::les brunes

::Once upon a time, while on a trip to visit my grandparents in Hungary, I gave in to my grandmother's requests that she dye my hair blonde. I was bored, I was near the Ukraine, there was no internet, I had read the July 2008 issue of Vogue about 4 times back to front. I said yes.

When I looked in the mirror, I saw a vulgar, ruddy-faced girl. Then I started crying. Why was my complexion so ... pink? Why were my eyebrows suddenly like two black slugs? Wait... why is my hair falling out? Yes - half of my hair fell out. My grandmother's response? ''No loss, it didn't suit you anyway.'' The garish yellow and white tones were dyed brown the next day, which really didn't help with the hair loss issue. *That's* how much I could not tolerate it.

That traumatic (not really) incident gave me a renewed respect for les brunes, le marrone, the brunettes. I should have taken Rachel Weisz's horrible hair in 'Beautiful Creatures' as indicative of what crimes bleach can commit to the yellow-toned, black eyebrowed among us. I think Monica Bellucci has even been a disaster-blonde for a short time. The only exception to my preference for dark haired people is Anita Pallenberg - she started life, and her career, as a brunette so I will attribute her dalliances with blonde hair dye to heavy, heavy drug use. Maybe she liked inhaling the bleach-y fumes.

images via style.com & thefashionspot