What is the Significance of Blond Hair and Why is it so Desirable All Over the World?

BLONDbetween tribes. Such clashes, either by violence
Myth and History(rape) or by mutual consent, lead the to the mixing
Byand assimilation of races, thus creating all kinds of
Tala Barshades of hair that appear throughout the European
When talking about blond hair, a few questions rise inpopulation: fair, gold, carrot, copper and chestnut, the
the mind. What is the reason for such wideresult of blond mixing with black and brown.
admiration for blond hair? Why do "men prefer***
blonds"? Why do dark haired women from theFollowing sun worshipping, many gods and heroes
Mediterranean area constantly bleach their hair, andrepresenting it were considered in many places
why do people of African origin dye their black hairaround the world as having blond, or golden hair; and
yellow?since the sun represents fertility, so did also the
The answer to these questions is in the remote past,figures symbolizing Love as a mark of fertility. This is
but it is not unduly complicated; it lies in the overallhow Robert Graves presents the White Goddess in
veneration of gold. Gold is the symbol of the sun andcharge of fertility among the rest, in his book by that
marks the basic features granted to the sun as aname: "The Goddess is a lovely, slender woman with
deity: power, strength, and durability. But thea hooked nose, deathly pale face, lips red as
symbolism of gold is not only physical but alsorowan-berries, startlingly blue eyes and long fair hair..."
spiritual. Like the sun, which it stands for, gold shines(p. 24). This description is very close to the
by itself with a continuous light, which does notappearance of a Viking woman, even though Graves
darken and does not tarnish. This characteristic isfixes her origin in the Mediterranean basin, among
considered to be not only physical but also spiritual,dark-haired population. The Love goddess Aphrodite
referring to it as having the qualities of purity,is said to have climbed out of the sea at Cyprus, and
wisdom, nobility, respect, divinity, enlightenment, andaccording to many original paintings from ancient
eternity.Greece, she is supposed to have had dark hair - as
It is quite clear that there is no place on earth whereshe is indeed often presented; Botticelli, however,
the sun has not been worshipped in one way or thepainted his famous picture of hers with golden hair.
other. The Bible expresses the sun's character andSimilar to Aphrodite is the Celtic figure of "Niamah
importance in a few places. The prophet Malachiwith the Golden Hair", whose name means "Sun
says, "The sun of righteousness shall rise with healingTear"; her divine personality is expressed in the story
in his wings..." (ch. 4, 2); and in Psalms it is said that,that tells how she led the hero Oisin on her horse to
"For the Lord God is a sun and a shield..." (ch. 84, 12).the post-death "Islands of Happiness". The dark or
A common phrase in modern Hebrew says, "As clearchestnut haired Celts had also a Sun god named
as the sun", expressing the fact that the sun acts inLugh, who was described as having golden hair that
the light of day and has nothing to hide. Thegleamed in the sunlight. Like him, on a 14th cent.
Scandinavian Sun god Balder is called "The Eye of theFrench goblin, the figure of the Welsh King Arthur
Sky", and when he is killed by Hodder, god ofappears with golden hair, even though the Welsh are
darkness and hell, a long period of dark winter isusually dark haired; the whole picture is infused with
created, when nothing grows until the sun is reborn.the golden atmosphere of the sun. Arthur was
Father Christmas, whose dwelling place is the Northoriginally known as a military leader from the 5-6th
Pole, represents the young sun in this festival, ascent., and the medieval royal ambiance takes him
may be seen by his red clothes (his white beardcompletely out of his original tribal belonging, putting
symbolizes snow, rather that old age). In ancienthim instead in a connection of golden regal-divine
Egypt, sun worship was highly developed, and eitherenvironment; the Arthurian myths connect him with
the Phoenicians or the Viking may have been thosethe dying and reviving Sun god, and even with the
who had brought it to America (s. below).figure of Jesus as symbolizing the sun. It is well
***known that Jesus was consistently painted by
But what has all this to do with golden hair? In manyChristian artists as having golden hair, in blunt contrast
beliefs human hair is considered to hold a person'sto his Mediterranean origin.
