blond is much more trancparent than brown, which is more opaque.

[rhubarbarin]

Yeah, I seem to think hair is darker than a lot of Americans. As in, what I would definitely call brown, a lot of Americans would call dark blonde. I have a vague theory about this being because Norwegians in general have fairly light hair. We have, for example, a larger number of natural light blondes than most other places, which means that what an American might call dark blonde would seem brown to us. Maybe. Deep thoughts today :p

This was true when I lived in South Dakota in the US, where the majority population is of Nowegian, Swedish and German extraction - lots and lots of people have light hair there, and I was considered brown-haired by all of them.

[Demetrue]

To me it is a tonal quality as well as what the person's hair color was as a child. Children with very blonde hair can have their hair gradually darken up through the teen years, but it has a different tonal quality than children whose hair has always been brown. The darkened blonde hair has more of a translucent quality and often a warmer tone to it, while the original brown hair seems to have more opaque pigment.

[Leena7]

My sister and I have hair that is almost the same color, but I always think of her as blonde because she stayed blonde much longer than I did. I was blonde until I was four and she is still dark blonde in my mind. She has lighter eyes and eyebrows than i do though. I think my hair is walnut colored. Her hair is more pecan.

[Prettychild]

I sent a lock of my child's hair to my mum and she said the hair was "reddish blond" huh? does this mean the hair is red or blond? Since we moved to this sunlit country the hair is going lighter and lighter all the time....uhmm, we need to start a hair colour chart thread! :-)

[Erin-86]

I also never knew how to call my naturel haircolor. some would call it ashy-blond, or dark-blond, or maybe light brown. According to the chart I am "russet".

It depends on the area and I think culture, what is considered blond. For example, dutch people only consider you real blond when it is almost white, not even tending to light brown. Everything darker then the white blond is already called "dark" blond, I think the same applies to german and scandinavian people and other area's where are more naturel blonds.

Iraqi's/ Arabs have the tendency to call everything that isn't black, blond. Even if you are a dark brunette, they will call you blond. It is annoying on how some Arabs can be obsessed with the blond thing and how some girls say how proud they hair being blond, and then are actually dark-brunettes...or mothers who bleaches the hair of the daughter, so it looks more blond!

Well, that was a bit off-topic ;) but it might not always be clear. Perhaps you can make a picture of your hair in sunlight, and then decide what color you think it is ;)

[ooo]

i look at the eyebrows :D if they're darker than hair, i call it brown. If lighter, i call it blond.

I don't think this works. My hair ist brown, but my eyebrows are blond. Since I started dying my eyebrows brown, I'm probably a fake brunette :D

[Prettychild]

I don't think this works. My hair ist brown, but my eyebrows are blond. Since I started dying my eyebrows brown, I'm probably a fake brunette :D

HAHAHA A fake brunette!!! :p I think hair colour changes due to water hardness/softness, chlorine, and season of the year. Everybody pretty much gets highlights during the summer months (not me, my hair is just plain black). I do think fair hair has a certain translucency to it. Dark hair tends to be opaque. I find that with age my dark hair has lost some of its depth but it can never be taken for "translucent".

[UP Lisa]

The length of my hair is quite a different color than the new hair coming in. The length has a reddish tint to it that I love, but it can't be natural. I think it must be from my somewhat hard water. There is no red in the new hair coming in. To my knowledge, I have never had red hair of any sort. It can actually appear red in a photo taken outside.

[CaityBear]

Yeah, I don't even know what to call my natural hair colour. I think it's too dark to be a blonde, but everybody else calls it a blonde so I almost find it easier to say blonde or else everybody goes "It looks more blonde than brown!" but then again it could be because until I was 10 I had platnium blonde hair, and then my mom let me colour my hair (only because she had lots of left over dye) and then it grew back darker. :(

[florenonite]

I get mad when people say that my hair is light brown.
According to that chart, I'd have Pecan growth in winter, but from the ears down it transitions to Sunlit Beige, which is three shades lighter and on the blonde side.
=/

I'm pretty close to that, too, but my hair's significantly cooler-toned than Pecan.

I'm darker than all my sisters (one of whom at 16 has "Champagne"-coloured hair, as per the chart), so they all say I've got brown hair, and have been saying so for years, even when my hair was lighter than it is now. I've got a half-Chinese friend with very dark brown hair who thinks of my hair as blonde.

In Britain, my hair colour's common, but most people with hair like mine highlight it or dye it, so at this time of year it looks brown to most people here. True blonde is also quite common here, because the Vikings landed here in the middle ages, got rid of the Pictish men, and reproduced with the Pictish women. OTOH, true blonde hair is relatively uncommon back home (I can count on one hand the number of people my age I know with hair that is definitively blonde), so my hair is more likely to be considered blonde there.

[sweetestday]

I found it interesting that when my sister went to Romania, they called her blonde there. I've always considered her to be very auburn. She has lovely reddish brown hair. In Romania, however, I suppose they are much darker, so consider anything lighter than them a blonde.
I've been wondering if I'm still blonde?

[terriej]

I was reading this thread with some interest because I have always described my son's hair as dark blonde while everybody else calls it black.

The reason is because his dad has truly black hair and while my son's hair looks black if you put their hair side by side, my husband's hair looks black and my son's hair looks very dark. My son's hair has no warm brown tones in it, it's just ashy dark. If you put bleach on my husband's hair, it turns orange--if you put bleach on my son's hair, it turns golden blonde.

So, since my hair is naturally blonde and my husband's is black, I just figure my son has the darkest blonde hair anybody has ever seen.

[cmnt831]

I was reading this thread with some interest because I have always described my son's hair as dark blonde while everybody else calls it black.

The reason is because his dad has truly black hair and while my son's hair looks black if you put their hair side by side, my husband's hair looks black and my son's hair looks very dark. My son's hair has no warm brown tones in it, it's just ashy dark. If you put bleach on my husband's hair, it turns orange--if you put bleach on my son's hair, it turns golden blonde.

So, since my hair is naturally blonde and my husband's is black, I just figure my son has the darkest blonde hair anybody has ever seen.

Oh, wow, you just described to a tee my cousin's hair. It looks really dark, but I always call him "blond" because it isn't brown or black at all. Just really dark ashy color. And he was a blond little boy whose hair really darkened with age. Haha, now I feel justified in calling him blond, even though I know he'll still argue with me about it. :p

This has been a very enlightening thread for me. I never really thought about hair color in depth before. :D

[tralalalara]

Then there's my brother, whose head sprouts bright, translucent blonde on top, but it grows out that dishy color on the back of his head..

[Samara]

I always wondered this myself. My hair is a medium ashish blond that gets natural golden highlights in the summer. It has been referred to as both blond and light brown by others

[ademtce]

the difference in your levels.
everyone has a misconceived notion that "blonde" is this bleached out pale yellow color when in actuality it ranges from dark to the super light (almost white)

here's a dissection of hair colors.
http://i49.tinypic.com/qr11g9.png

[ademtce]

I was reading this thread with some interest because I have always described my son's hair as dark blonde while everybody else calls it black.

The reason is because his dad has truly black hair and while my son's hair looks black if you put their hair side by side, my husband's hair looks black and my son's hair looks very dark. My son's hair has no warm brown tones in it, it's just ashy dark. If you put bleach on my husband's hair, it turns orange--if you put bleach on my son's hair, it turns golden blonde.

So, since my hair is naturally blonde and my husband's is black, I just figure my son has the darkest blonde hair anybody has ever seen.

thats just decolorization. they are 12 steps from; black, red, orange, gold, yellow, and pale yellow. (there others are halves like, orange-gold, etc.)
so the longer your bleach the lighter it gets. i doubt your sons hair is blonder its like a level 4 or darker. so its most likely a brown.

