Meaning and prejudices

Scientifically speaking, the color of the hair is due to the pigmentation of the hair follicles. It is determined by eumelanin and pheomelanin, which are two types of melanin.

Hair colors

The first colors the hair with shades of brown to black, according to its dosage, while the second dyes them in red. If the first is slightly concentrated, it can also make grow blond hair.

However, it will also cover hair with silver going so far as to give them a shade called "salt and pepper" which suits perfectly some people and a little less others.

Of all this is the essential for the layman and especially for hairdressers, namely that the hair color is classified into 8 official shades which are: black, brown, auburn, chestnut, red, Venetian blond, blond, white.

According to the observations, the black color is the most widespread in the world. But these shades get warmer as we move from the southern Mediterranean to Eastern Europe, for example, with Scandinavian countries rather marked by light hair.

But there are natural or chemical processes that have historically allowed everyone to change the color of their hair. The Egyptians already used henna, while the Romans and Greeks used natural pigments, clays, ashes, copper and lead salts, and walnut stain.

Over the centuries the hair has retained its role of ornement, adorning the faces of their colors and their assemblages, their cuts, their sweeps, their brushings. Wild or tamed, short or long, they are part of everyone's personality.

In the collective mind, the color of the hair is the subject of many prejudices and misconceptions.

Thus, brunettes would be incendiary, blonds would be stupid and redhead, sulphurous. Anyway, proven or not, it seems that statistically, blonds irresistably attracts men while brunettes make their best to compete and redhead have an aura of well educated schoolboy that will take years to leave them.

There are also those who dare the radical change, from brown to blond, or vice versa, from black to white, from blond to gray, all combinations being possible.

There are also those who let nature, or rather time, take its course without losing their shine.

The sun is also a "blonding" factor since every summer, with its rays and the salt of the sea, young and old see their heads brighten with a few lighter strands.