Which do you prefer: Blondes or brunettes? Redheads, perhaps? Well, whichever you personally find most endearing, here's a bit of interesting news: Men apparently prefer blonde women to their darker or red-haired counterparts…at least according to a new study published in The Journal of Social Psychology.
Analysis of the results: For the young and restless (19-39), the majority (47%) thought blonde hair was the epitome of attractiveness, followed by brunette (32%), red (17%), black (3%), and gray (1%).
People with brunette hair are the most attractive.
By presenting pictures of the same woman with different dye hair colors, the researchers found that out of the population analyzed, 67 percent of men preferred the woman with brunette hair and 71 percent of women chose the man with brunette hair.
Piotr Sorokowski set up an experimental study exploring male hair color preference. The results of his research showed males did, generally, rate pictures of blonde hair as “more youthful,” and also maintained a preference for these women with regard to overall attractiveness.
In order to have blonde hair, both of your alleles need to be blonde. The same is true for red hair. These are recessive traits. The DNA for blonde hair and red hair are about equally strong.
Natural-born, Caucasian blondes have been found to have higher estrogen levels than brunettes, so are more likely to have feminine facial features and possibly less body hair. Blonde hair naturally attracts light and attention to a woman, and is thought of by many to be a sex signal.
Previous studies had shown that redheads inherit two versions of the MC1R gene that leads to red hair – one from their mum and one from their dad. Although almost everyone with red hair has two copies of the red-haired version of MC1R, not everyone carrying two red-haired versions is a redhead.
The results revealed that, compared to women with dark hair, men found light-haired ladies more attractive overall, but more specifically, perceived them as younger and healthier. However, there is one downfall of blondes, apparently — they were also seen as more promiscuous, which is generally not a good thing.
It is thought that Palaeolithic hunters chose blondes because they stood out from their rivals and were more likely to be healthy. Many women who are blonde go darker as they age, so blonde hair is also viewed as an indicator of youth, and sexual vitality.
Numerous studies point to brunette hair being more attractive. Take this 2011 study from dating app Badoo, for example. A couple of thousand UK men were polled and 33.1% of them revealed they found brunettes more attractive than blondes.
CNN recently shared research that men are most likely to prefer women with long hair past the shoulders. Guys were asked to rate the same women's faces based upon short, medium-length, plus super long locks. Males rated ladies with longer hair as more attractive.
A general observation across experiments was that straight hair was perceived as younger, healthier, and more attractive than wavy hair and darker shades (medium copper and brown) were perceived more positively than blonde hair.
While men were 1.4 times more likely than women to wish their partner had a different eye color, both genders favored blue eyes. Surprisingly, green, brown, and hazel were more preferred on a partner than gray eyes which respondents had previously considered the most attractive.
Blonde is Crowned the Sexiest Hair Colour of 2021!
Most say that blonde hair is the sexiest (31.5%)
There is evidence that lighter hair is only more attractive for women under the age of 40. Men rated women with medium-length blonde hair as more attractive than those with long blonde hair. Long black hair beat long blonde hair.
The general rule of thumb is that cool skin undertones look most flattering with cool hair color, while warm skin undertones look best with warm hair color. This way, matching hair color to your skin tone accentuates your complexion and brings out your features.
Men like your long hair for the same reasons they like high heels and dresses; because it looks feminine. Long hair affords the wearer far more variety than shorter styles. You can wear your hair straight and smooth, wild and wavy, half up, half down, pinned, in braids – the options are endless.
Blonde hair color is often associated with a sense of youthfulness and innocence. They tend to be optimistic and have a positive outlook on life. People with blonde hair are often seen as being carefree and spontaneous, and they enjoy having fun and trying new things.
Blonde fact #4: Not all blondes have blue eyes
The darker it is, the darker your tresses and your eyes. That's why so many people around the world have black strands and brown eyes. Lighter tint gives rise to lighter coloured eyes, including blue, but also varying tones of green and grey.
"When men were evaluating a short-term mate for a one-night stand they showed equal interest in her face and body instead of the face winning by a blowout." For long-term 75 percent of male participants wanted to see the face, but for short-term flings 50 percent of men chose face and 50 percent chose the body.
Researchers found the men rated women with lighter hair as being more attractive and having greater relationship potential than those with black hair. There was little difference between blondes and brunettes for these measures.
The intriguing results are that blond women were more frequently approached by men, whereas blond males did not receive more acceptances to their requests. However, in both conditions, red hair was associated with significantly less attractiveness.
Having red hair and blue eyes is the rarest hair/eye color combination possible. The odds of a person having both of those recessive traits is around 0.17%. Instead, most redheads have brown, hazel or green eyes, according to Medical Daily.
The rarest hair and eye color combination is red hair with blue eyes, occurring in less than 1% of the global population.
Since your genes never change, your hair color will never actually change to gray or white. The hair follicles instead just simply stop producing pigment. You can still be a redhead even if you don't have red hair on top of your head any longer because genetically you haven't changed.