[Prettychild]

thats just decolorization. they are 12 steps from; black, red, orange, gold, yellow, and pale yellow. (there others are halves like, orange-gold, etc.)
so the longer your bleach the lighter it gets. i doubt your sons hair is blonder its like a level 4 or darker. so its most likely a brown.

According to the chart above my son's hair is medium blond, except it looks reddish/coppery. Hubby says DS looks like a light ginger (redhead) in the sun. Does this mean he is not blond but rather a pale redhead, or light russet (if you go by the other chart)? does anyone have a colour chart for redheads (I keep coming up with commercial colouring when I google it).

p.s. my sister in law from Australia informed me that my kid's hair colour is actually called "strawberry blonde" and is not really blonde but a shade of red!!! wow

In the meantime I found a link to a site with a cool colour chart: http://www.dosfordonts.com/haircolor.html

[ademtce]

its really hard to gage redhead level since they're isnt a system like that for redhead (or at least i have no knowledge). but thats awesome, redheads are definitely plus.

i wish i was a redhead, naturally.

[atlantaz3]

I let my natural color grow out and someone called me a brunette - I made an appointment for highlights within a week. Don't we all have every color on our head somewhere?

[Bellona]

I think it depends on the lighting. It's a pretty fine line between dark blonde and light brown. In most lighting, my hair is a medium honey blonde. In bright sunlight and flash photography, my natural hair almost looks light blonde/white. In a dark room or when it's damp or dirty, it can look a light chestnut brown! Just call it whatever you want ;)

[UP Lisa]

Most of my hair is quite light and very fine. However, I do have some pure black, course hairs on my head. They get long and never break like the others.

[Sarahmoon]

It's just a matter of perception. Usually that kind of hair seems blonde to me in summer and brown in winter, or it depends on the lighting. Or it would be blonde in India, but dark brown in California ;)
I even had a blonde girl think once my hair is "blonde with some red in it" while I'm very convinced I'm a natural brunette, thank you very much.

I tend to call this "in between hair" dark blonde-light brownish, but I guess the fun thing about it is you can choose yourself how to call it.

[Amara]

Thanks for the chart! I guess my color is 'Pecan' :D

Pecan looks pretty!

I am somewhere between Coffee Bean and Walnut. Coffeenut! Walbean!

[Amara]

Oh just kidding. Shows how much self-perception can be off.

I put a picture of my virgin hair right up to the hair chart and I'm EXACTLY chocolate. :)

[sapphire-o]

I like to call DH's hair dark blonde. He always insist it's brown. It's like he's offended that I might consider him blonde. :D It looks like all sorts of different colors depending on lighting. Check out his album in my profile and you'll see what I'm talking about. I almost have never managed two pictures of his hair with the same exact color.

[vindo]

The base color is the most important indicator.

Light brown would be a brown base color with light hues and often a golden (G) or sometimes reddish (R) shimmer.

A dark blond is definetly a blond but can appear darker, especially if it has a neutral (N) or ashy (A) tone.

I can usually tell the difference looking at it. I understand its hard though, after all those colors are at the border of blond to brown ;)

[spidermom]

The dictionary defines blonde as a light color of hair that is paired with light-colored eyes, typically blue or grey.

To me, blondes have an element of yellow, beige, or taupe pigment. Brunettes don't. Of course, unless you see someone in bright, natural light, it's nearly impossible to tell the dark blondes from the light brunettes, in which case you can look at the eyes. Does the hair/eye color fit the definition above?

[sapphire-o]

The dictionary defines blonde as a light color of hair that is paired with light-colored eyes, typically blue or grey.

To me, blondes have an element of yellow, beige, or taupe pigment. Brunettes don't. Of course, unless you see someone in bright, natural light, it's nearly impossible to tell the dark blondes from the light brunettes, in which case you can look at the eyes. Does the hair/eye color fit the definition above?

Ah I should show that to DH. He has fair skin, freckles and blue-grey eyes, so he's dark blonde. :D

[UP Lisa]

My eyes have always been hazel. Even when my hair was practically white. Everyone always said they were brown.

[Anlbe]

Hazel eyes and blonde hair, that used to be called an October blonde. My definition between blonde and brunette is simply whether it's easier to do a S&D against a white or a black background.

[florenonite]

The dictionary defines blonde as a light color of hair that is paired with light-colored eyes, typically blue or grey.

To me, blondes have an element of yellow, beige, or taupe pigment. Brunettes don't. Of course, unless you see someone in bright, natural light, it's nearly impossible to tell the dark blondes from the light brunettes, in which case you can look at the eyes. Does the hair/eye color fit the definition above?

I've met people with brown eyes and hair that I would certainly call blonde. I think Carey Mulligan's blonde hair is dyed, but this (http://images.broadwayworld.com/upload/33585/tn-500_mulliganwm1183337.jpg) picture of her is the colour combination I'm talking about.

OTOH, my hair often looks brown and I've got blue eyes. My parents both have definitively brown hair and blue eyes (though they were blonde as children).

[AgnesONutter]

I think some shades are simply in the border land, it is like asking where the difference between blue and green goes on the colour wheel, really. The answer will change with the people answering. And really, what colour you yourself perceive your hair as is the most important, no?

Colouring is really interesting, and I do think colour shifting should always be an option as this thread proves! My boyfriend is mightily amused by my colouring for example, since sometimes I'm golden blonde, sometimes I'm almost a redhead and sometimes brown. My eyes are the same, sometimes they are blue, sometimes grey and sometimes a dark green.

[cmnt831]

And do you label your hair color by what color it it closest to the scalp or the color of the length? :confused: My hair is very dark brown next to the scalp and lightens down the length to a red/brown. I've been labeled as black, dark brown, brown and even red once or twice depending on the light. I say my hair is brown with natural red and (now) silver highlights. :D And now, thanks to this thread, I'm getting obsessed with hair color. :p

[Sissy]

Cool, that means that my hair would be pecan brown. :)

mine is either russet, walnut, pecan, or cinnamon according to that chart :)

[Sherri]

I don't even know what color my hair is? LOL I would like to think I fit into the dark blondes but sometimes I wonder if it isn't light brown or even red? I have green eyes and fair skin.

[spidermom]

I've seen blonde hair paired with brown eyes, too. Or was it light brown hair? haha

[florenonite]

After spidermom mentioned the dictionary as including eye colour, I went and looked up the OED definition which, while it doesn't mention eye colour, is interesting:


Properly (of the hair): Of a light golden brown, light auburn; but commonly used in sense of light-coloured, ‘fair’, as opposed to ‘dark’, or ‘brunette’, and extended to the complexion of those who have hair of this colour.

(emphasis mine)

So light golden brown or auburn is technically blonde, though not a light ash brown. Interesting.

[Marjolein]

Brown eyes paired with blond hair do indeed occur sometimes, but not very often. I guess that's why it's one of the seven beauties, as are blue eyes paired with dark hair.

[shadowclaw]

I think hair color is much like skin color. Color is continuous and there are an infinite number of possible colors out there. Speaking of skin, there are colors that you would definitely call white and those that you would definitely call black, but there are a wide range of colors that you really can't say either way, because it's impossible to draw a dividing line between white and black.

I think hair is very similar. There are shades we definitely say are blonde, and those that are definitely brown, but the range of colors in between can't really be categorized as dark blonde or light brown, because once again, it's impossible to draw a dividing line between the colors. Between any two shades, there is an infinite number of shades in between, so how can you really decide?

So trying to decide whether it's dark blonde or light brown is really a futile effort, and you should feel free to call it whatever you want. If you feel that you are a blonde, call it blonde. If you feel brunette, call it that. And I really like xoxophelia's blonette! It's a great word that describes the impossibility of picking a side.