physical and spiritual power. Biblical Samson (ShimshonThe Sun deity could be, then, either male or female;
in Hebrew, whose name is connected with the sun -in Semitic myths there were both the Babylonian
Shemesh), called "the hero", lost his great powerShamash god and the Canaanite Shamash or Shapash
when his head was shaven of his magnificent hair;goddess. An Amerindian story of the Sun deity is told
only when it started to grow back, he was able toabout a Mexican goddess named Chalchuialico, who
destroy a whole temple by felling its pillars with hiswas a fourth Sun goddess to rule after the three
bare hands. The combination of golden hair, then,before her had vanished; but before she became a
represents divine superiority, power and control.Sun goddess she was a Water goddess dressed in
The tints of gold can change from the fairest blondgreen, who had copper hair. For hundreds of years
hair to the darkest red, and in spite of the visiblethat Sun goddess supplied light and heat, while
difference between them, they all symbolize thewomen and men appeared on the earth. But other
connection with the Sun as a supreme deity, andgods envied her, and the God of Darkness
those spiritual features attached to it. That is why,(reminiscent of the Scandinavian Hodder), bothered
even in cultures where black and brown hair areher until she shed tears to the earth and everything
considered beautiful, the lighter colors are thought tovanished in darkness. In the end, the gods decided to
express special qualities. The Norwegian explorercreate a fifth sun, and for that purpose they had to
Thor Heyerdahl - the initiator of the Kon Tiki and themake a sacrifice, which would bring into being the sun
Ra trips, from South America to Polynesia and fromand the moon. The sacrifice to the sun was to be
North Africa to America - has mentioned a myth, toldthe little goddess Nanna (again, reminiscent of an old
among the black haired native Americans, saying thatworld deity connected with the Nordic Balder). While
the most prominent American cultures (Maya, Incathe gods were burning their sacrifice, an eagle (one
and Aztec) were created by white-skinned, beardedof the most prominent symbols of the sun) took out
people; these people, they say, came from anher body from the fire in the shape of a ball of fire,
unknown place and disappeared in the Pacific ocean,fixed it in the sky as she was wrapped in her golden
where they reappeared in the shape of the gianthair.
red-haired sculptures of the Aku Aku culture ofMany golden haired figures appear in folk tales, which
Polynesia.have developed from the ancient myths; one such
It is quite possible that those white, bearded menlegendary woman was Isolde, Tristan's lover, famous
were descendents of the Vikings, who arrived innot only from medieval poetry and a novel by the
America in the eighth to tenth centuries; but they19th cent. French author Joseph Bedier, but also from
might have been sea-faring Phoenicians, who arrivedWagner's Opera. The legend tells that when Mark,
in America a long time earlier from North Africa,the king of Cornwall, saw Isolde's golden hair in a
bringing with them parts of the ancient Egyptianbird's nest, he declared that he would only marry the
culture - like the pyramids, for instance. Red hairedowner of that hair. When it was found that the hair
people are fairly common among peoples of thebelonged to Isolde, the Irish royal princess, Tristan
Mediterranean basin, which are a highly mixed race;was sent to bring her to Mark, and on the way they
two of the most prominent Biblical mentions of it arefell hopelessly in love. Isolde is a typical Love goddess
King David, and Esau the Edomite - Adom meansfor whom the hero must die in the end.
"red" in Hebrew.It is also possible to find blond heroines in the Grimm
Originally, all humans, having developed in Africa, mustBrothers' Fairy Tales. One of these heroines is
have had dark skin and hair, as can be seen in ourRapunzel, who is said to have had "magnificent long
nearest relatives, the chimpanzee, and as may behair, fine as spun gold"; another is the Goose Girl,
expected from the hot conditions of that area; thewhose waving locks "were all of pure silver". Folk
dark pigmentation works as a protection against thetales in turn have developed into modern fiction, and
heat. Only when Homo sapiens people left Africa andanother divine woman with golden hair is Irene,
arrived at Northern Europe, they could afford toheroine of Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga. She is
forgo the protection against the heat, conserving thedescribed by the author as looking like a pagan
energy needed for creating dark pigmentation, andgoddess, whose figure expresses that of the
developed means of protection against the cold inGoddess of Love.
the form of body hair, and tall and bony physique,From literature to real life, the next type of Love
under heavy fur clothing. Scandinavia is the only placegoddess can be found among the goddesses of our
on earth where fair skin and hair were evertimes, who are film stars. Some of them are known
developed.to have dyed their hair blond, in order to enhance
Such fair skin and hair was probably developed fromthat concept of them, and one such modern Love
an albino mutation, which is well known among thegoddess is Madonna, who is not even beautiful but
dark tribes of Africa; but while in Africa it is adistinguished by her blond hair. A better claim for the
disadvantage, in Scandinavia it had its merits andtitle, though, is Marilyn Monroe, who became famous
spread through the population, together with straightfor her film Men Prefer Blonds. Monroe certainly had
hair and thick beard. The initial settlement in Northernthe appearance of a Love goddess, with her original
Europe is said to have taken place toward the enddark hair dyed blond, her lovely curvaceous body,
of the last ice age, while the ice was beginning toand the many stories about her relations with men,
retreat, around 12,000 before the present; at thatthat enhanced that illusion. That combination of her
time, the settlers were fairly isolated from the restappearance, her profession and her behavior,
of the continent, thus developing into a pure blond,certainly made Marilyn Monroe a throw back to pagan
hardy race. With the melting of the ice these peopletimes and Sun worship. It is no wonder, then, that
started moving out, searching for more territory withmany women like to imitate her, at least by
the food it can provide. It may be assumed that theirbecoming blond; but such throw back may also
hardy bodies and minds, being used to the harshaffect those dark haired men, who prefer to
conditions of the North, made them stronger thanenhance their outer persona in this way.
other races and fit them to overcome any clash