Dyed Brown Hair in Young Women and Modernity

[PheroQuirk]

Bruce Charlton’s Miscellany: Dyed brown hair in young women: evolutionary psychology notes

omen are dying their hair the same colour it was before because dying your hair is currently fashionable, and women do not want to go against fashion because… well, nothing really, except that it is apparently a fundamental drive among women (much more than it is among men) to conform to the perceived peer group behaviour of other women.

It is the ‘perceived’ peer group which is crucial, not necessarily the actual current behaviour of women in the real world: fashion is a product of the mass media which provides a powerful, pervasive, high status and seemingly-authoritative signal that ‘fools’ evolved human psychology into believing that what is depicted in the mass media is reality (in fact more real than actual reality) - and therefore what the peer group want.

(This point concerning the ‘reality’ of the mass media - especially to women - is so important, and so neglected, that it can scarcely be over-stated.)

A relatively very small number of women - and the (mostly homosexual) men, who substantially dominate the fashion industry - actually ‘decide’ what nearly all women do, by means of their large influence over the content of the mass media.

If the mass media depicts and endorses - explicitly or (even more effectively) implicitly that it is first ‘OK’ then ‘in’ to do something: then that thing will be done, by almost all women eventually; almost without regard for the real-world consequences, because the actual real world is perceived as less real than the mass media world.

And there are no obvious limits to what the peer group of other women can make individual women do to themselves: historical examples include genital mutilation and foot-binding; modern examples include tattooing and piercing - dying hair the same colour being a relatively mild example.

What differs about the modern situation is that fashions change so quickly and frequently that their absurdity is blatant. (One can imagine that in the past, when ‘fashions’ changed so slowly and infrequently that they became characteristic of cultures, that it would not be obvious what was an arbitrary fashion and what was simply intrinsic to human behaviour. Indeed, fashion actually is an aspect of culture: i.e. culture which changes rapidly, within a lifetime.)

hence the blatantly arbitrary and ugliness-producing effects of fashion make no difference to the willingness of women to inflict damage on their attractiveness - the prime evolutionary directive is apparently to observe and learn fashion/ culture - and do it ASAP.

So brown hair dyed an almost identical brown in young women is a small but prime exhibit in the case for the fundamental psychosis of modernity - that modern humans inhabit a society where strong, basic, evolved behaviours are subverted and over-turned, even where this behaviour causes immediate and obvious damage to an individual’s probable reproductive success.

[SteveO]

So let me get this straight? Brown haired women are dying their hair brown because dying is all the fashion rage? I believe that anyone who questions the ethics of pheromones should be required to read this article.

Thanks for sharing

[Butterfly]

I have several friends who use brown dye on brown hair but it is not the same shade. 2 of them naturally have a mousy lightbrown and dye it darkbrown. They have a haircolour that is between blond and brown and they dont want to be blond. Girls with that haircolour have always dyed their hair, but some used to dye blond. They prefer to go darker because you can’t see the regrowth easily and it is much less damaging to hair. One of my friends has mediumbrown hair, but the sun highlights it, and she uses dye to make it one colour again.

Pff, I haven’t noticed any difference in the attention they get from men. They do feel more attractive and happier with the dye, but I think men look at nice skin, fertile figure, not blond or brown. Plus in today’s world, good looks and reproductive succes don’t necessarily go hand in hand. Some plain people have six children, some good looking people have just one. Many women are celibate by choice, yet attract lots of men. Many women may not meet the right guy until they are too old to have kids. Many women are beautiful and with a handsome man but both prefer being childless. I would say that being a beautiful woman or a handsome man gives you more romantic opportunities, but we are not rabbits you know

[chads]

"What differs about the modern situation is that fashions change so quickly and frequently that their absurdity is blatant. (One can imagine that in the past, when ‘fashions’ changed so slowly and infrequently that they became characteristic of cultures, that it would not be obvious what was an arbitrary fashion and what was simply intrinsic to human behaviour. Indeed, fashion actually is an aspect of culture: i.e. culture which changes rapidly, within a lifetime.) "

This part reminded me of the line in The Who song, Won’t Get fooled Again - “And the beards have all grown longer overnight”. When you see a new fashion trend it does seem to occur overnight.