[xoxophelia]

Thanks shadowclaw :D

Back in the day when everybody was wearing those "blondes have more fun" or brunettes that shirts, I joked about buying both, cutting out the ends and resewing for it to say blonette XD

[LadyAnnaK]

I was a light blond as a child, became dirty/dishwater blond by mid-teens, but if I was in the sun all summer, it would lighten up a lot. Now, I'm in my 40's and have used foil weave highlights on my hair since I was 16. My last hairdresser told me my hair was naturally a very dark ash blond, but really close to being light ash brown. My nephew in law is from Norway and very blond, I had to laugh, because even with blond highlights in my hair when I said my hair was blond in front of him, he said, "Where?" lol so I guess to a Norwegian, I'm not blond at all! I have dyed my whole head of hair only twice before in my life. But bought Loreal Les Blondissimes LB02 Extra light natural blond yesterday and plan on putting it on my hair today. I would prefer to continue w/ foil weaved highlights but I can't afford it and just recently, I noticed a bit more gray showing. So, I have 2 choices, get the foil weave highlights (which does a great job at blending in any gray I have and my hair lightens quickly) and touch ups on regular basis (not in my budget these days!) or dye my whole head of hair. I'm going to give this Les Blondissimes a try. I have old blond highlights still there from a year ago (my hair is very wavy, but if you pull it down straight, my hair reaches half way down my behind. I'm thinking the highlights and gray I have will lighten up much better than the rest of my hair. I'm a bit afraid to try this, usually box hair color doesn't lighten my hair enough it it has too much redish strawberry blond instead of golden blond. My hair is ash ie..drab/cool not warm, so strawberrry blond does NOT look good with my skin tone and root growth looks gray compared to the color I usually get :-( Here's hoping this product will work better than my experiences in the past. It's been 14 years since I dyed my whole head of hair, maybe they have improved the products on the market ?

[Luna Lavender]

My hair is getting darker over the years, but it'll be blond forever. Period.
One more reason to love summer. :D

[Lianna]

Light brown is a lot darker, most people think dark blonde is light brown though. If you take a look at the picture at some dye boxes you can see clearly. Light brown is number 5, while dark blonde is 6. Usually people just think blonde is lighter than level 7 blonde.

I know the pictures vary a lot from brand to brand, and maybe some hair samples too? That I'm not sure. But still helps, it's a whole shade from one to another after all.

Maybe some people think the ashy tones are darker, like dark ash blonde they think is light brown.

[May]

I think it has to do with undertone meaning dark blonde hair has yellow undertones and light brown hair has orange undertones no matter how light or how dark.

I know it can be terribly difficult to determine which one is which and I'm sure there are cases where it's imperceptible but for the most part I think if you had blonde hair as a child you should call yourself dark blonde and if you had brunette hair as a child you get to call yourself a brunette.

*ETA* I also believe that dark blond hair will get natural highlights in the summer if you're out in the sun and light brunette hair will get more of a copper highlight if left out in the sun :)

Not the best examples but it was all I could find online. I call these dark blonde

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/1388/darkblonde.jpg (http://img825.imageshack.us/i/darkblonde.jpg/)http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/2002/ebf69laurenconradhairst.jpg (http://img716.imageshack.us/i/ebf69laurenconradhairst.jpg/)


I call these light brown

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/3161/lightbrown.jpg (http://img259.imageshack.us/i/lightbrown.jpg/)
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/6436/alyssamilanolonglayered.jpg (http://img251.imageshack.us/i/alyssamilanolonglayered.jpg/)

And here is a level system to see the gradient http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/2114/levelh.png (http://img51.imageshack.us/i/levelh.png/)

[Lianna]

The first two pics, according to the hair dye levels were medium blonde to me...level 7. And the lightlighted ends were even lighter than that. And the third pic was dark blonde with light brown roots. The dark parts on the last were light brown.

Most of the world thinks dark blonde is light brown. I supose people can only be blonde if it is somewhat yellow. (the world thinks)

[ikke1978]

Dark blonde has less red pigment in it. Light brown has more red in it (even if you don't see it)

[Lianna]

Dark blonde has less red pigment in it. Light brown has more red in it (even if you don't see it)

What a good way to put it. Dark ash blonde has very little pigment, just looks darker because is ashy.

[Roscata]

I found this in one of my searches:
http://helpinghair.webs.com/color%20swatches1.jpg
on http://www.helpinghair.info/
I hope the colors are clear enough.

[MsBubbles]

Gosh, Roscata, by that chart my hair is between lightest and light blonde!! At least it is on my computer monitor. I wonder if there is such a thing as a Pantone book of hair color standards to offset these inconsistencies.

[Lianna]

The chart doesn't show things like tones, warm or cool. I'm none of those colors. :p It looks very dark too. Sometimes the sample hair in the dye brands "book" show really well.

I found this online:
http://img.diytrade.com/cdimg/836753/7572398/-1/1228486407/china_kph_hair_color_chart.jpg

You can see these in real life though.

Also: http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/herbal-remedies-usa/natural-hair-colors.gif

You seem medium ash blonde, Ms Bubbles. :)
I know it's just hair dyes, my hair is that dark ash blonde, exactly.

[SueC254]

Bumping up an old thread because this is a question I dealt with recently. I too have that hair that was blonde in childhood, then turns "dishwater" or "mousy" at teens and appears to be brown if your hair is cut in layers and the sunlightened top layers are removed. My son also has this hair colour, has the very whitest shade of skin and blue eyes and was blond as a toddler. His hair is cut frequently so does not have any sunbleached bits so his friends mistakenly refer to his hair as "dark brown". When photographed however it shows up some blonde parts and the find hair around his hairline, some eyelashes etc are almost white. You can see in this kind of hair (true medium ash blonde) that as someone here mentioned, it only appears dark because of the ash tones. It does not have very deep pigmentation at all (which is why it sunbleaches so easily, and lacks yellow pigmentation that people associate with what they call "blonde" hair. Light brown hair is very different. It is much more heavily pigmented and lightens to a different colour when bleached and does not go blonde. It just has a less delicate depth of colour. If you are a true dark blonde and especially an ash blonde with its cooler tones you will always identify as a blonde and feel intuitively that brown or brunette just doesn't sit right with you. The only time in my life I have dyed my hair was occasional salon blonde highlights which recreated my childhood colour. At 50 I had a sprinkling of grey hairs at the crown which was not as flattering as I'd hoped. I had success blending them in by just brushing on some permanent Schwarzkopf ultimate colour in dark blonde (the colour range is very limited, it is a new product). I then thought to do my whole head and it might add shine. Big mistake. It turned my whole hair a horrible solid dark brown. Also the dye too warm toned, I need an ash tone. After much internet research I successfully corrected it and recreated my natural hair colour. Here's how. Bought a colour remover which takes out the dye but doesn't strip your natural colour. Still had an unwanted coppery tone due to the Schwarzkopf colour. When choosing a box dye, every one makes the same mistake and ends up with a colour that is 1-2 shades too dark. That is because natural hair is made up of at least 3 levels of colour and to the eye average out to one. The box dye colours all of your light and mid shades to the darkest one so you get a block dark colour, the whole head at level 6 or 7. What you want is a box colour at level 8. If you are a neutral dark blonde, look for 8N or 80. If you have ash tones, you want an 8.1 or 8A. This gives you the correct base shade. You can then add lighter highlights by bleaching with standard highlight/frosting kit using a cap and hook or brush on method. What I used: L'Oreal Excellence 8.1 Ash Blonde. This gave me the correct base shade, corrected the coppery tone as it is ash toned. It immediately looked good and flattered my hazel green/brown/grey eyes. Even better, I got great frosted blonde highlights using a Clairol Frost& Tip kit I had in the bathroom. It didn't come with a toner so I used some Nordic Blonde toner just on the streaks to correct the yellowness to a great tone, almost platinum. I am Australian with English grandparents and many people here have that pale freckly skin with mousy hair. This ash toned hair is not well understood by Americans because most of the blondes there have Scandinavian ancestry and most of their blondes are golden toned and at the high blonde level 10. The English do however understand blondes and ash tones. I got my best information from the internet tutorial by Max at JHollywood (look for the youtube video Max 1 Levels and Undertones, who makes colors etc.) where he explains pigmentation of hair and where natural colours sit on the colour wheel; and hair expert in the UK Scott Cornwall who has a fantastic blog and facebook page. He has put out his own products to fill a gap in the market i.e. a permanent ash toner for mid tones - ash blondes and ash browns, that effectively restores the green pigment that you need to correct when hair dye and removal of hair dye leaves an unwanted reddish tone. He also makes an excellent violet toner for platinum blonde and grey. And a new chocolate toner to restore rich pigmentation to dark hair to you have the right base to work from if you want to colour your hair further. Or maintain the right tone in your current hair. He also makes a great safe dye remover. You can see them here at www.decolourremover.com. If I hadn't found this information I would have had to spend a lot of money fixing my mistake and probably would have damaged my hair in the process. Taylor Swift currently has light ash blonde hair that is somewhere between 8.1 and 9.1.

