If you choose to keep your brown hair, instead of giving into the pressure of dying it, good for you. You'll be saving money in the long run. No forking out 50 every two weeks for a color touch up. Being a brunette is much cheaper and you can rock your natural beauty type. Worrying about how you can stand out and be noticed? No problem. Studies have shown that many men actually do prefer brunettes. Despite the fact that there are advantages of having dark hair strands, especially when paired with pale to tanned skin, there are plenty of disadvantages as well. Let's hear them out. Struggles only brunettes can truly relate to:
1. The everlasting trail of hair.
Our dark hair strands will be very hard to hide, especially if you shed them. You may find your trail of hair on the floor of your livingroom, bathroom floor, especially your bedroom. Easy to spot. And more than likely, you will need to spot clean every now and then so your house doesn't look like a cesspool of hair strands on the floor.
2. Your body hair is so dark
Dark hair is easy to spot against your pale to tanned skin.
No matter how much body hair you may or may not have, people will always notice if you haven't shaved in a day or two.
People used to teased me because they thought my arms were too hairy. Not any more hairy than anyone else's arms.
They told me I might as well be a man. Wonderful.
So we are in constant need to keep ourselves shaved everyday.
3. Your head feels like it is on fire during hot days.
Yeah, our melanin protects our head, but it sure does attract heat just as flies to honey. And it sticks. It helps to wear some head wear if you plan on going out for the day.
4. Peeled skin or dry scalp shows more
If you have dry scalp or a scalp sunburn and it peels, it is much more noticeable with darker strands. Teachers at school have never failed to point that out. I even got sent home one day with a note tellin my mother she needed to do something about it. Just wow!
5. Oily hair is virtually impossible to hide with dark hair.
And so is dry shampoo. Do you want to look like your grandma? Cruella? Or Marie Antoinette? Use regular dry shampoo. This really bites, especially if you have oily dark hair.
6. Your white hairs are totally noticeable
Forget hiding them with dark hair unless you want to use hair dye. They will stick right out against your chocolate strands. If you have a unique shade of dark brown you won't be able to replace that with anything that can be found in a bottle or box. These white hairs are a pain and hard to manage. Especially when they are a different texture than the rest of your hair.
7. Your braids are hard to see
A disadvantage to all of us with dark strands. Your braids will be very hard to show up on your head in photos. Apply all the filters you want.
8. Dying your dark hair is a pain
Why? To dye your dark hair strands you will also have to use heavy duty bleach, something people with light hair don't have to worry about. And multiple sessions of bleaching have to be done until you can get it that perfect white color before dying. And root touch ups don't come cheap.
9. If you dye your hair, you will end up destroying your hair health
Bleach bleach bleach is required to dye your hair a lighter color which absolutely destroys your hair health. Your hair may end up in a frizz that is in constant need of maintenance and very hard to manage. As much as I stated that I hated my hair in the past, people often asked me, "Why don't you dye it?" Well... the reason should be obvious. Dealing with frizz and constant dark roots can give anyone a headache. I say it's more trouble than what it's worth. Especially when I realize now just how beautiful my natural hair shade is.
10. Dealing with dark roots.
If you do choose to change to the color of your hair, it will come back with vengeance! You won't be fooling anyone with hair dye.
11. The Assumtion that your dark brown hair is black
People with lighter strands often try to say that your dark-brown strands are black. People with black hair want to be included in the brunette demographic, even though it has it's own classification. Are they color blind?
12. We are underrepresented
If you are a brunette, you'll often feel left out concerning annual celebrations, fests, and media representation concerning your beauty type. For example: We have redhead magazines, black beauty magazines, Asian beauty magazines, Latina magazines. Ok? Where are the brunette beauty magazines? Why don't we have exclusivity? Brunettes are just as wonderful as redheads, blondes, and ravens! And I often wondered why we haven't realized that yet.
By the way, you can't help but to notice that Belle is the only brunette princess. Also, where are all the white brunette emojis? Talk about underrepresentation.
13. We Are Underrated
People just assume that brunettes are boring. I guess it's because of stereo types. For example: Not all people who wear glasses are smart. Some aren't so smart. And brunette women can be exciting, beautiful and bright as well as women of any other phenotype.
Brunettes are just as beautiful as any woman. It's ignorant and shallow to think otherwise.
-Josh Remley
14. Blending in a little too much?
Brunettes are considered to be 'regular' or 'default' despite being only 11% of the entire world's population (and those with pale skin being even lower on the world wide scale). Why do they assume this? Brunettes make up the sweeping majority of Westerners. And often that is the reason people will assume that we make up 97% of the planet. Of course this is not true. Pale skinned brunettes are a minority when you look at the rest of the world. And being of a small 6%, I would not consider myself default. Would you?
15. Brown hair is not unique?
They say our brown hair colors aren't exactly 'unique' but I beg to differ. More shades of brown hair exist than shades of any other hair color. And your hair color isn't the overall factor that defines how unique or beautiful you are, as an individual. Your DNA strands are unique. You are custom made. So is your hair shade.
16. The Aryan Beauty Standard for Blonde Hair & Tanned Skin
Blondes and redheads can rock pale skin nicely, but our dark strands and pale skin are seen as a negative thing. Maybe it is because our dark strands make us look paler due to the clash. After all, who wants to look like Wednesday from the Adam's family, right? With this blonde hair and tan skinned beauty ideal promoted in our culture, I ask myself: "Why are we devaluing our pale skin and brown locks? We should be proud of it!" In our culture, the bleach industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Also, fake tanner unfortunately sells. So don't let that fool you. Holding your head up high in a culture that promotes the opposite as the beauty standard isn't as easy as one would think. As dark-porcelains we truly do have the best of both worlds.
As Brunettes, we have that mega shine. We are very diverse in hair shades, skin shades, phenotypes, body types, skin types, and more. Brunettes are just as wonderful as blondes, redheads, and ravens. So walk into the room like you own the place, and know that we are not as common as some would say.
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