[jacqueline101]

I've been stumped on this for years I call my self blondette. A blondette is blonde and brown mix I'm interested in finding out this mistery myself.

[Cherry*Tree]

Everybody says I'm blond, but I'm actually light bron.

[Cherry*Tree]

Brown. Not bron.

[Sofialu]

That stumps me too. The one thing I know is that regardless of how dark my sister's hair is, NEVER call it brown, not even light golden brown. :scared:

I'd agree with that - dark ash blonde and light ash brown are different (IMO) because they have a different 'hue' and tones. Mine is dark ash blonde and the only reason I know its not light ash brown is because I have a light ash brown dye on it and my roots are near on the same colour except when the natural light hits them - the brown dye's reds/bronzes light up and there is a clear line where my dark blonde hair's natural bright yellows/silvers/golds light up. It is quite obvious when you can see it like that but I can't see my roots unless I go out in natural light so indoors or dull light I'd say they do look exactly the same colour.

[stachelbeere]

I'd agree with that - dark ash blonde and light ash brown are different (IMO) because they have a different 'hue' and tones. Mine is dark ash blonde and the only reason I know its not light ash brown is because I have a light ash brown dye on it and my roots are near on the same colour except when the natural light hits them - the brown dye's reds/bronzes light up and there is a clear line where my dark blonde hair's natural bright yellows/silvers/golds light up. It is quite obvious when you can see it like that but I can't see my roots unless I go out in natural light so indoors or dull light I'd say they do look exactly the same colour.

I'm not too sure if you can compare dye with natural hair because it's incredibly hard to achieve a cool tone in dyes. So I would always, always get a red/ orange shimmer whenever I dyed my hair brown because that's how dyes are composed. The cool colours are less permanent for some reason...

My light ash brown hair is really cool, it's more like a cool lead colour.

[Sofialu]

I'm not too sure if you can compare dye with natural hair because it's incredibly hard to achieve a cool tone in dyes. So I would always, always get a red/ orange shimmer whenever I dyed my hair brown because that's how dyes are composed. The cool colours are less permanent for some reason...

My light ash brown hair is really cool, it's more like a cool lead colour.

Mmm I see what you mean and yes you can tell the artificial ness of the dye on my hair because as you say it isn't so ashy as it would be if it were a real colour. But I still believe that the tones/hue of ones natural hair would indicate either blonde ness or brunette ness especially when lightened by the sun, whether it brings out more blonde tones or brunette tones

[vanillabones]

I am most definietly light ash brown not dark blonde. I don't have any blonde in my hair my brown hair is just very light for a brown and has very ashy natural undertones. Maybe close to the lightest brown that brown can get - esp in natural lighting.

[jupiterinleo]

I have no idea how to classify my hair color. Outside in the sun, it looks dark brassy blonde. The first picture doesn't do it much justice. Inside, it just looks brown, but not like, true brown like you usually see. It's like, extremely dark gold. :shrug: I pretty much just say it's brown, but that doesn't seem totally accurate all the time.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/jupiterinleo/uifefe_zpsf586a9c3.pnghttp://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/jupiterinleo/ghtrhrt_zpsc4a7c8d1.png

Ignore my ends, as I dyed them blonde years ago.

[1nuitblanche]

i look at the eyebrows :D if they're darker than hair, i call it brown. If lighter, i call it blond.

This! Also, sometimes you can just tell that the person was blonde as a child and their hair has darkened, so I tend to think they still have blonde hair even if it isn't really blonde at all anymore.

[Weewah]

Jupiterinleo, I would call you a dark blonde for sure!

I also tend to think of people's hair color by what they must've been as a child. I was blonde as a kid so that's what I forever call myself. I do like the term blondette too. I notice in guys with short hair, if they're dark blonde their hair can look very brown(maybe from styling gel or something?).

Looking at the person's face helps too, if they have overall lighter or darker coloring.

[palaeoqueen]

This! Also, sometimes you can just tell that the person was blonde as a child and their hair has darkened, so I tend to think they still have blonde hair even if it isn't really blonde at all anymore.

Trying to quote the bit about eyebrows being darker = brown hair... My eyebrows are so fair they're practically invisible but I have a friend with much lighter ashy blonde hair than mine and his eyebrows are close to black so it's not fool-proof.

[muddblood21]

I also have to politely disagree with the eyebrows rule. My hair is a medium blonde (white from birth to 8th grade) and my eyebrows have always been dark brown/almost black. They are also super full and a bit unruly lol :eyebrows: As I have gotten older, they have random white hairs in them more often (I could probably say they are grey, but I will refrain for now lol). It might be a good rule generally, but I am not sure it is a "blanket" rule.

[jupiterinleo]

Jupiterinleo, I would call you a dark blonde for sure!

I also tend to think of people's hair color by what they must've been as a child. I was blonde as a kid so that's what I forever call myself. I do like the term blondette too. I notice in guys with short hair, if they're dark blonde their hair can look very brown(maybe from styling gel or something?).

Looking at the person's face helps too, if they have overall lighter or darker coloring.

Yay! I sometimes compare my hair to the hair color swatches at the pharmacy and it matches the darkest blondes.
I was a blonde for many years and I didn't darken until about high school. My eyebrows have been dark brown since the the 5th grade, though. They darkened quite early. But most of my body hair is blonde.

[dancingrain91]

I consider myself unquestionably blonde, but I got told I was a brunette twice last week. I had a mild identity crisis. So here is all my unbleached hair gathered taken in kinda bad lighting, and I still say blonde. https://outlook.office365.com/owa/service.svc/s/GetFileAttachment?id=AAMkADViYTA0NjYzLTY3ZmYtNDcxM y05Mzc1LWViZWZiMTNlMWM2YwBGAAAAAADl%2BVG6mOklTKgDF lu3lflfBwDomyRhGvmqTaQZvWZKGokgAAAAy8oLAACAmV%2FMM 6GNT5%2Fu6mDQxMWsAACrmeKcAAABEgAQAIuZGPtGEmJGjViZg 9DsXAk%3D&X-OWA-CANARY=XQjZGKOX20CSsRvxRVNvKmEilfhUKNEIpaFkN0HX6ce jRBOrCYcFhwkXo08e5KmPfdsnb0C9EXk.
ETA: I also don't think it's an ashy color, looking at charts, my darkest strands are dark honey blonde and the rest of my hair seems to be in the honey blonde range as well.

[Eichan]

My hair is generally refered to as dirty blonde. Because I don't really leave the house, for a while my Mom insisted that my hair had changed to a dark brown because we keep the house dark, and without lighting my hair looks brown.


However, if I'm outside during the day, my hair is more middle-of-the-road golden blond with lighter highlights and red lowlights (Dad is blonde, Mom is some weird auburn/red mix).

If I'm inside with standard lighting like school, my hair looks light a pale yellow that is covered in dust.

My avatar was taken in light that was dim, but not as dark as the rest house, if that helps :)



In my opinion I really think that lighting matters!

[followingup]

it depends on the light. in sunlight i would rather call it blond and if the light is cold hair looks brownier ;)

[Kherome]

Long time ago, I asked about colors on this board. What I found out is what people call "blond" varies. Especially in the US, it seemed blond refers to a wide range of colors. What I see as "brown" is often called blond in this country, which puzzled me at first. Well it still does.

That's because there are a whole lot of brown haired people who prefer to "think" they are blond for some reason. Like it makes them better or prettier. It's a sentiment I do not get either. If it's brown, its brown. Who knows why people do that? Doesn't affect me so I just nod along when they say they are blond.

[chen bao jun]

That's because there are a whole lot of brown haired people who prefer to "think" they are blond for some reason. Like it makes them better or prettier. It's a sentiment I do not get either. If it's brown, its brown. Who knows why people do that? Doesn't affect me so I just nod along when they say they are blond.

Oh, I think its a little more complicated than this. A lot of kids have blond hair and instead of society admitting that mostly this is going to get somewhat darker at puberty (or thereafter) and since society pretends that kid blond hair past age twelve is probable (which its not, though possible) it treats such people as if they'd been in a disfiguring car wreck or something of the sort, making large numbers of women, especially, over-sensitive about something that 'ought' to just be seen as normal, and still very attractive.

Also, people are very affected by what is seen as attractive in movies, and since the first movies were in black and white and white hair looked very striking on screen (and some publicity man thought up the term 'platinum blond' which sounds way better than say, 'towhead'), women got into hair bleach to achieve this very rare look.

Also, though I don't think people think this with their conscious minds and I am definitely not accusing anybody of being racist because they say they are blond (that would be a ridiculous accusation),being a blond is seen in our society as positive 'proof' that you are definitely of European descent which until recent times was seen as 'better'. This is not at all true, the little boy in the middle of this photo who was not only considered to be black, but was sold as a slave in the US in the bad old days because he had African ancestry, but still this is what people 'think' and that is powerful.
http://i1280.photobucket.com/albums/a481/uloma1/r-WHITE-SLAVE-CHILDREN-large570_zpsfe129aea.jpg (http://s1280.photobucket.com/user/uloma1/media/r-WHITE-SLAVE-CHILDREN-large570_zpsfe129aea.jpg.html)

Anyway, it is a complicated subject and very tied in to people's emotions, so I, like you, accept whatever people say that they are as what they are. Because its important to them, if not to me and after all, I'm sure I have my little foibles too. And its not really something that's clearcut. The fact that there are SO many threads on this forum asking to be told the difference between dark blond and light brown points to the truth that there is not really a lot of difference.

ETA: oh, by the way, here is the link for the white slaves, who are well documented. Somehow at the time, people were really shocked by them, in the North of the USA, even though I think holding anybody as a slave should be exactly the same amount of shocking. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/28/white-slave-children-of-n_n_1307127.html

[Dreams_in_Pink]

When i see someone with this haircolor, i usually check out his/her eyebrows. If they're same or lighter color than their hair i call it blond. If darker, i call it brunett. But that's just me :D

Also, blond hair sparkles under sunlight, making it look even blonder.

[Marika]

In my opinion, I have brown hair (not even light) with reddish undertones but many people (usually foreign) consider me as blonde. I know my hair color level is 7 so I guess I am dark blonde. I was light blonde as a child and my eyebrows/eyelashes are basically invisible.

I don't really care what my hair color is called but it's interesting how different people see the same color :)

[meteor]

I find it strange that in English there is no common word for the "light/medium brown or dark blonde that fades and develops lots of natural blonde highlights". To be fair, there are some neologisms like "bronde" and "blondette", but they are new, fancy and not widely accepted, much less accepted than "chestnut" or "auburn", for example. Maybe the word "fair" conveys it? French has the same problem: blond - roux ("red") - châtain ("chestnut") - brun (which is almost black), but nothing to describe the simple color we are talking about.

However in Russian, there is a very common word that perfectly describes this color and all its multi-shades: "русый" (pronounced: "russiy"). It's estimated that up to 90% ethnic Russians have this hair color, but it's ridiculously diverse and looks different in different lights. This category covers any color that isn't clearly blonde (often called "white" or "golden") or red or chestnut or very dark brown/black. I never have any issues identifying my color in Russia - "русый" covers it perfectly - but in other parts of the world, there is so much unnecessary confusion. Black-haired people call me blonde and blondes call me brunette. I don't mind either way, of course, but I do find it strange that ridiculously rare white/platinum has a widely accepted and common term "blonde", but our super common hair colour doesn't!

Some examples of this color on the same person (I hope the pictures won't show up too large). I've never seen Natalia Vodyanova with the exact same hair color on two different photos, as is typical for this hair color:
http://www.nostalgia.org.ua/uploads/posts/2013-09/1379420617_6_vodyanova.jpg
http://pravdaurfo.ru/sites/default/files/natalya-vodyanova-priostanovila-razvod-s-muzhem_0.jpg
http://static1.purepeople.ru/articles/7/66/57/@/72738-natalya-vodyanova-637x0-2.jpg
http://donbass.ua/multimedia/images/news/original/2011/02/09/nataliya-vodyanova.jpg

[GoldenSilk]

About the eyebrow thing, not necessarily true. I was born with dark hair, and it fell out when I was about 6 months old and I grew white-blonde hair. When it grew back in, people actually yelled at my mom for "bleaching a baby's hair!!!", because my eyebrows were, and have always stayed, darker than my hair.

For what it's worth, I'm a light-to-medium blonde in adulthood. My eyebrows are the lightest color of eyebrow pencil they sell, but they still seem quite dark sometimes, because my skin is pale.

(My sister was born with the same exact dark hair, but hers gradually lightened to light brown. Maybe even blonette...? :shrug: )

[meteor]

I absolutely agree about the eyebrow color being no predictor of hair color. I met too many people with naturally mismatching brows and hair to know this, and some of them even dye their brows to match the hair, because it's easier.

Oh, and I just saw an LHC thread/poll on "What is your hair color level?" and 286 out of 588 votes are levels 5 - 7, which means almost half votes fall in this hard-to-describe category between dark blonde and light brown. So yes, I think we do need a separate word to describe this color, as it's so popular!

[0xalis]

It's weird because my hair is brown when you look at it altogether, but if I look at individual chunks in bright light, it seems dark blonde!
I even have natural blonde streaks in my hair for no apparent reason!!! I already grew out all of the bleach!

[UP Lisa]

Interesting to see my old thread revived again. Still controversy, I see.

[VanillaTresses]

Yep, I too have naturally light blonde hair and darker brows. Its like the Siamese cat version of human haircolor.

TMI: My arms and upper legs have blonde hair too, but the lower 2/3 of my legs also have darker hair.

[UP Lisa]

My brows have always been much darker than my hair. I remember my dentist commenting on it when I was a kid.

[queenovnight]

I personally see them as the same. Dark blonde Lol.

[Rosetta]

I personally see them as the same. Dark blonde Lol.
And why would dark blonde be "Lol" in your opinion..?

[queenovnight]

And why would dark blonde be "Lol" in your opinion..?

And why does 'Lol' have to mean anything at all? Perhaps you misunderstand. I'm saying that I see both dark blonde and light brown as "Dark blonde."

[chen bao jun]

I do really, too. a person being 'blonde' to me is the fair skin, light (not necessarily transparent but light brown) eyelashes and brows and the variations on that color hair that the person a few posts back called 'rusii'. To me, in Caucasian people of the more northern european type (those the type also shows up sometimes in northern italy and even further south), there are basically blonde people (dark blonde and light brown); brunette people (somewhat darker brown but not black), red heads and the few outliers who are either really brunette with black or almost black hair (though they often have blue eyes anyway) and those who stayed tow-headed like children into adulthood, which is as rare as red hair or truly black hair in this ethnic group. A lot of the times the differentiation between dark blond and light brown seems to me like some in group in high school set up to keep some people out on some minute distinction that nobody outside the ' in group' can really see. And I really think most of the rest of the world is of the same opinion that I am, it all looks blond, why the big fuss? And even if you call it light brown, its still a gorgeous hair color, be happy.


And why does 'Lol' have to mean anything at all? Perhaps you misunderstand. I'm saying that I see both dark blonde and light brown as "Dark blonde."

[Rosetta]

And why does 'Lol' have to mean anything at all? Perhaps you misunderstand. I'm saying that I see both dark blonde and light brown as "Dark blonde."
If it doesn't mean anything at all, then why include it in your comment at all...?
And it made it sound as though you don't really think there is such a colour as dark blonde... And from this comment it seems I was right.

As Springlets has brilliantly said in this thread http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=109087 (I hope I remember correctly, it was either that or the Blonette thread! ;)), it somehow seems that dark blonde is often not accepted as "blonde", though nobody would say the same for dark brown, for example... It's definitely accepted as brown, no questions asked. Strange...

[Bubbjo5]

I am in between dark blonde and light brown hard to describe it. in the sun looks more blonde but indoors looks brown and also has some red tones!

[queenovnight]

If it doesn't mean anything at all, then why include it in your comment at all...?
And it made it sound as though you don't really think there is such a colour as dark blonde... And from this comment it seems I was right.

As Springlets has brilliantly said in this thread http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=109087 (I hope I remember correctly, it was either that or the Blonette thread! ;)), it somehow seems that dark blonde is often not accepted as "blonde", though nobody would say the same for dark brown, for example... It's definitely accepted as brown, no questions asked. Strange...

I put 'lol' so that my comment wouldn't be taken the wrong way. I won't feed into a bickerment, but the title of this post does clearly says "Difference Between Dark Blonde and Light Brown Hair?" and I was giving my own personal opinion. I just think dark blonde hair and light brown hair look alike. You don't have to agree - but that won't change my opinion. I simply think the colors are alike. I think it's a lovely color and my boyfriend happens to be a blonde as well. There's no need to get so offended.

Have a nice day.

[Stormynights]

We are so accustomed to seeing bleached and highlighted blonde hair that I think we don't even recognize natural blonde hair anymore. Even on the natural blonde children's hair if you look carefully, you will see that there is a little darker hair hiding under there because of sun bleaching. As we get older we don't always spend much time in the sun so it doesn't get as much sun bleaching. Even dark hair gets lighter in the sun. If you are at level 8 and you lightens a couple of levels you will be at a level 10. Most people don't consider level 8 as blonde. To me it is blonde because I think if it is not considered blonde then there is no such thing as a natural blonde except on children. It is not uncommon for girls to hear statements about their hair was such a pretty blonde but it is now dishwater or mousy. This is what puts the pressure on to get highlights.

[meteor]

You are so right about the pressure for natural blondes/blonettes to bleach hair even lighter to make the color more "defined".
Level 8 is definitely blonde, and actually pretty light for a grown-up.
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110915185037/haircolor/images/4/4f/8.jpeg
However, in Nordic countries some people would call it brown because light color is practically the norm. I think it's only "brown" if one compares it to platinum/white blonde, which is a ridiculously rare natural color on adults.

If you ever dyed/bleached your hair at a salon, you were probably surprised by what your hairdresser called your natural hair color. I think I was "medium blonde" or something like that while my hair looked very clearly brown to me at the time. I think many blonettes had similar experiences.

It's all about comparisons when color is identified in life. A super-light blonde will often call a dark blonde "brunette", because she's comparing it to her range. And I was sometimes corrected when I thought of someone's hair as being black, but in reality it was dark brown and I just didn't realize the full range of possible hair colors. It's can be difficult to tell color unless you are a hairdresser investigating the color under different lights for coloring purposes.

[Springlets]

there are basically blonde people (dark blonde and light brown); brunette people (somewhat darker brown but not black), red heads and the few outliers who are either really brunette with black or almost black hair (though they often have blue eyes anyway) and those who stayed tow-headed like children into adulthood, which is as rare as red hair or truly black hair... And I really think most of the rest of the world is of the same opinion that I am, it all looks blond, why the big fuss? And even if you call it light brown, its still a gorgeous hair color, be happy.

I think I remember others saying in this thread that they got very annoyed at how so many people called their hair black when it actually is very dark brown. That's pretty much the same way that a dark blonde is going to feel about being called brown-haired. Sure, they're very close in color, but most people like to see distinctions and we tend to think of colors as not blending into each other (even though they most likely do). I personally find the level charts that hair dressers use to be very accurate- there is only one true black, level 2-5 are brown, 6-10 are blonde (though level 6 I have seen as both brown and blonde, it just depends on the pigmentation).




As Springlets has brilliantly said in this thread http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=109087 (I hope I remember correctly, it was either that or the Blonette thread! ;)), it somehow seems that dark blonde is often not accepted as "blonde", though nobody would say the same for dark brown, for example... It's definitely accepted as brown, no questions asked. Strange...

Thank you. :) Here's an example of this in action. By hair dressing standards this (http://avonshop.co.uk/shop/Assets/images/prod/prod_354116A.jpg) is considered medium brown, but probably dark brown in (American) society's view. This (http://lh6.ggpht.com/_cL0mg021W-0/TM0X0oW-j1I/AAAAAAAAC5E/r9Rm7QpqaJE/level%207-gg_thumb%5B2%5D.jpg?imgmax=800) is medium blonde by hair dressing standards but this is considered as light brown/dishwater blonde in society's view. The point that illustrates this best is when people talk about qualities that only "true" blondes have (example all body hair should be blonde), yet nobody would talk about "true" brunettes.




You are so right about the pressure for natural blondes/blonettes to bleach hair even lighter to make the color more "defined".
Level 8 is definitely blonde, and actually pretty light for a grown-up.

However, in Nordic countries some people would call it brown because light color is practically the norm. I think it's only "brown" if one compares it to platinum/white blonde, which is a ridiculously rare natural color on adults.


Very true, I'd say it's the rarest color for adults. I don't know anyone with white blonde hair as an adult, and I only know 2 people with level 9. I knew quite a bit more when I (and they) were in there early 20s but they've all darkened since then. I know a lot of 8s and 7s.

And yeah, people can consider level 8 'bronde' (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KoWnC1sYDlE/S3exKINRfXI/AAAAAAAAB20/lGkCl-RG8Mg/s1600/0002+Level8+Bronde.jpg) or essentially between brown and blonde, though this does seem to be a scandinavian thing.

[Rosetta]

I think I remember others saying in this thread that they got very annoyed at how so many people called their hair black when it actually is very dark brown. That's pretty much the same way that a dark blonde is going to feel about being called brown-haired.
Thank you, Springlets :) And exactly this. The dark blonde/light brown distinction is quite similar to dark brown/black distinction - not everyone may perceive it, but that doesn't give them the right to claim that they are one and the the same...


I put 'lol' so that my comment wouldn't be taken the wrong way. I won't feed into a bickerment, but the title of this post does clearly says "Difference Between Dark Blonde and Light Brown Hair?" and I was giving my own personal opinion. I just think dark blonde hair and light brown hair look alike. You don't have to agree - but that won't change my opinion. I simply think the colors are alike. I think it's a lovely color and my boyfriend happens to be a blonde as well. There's no need to get so offended.
See above. How is it "bickerment" just to say there is a distinction that you personally don't see? And I wasn't offended, just trying to clear things up, as you seemed to confuse these colours. It's not really a matter of opinion, more of perception, but whatever. I really don't want to argue about that.

[noteve]

However, in Nordic countries some people would call it brown because light color is practically the norm. I think it's only "brown" if one compares it to platinum/white blonde, which is a ridiculously rare natural color on adults.

Hah, this makes sense. I've been reading this thread and found it weird that you guys call obviously brown hair dark blonde!

In Iceland, my hair is said to be "dark brown". It looks like this:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/999993_313068592172676_1355020747_n.jpg

What would you say was my "real" hair color? Not from a nordic point of view, that is.

[tigereye]

Hah, this makes sense. I've been reading this thread and found it weird that you guys call obviously brown hair dark blonde!

In Iceland, my hair is said to be "dark brown". It looks like this:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/999993_313068592172676_1355020747_n.jpg

What would you say was my "real" hair color? Not from a nordic point of view, that is.

To me? Probably a medium ash blonde. I'd guess at a level 7, but don't quote me on it since darkness isn't always consistent on my monitor. I'd definitely still put it in the blonde category.

I have more trouble with distinguishing the category 6, and tend to call it depending on undertones (golden or ashy tones I tend to put in the blonde category, whilst reddish or dark undertones I put towards brunette). Just from experience. Life would be easier if it had its own name. I like blonette.

On the other hand, apparently, my hair is brown, not red, unless I'm in the sun, when people insist it's red, not brunette. I don't really mind, but it would be nice not to have my friends argue over something I'm not particularly fussed about. Mine looks about a 4 inside but it looks a level lighter and far redder in sunshine.

[MaryO]

I was also rather surprised to find out that I might actually be thought of as blonde by some but I don't think that I am personally. Even though I have light brown hair I just think of it as brown. I don't feel the need to go into descriptive words to go with the brown! ;-)

[meteor]

Hah, this makes sense. I've been reading this thread and found it weird that you guys call obviously brown hair dark blonde!

In Iceland, my hair is said to be "dark brown". It looks like this:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/999993_313068592172676_1355020747_n.jpg

What would you say was my "real" hair color? Not from a nordic point of view, that is.

You are probably a blonde (either dark or even medium), I'm guessing level 7, but it's hard to tell on photos, so it's better to ask your hairdresser.
And wow, if in Iceland they call your color "dark brown", then what do they call this?
http://guardianlv.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/21.jpg
There are at least 5 levels between these 2 very different shades, so using the same "dark brown" all-encompassing category doesn't even convey the actual color.

[Larki]

noteve, I'd call your hair dark ash blonde, personally. Your hair reminds me of Bindi Irwin:

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/996519/thumbs/o-BINDI-IRWIN-570.jpg?6

[Springlets]

To me? Probably a medium ash blonde. I'd guess at a level 7, but don't quote me on it since darkness isn't always consistent on my monitor. I'd definitely still put it in the blonde category.

I have more trouble with distinguishing the category 6, and tend to call it depending on undertones (golden or ashy tones I tend to put in the blonde category, whilst reddish or dark undertones I put towards brunette). Just from experience. Life would be easier if it had its own name. I like blonette.

On the other hand, apparently, my hair is brown, not red, unless I'm in the sun, when people insist it's red, not brunette. I don't really mind, but it would be nice not to have my friends argue over something I'm not particularly fussed about. Mine looks about a 4 inside but it looks a level lighter and far redder in sunshine.

That's what I'd say too, looks pretty much exactly like this.
http://pics2.ds-static.com/prodimg/178659/300.jpg
Ash tends to look darker than golden or neutral, so it can make it appear slightly darker than the typical level (so level 8 ash looks almost like a level 7, 7 ash looks almost a 6, etc.)

It's hard to believe that can be considered dark brown, light brown I could understand, but dark? I tried to convince my husband and brother yesterday that in Scandinavia I could be considered as having light brown hair, but they didn't believe me. Now I definitely know better.

[noteve]

You are probably a blonde (either dark or even medium), I'm guessing level 7, but it's hard to tell on photos, so it's better to ask your hairdresser.
And wow, if in Iceland they call your color "dark brown", then what do they call this?
http://guardianlv.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/21.jpg
There are at least 5 levels between these 2 very different shades, so using the same "dark brown" all-encompassing category doesn't even convey the actual color.

Access denied on the photo!


It's hard to believe that can be considered dark brown, light brown I could understand, but dark? I tried to convince my husband and brother yesterday that in Scandinavia I could be considered as having light brown hair, but they didn't believe me. Now I definitely know better.

Haha, I never realized it differed by countries until I joined this forum. My hair looks darker in artificial light, and in Iceland it's dark about 9 months a year so that might explain it. We also have a word for the color in between blonde and brown, which probably translates to "blonette", but my hair is a lot darker than that haircolor.

In Iceland, this would be considered blonette, and is the most common haircolor here:
https://a248.e.akamai.net/media.pinterest.com.s3.amazonaws.com/236x/29/ab/41/29ab41b985a55e36d88feccfbd22b46f.jpg

This would be considered very dark:
http://www.syerasite.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Brown-hair-6.jpg

And finally, this is probably the darkest color that is generally considered blonde around here, at least in daily talk:
http://images.beautyriot.com/photos/julianne-hough-medium-curly-thick-romantic-blonde.jpg

[Nedertane]

Access denied on the photo!



Haha, I never realized it differed by countries until I joined this forum. My hair looks darker in artificial light, and in Iceland it's dark about 9 months a year so that might explain it. We also have a word for the color in between blonde and brown, which probably translates to "blonette", but my hair is a lot darker than that haircolor.

In Iceland, this would be considered blonette, and is the most common haircolor here:
https://a248.e.akamai.net/media.pinterest.com.s3.amazonaws.com/236x/29/ab/41/29ab41b985a55e36d88feccfbd22b46f.jpg

This would be considered very dark:
http://www.syerasite.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Brown-hair-6.jpg

And finally, this is probably the darkest color that is generally considered blonde around here, at least in daily talk:
http://images.beautyriot.com/photos/julianne-hough-medium-curly-thick-romantic-blonde.jpg

Okay, this spectrum does make some sense. I think most people in the blonette thread would consider the top photo a blonette/dark blonde color, no? I would consider the bottom photo a medium blonde, personally, but maybe it looks different in the lighting that you describe. As for the middle photo, I'd consider it "somewhat dark". Interestingly, though, I think the middle one is close to my sister's natural color (which I always considered dark, but also haven't truly seen in years, lol), but she considers it to be mousy! Funny world, eh?

[Stormynights]

I think it looks like everyone in these pictures have some high lights.

[Springlets]

In Iceland, this would be considered blonette, and is the most common haircolor here.

This would be considered very dark:


And finally, this is probably the darkest color that is generally considered blonde around here, at least in daily talk:

The first one is a level 8 ash, which is considered a light blonde by hair dressing standards. It is considered blonette in the blonette thread, but it's only because of the Nordic attitude that it is blonette, so it's kind of a catch 22. ;)

The middle one is I think a 3 (dark brown) flowing to a 5 (light brown) at the ends.

The last one is 8.5 flowing towards a 9 so light blonde going to very light blonde.

What I like about the level system is that it's grounded in reality. We see things in terms of hair dye where it's not uncommon to see an adult woman walking around with the lightest platinum hair, but in reality, a level 8 is light for an adult, therefore it should be considered light blonde, and you'd only occasionally see a level 9, making it very light blonde, and very rarely a 10. As has been said, even in Nordic countries, this is the norm (for adults obviously).

[MadAddie]

Well this thread really is very interesting. As you can see from my avatar and sig pic my hair colour varies in artificial light. Sig pic was taken indoors in the dark winter evening. I would just consider myself blonette I guess?

[Sofialu]

Does anyone know of any pictures anywhere that would show the difference between dark blonde and light brown hair? I don't know if I can still call my hair blonde at all.

Can anyone explain the difference?

I was looking at my kids' hair the other day and it reminded me about this thread so I thought I'd take some photos of their hair. My daughter has light brown hair and my son's is dark blonde. You would never call her blonde, nor him brunette but their hair colours can look very similar when not in good daylight. The photos were taken in quick succession and show how different my son's blonde hair can look dependent upon the lighting, I never see such variation with my little girl's hair, even in the sun.

http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac280/reddij/IMG_5960_zps434aa911.jpg (http://s907.photobucket.com/user/reddij/media/IMG_5960_zps434aa911.jpg.html)

And here in good light

http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac280/reddij/IMG_5964_zps9ef24255.jpg (http://s907.photobucket.com/user/reddij/media/IMG_5964_zps9ef24255.jpg.html)

http://i907.photobucket.com/albums/ac280/reddij/IMG_5965_zps10fd5999.jpg (http://s907.photobucket.com/user/reddij/media/IMG_5965_zps10fd5999.jpg.html)

[UP Lisa]

They do look pretty much the same in that first picture.

[Sofialu]

Obviously I see them all the time without studying them so how much his colour changes in the light surprised me too.

[Entangled]

Defining my hair color has been frustrating, for nobody has any other name than dirty blonde or mousy brown. If I call myself blonde, I'm wrong. If I call myself a brunette, I'm wrong. Here, at least there's a term for my hair color, blonette, but in real life, it's rather vexing. I want to think of hair in basic terms, only adding adjectives when I'm feeling descriptive, but I can't do that with my color. Maybe that's why I love dark brown hair so much.

[Georgii]

I hear there isnt one. Some people call us in-betweeners "brond"

[fiðrildi]

Hair colour is subjective, that's a sure thing. We always tend to compare with what we usually see on a daily basis, so it's normal that what some people call dark brown, may be perceived as black, or even as dark blonde by other people.

I consider myself a blonette. People in Spain say I am blonde, or "very blonde", whereas in Iceland, my hair colour is the most common colour (level 6-7), and people would consider me as a light brunette/dark blonde (blonette).

The Inuits have around fifty words to describe the "white" colour, because that's the main colour they see everyday. So, it makes sense that Nordic countries have a wider spectrum to describe blonde colours rather than brown ones. Not until recently, I started to notice about all the different brown tones that I used to consider as just brown, or even black. So I think it's normal for dark haired people to think that dark blonde is much blonder than it really is :wink:

[Entangled]

The problem where I am is that all of the blonette hair is heavily highlighted, so compared to them, I'm not blonde, but we have a high Hispanic population with dark brown to black hair, and there are plenty of lighter brunette a in the middle. So, my hair color isn't considered properly brown either.

[chen bao jun]

Iceland really is the blondest country in the world. In popular belief, the Scandinavian countries are and there are still many people who think Germany is, but Iceland actually has by far the largest proportion of people who stay blond past adolescence without 'help', so it makes sense that there Noteve (you have beautiful hair by the way) would not be considered blonde, as it really is a comparison thing, as someone has noted.
Interesting.
It was fascinating to see the picture of the little boy whose hair varied so much depending on the light. I once read a murder mystery in which this was a factor, I forget the name of it, unfortunately. The murderer was a blond, but someone saw him/her from a distance in the kind of lighting that makes blond hair look dark, which put them out of the running for the crime until the very end of the book, where the detective figured out what had happened and they got nabbed. Why they didn't just wear a hat, I don't know.

[fiðrildi]

Iceland really is the blondest country in the world. In popular belief, the Scandinavian countries are and there are still many people who think Germany is, but Iceland actually has by far the largest proportion of people who stay blond past adolescence without 'help', so it makes sense that there Noteve (you have beautiful hair by the way) would not be considered blonde, as it really is a comparison thing, as someone has noted.
Interesting.
It was fascinating to see the picture of the little boy whose hair varied so much depending on the light. I once read a murder mystery in which this was a factor, I forget the name of it, unfortunately. The murderer was a blond, but someone saw him/her from a distance in the kind of lighting that makes blond hair look dark, which put them out of the running for the crime until the very end of the book, where the detective figured out what had happened and they got nabbed. Why they didn't just wear a hat, I don't know.

Humm, not really, I don't think Iceland has the highest rate of blonde people :wink:
I think it's Finland. In fact, most of the people from Iceland are half Irish (celtic) and half Scandinavian, and even if it's a country that has been isolated for ages, and it's easy to find really blonde people, there are quite a lot of brunettes too. A lot of Icelandic women bleach their blonette hair, so it looks like natural platinum when it's not.

That murder story is funny, and I wouldn't be surprised that it could happen in real life as well :p

[Sofialu]

Iceland really is the blondest country in the world. In popular belief, the Scandinavian countries are and there are still many people who think Germany is, but Iceland actually has by far the largest proportion of people who stay blond past adolescence without 'help', so it makes sense that there Noteve (you have beautiful hair by the way) would not be considered blonde, as it really is a comparison thing, as someone has noted.
Interesting.
It was fascinating to see the picture of the little boy whose hair varied so much depending on the light. I once read a murder mystery in which this was a factor, I forget the name of it, unfortunately. The murderer was a blond, but someone saw him/her from a distance in the kind of lighting that makes blond hair look dark, which put them out of the running for the crime until the very end of the book, where the detective figured out what had happened and they got nabbed. Why they didn't just wear a hat, I don't know.

Ive never been to Iceland and can only speak from my own experiences but where I'm from I see many natural blondes on a daily basis. I know 12 mid to light blondes plus a lot of dark blondes so in the UK I guess there must be a higher proportion of blondes too?

[mcgg417]

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/1e/f0/ca/1ef0ca346d0358602c3f4dcdf5613f70.jpg a definite dark blonde to me

http://www.dicandiafashion.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/light-brown-hair-color-tumblr.jpg a definite light brown

it's something about the undertones. the brown is richer and redder. the blonde is ashy and looks like it would bleach easily in the sun.

[mcgg417]

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpt1/v/t1.0-9/10451846_10207233349696064_3527761626902155769_n.j pg?oh=11edd9bc9222b557d7c477a149986b7e&oe=56A42926 i sometimes wonder where i fall?

[Becky9679]

Sometimes the difference can just be down to lighting! These two pictures were taken in the same spot at different times of day. In the first one you can see the natural colour coming through at my roots looks very brown, however in the second the natural bit looks a great deal lighter. I've had people call my hair dark blonde in the past but I've always thought of it as brown. What do you think?

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=19169&d=1443281141 http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=19242&d=1443637077

[DollyDagger]

To me from second pic it looks to be what I would call dark blonde. The first pic there's a shadow right on the top of your head so I think its contributing to making it look darker. First pic looks to me what I would call light golden brown probably.