Blonde no more
Going brunette is more fun
with richer hues
BY SAMANTHA THOMPSON SMITH STAFF WRITER
Nicki Morse loved being a blonde.
It made her feel attractive. It got her attention.
But when Morse, who is the traffic anchor on
NBC-17, showed up recently with her new chestnut
brown hair — her natural color — everything
just felt and looked right. Her hazel green eyes
popped. Her honey-colored skin glowed.
"I felt attractive with blonde hair," she said.
"But since I've gotten to know myself better on
the inside, brunette just fits me better. It makes
me feel like me."
Chocolate, it seems, is the new gold. Local
stylists say more bottle blondes, and even a few
natural ones, these days are asking for — or at
least willing to try — darker shades, mixing cinnamon,
coffee, chocolate, caramel and toffee to
spice up what might otherwise be a naturally
mousey brown mane.
"Brown isn't boring anymore," said Anson
Howard, owner of Howard Jacob Salon in Raleigh.
"Basic brown has given way to a palette of cafe
latte shades and Godiva Chocolate browns."
Scott Chmelar, owner of Warren Scott Salon
& Day Spa in North Raleigh, said the trend likely
got its roots with the popularity a few years ago
of Jennifer Lopez, who became a role model of
sorts for darker haired women to embrace being
a brunette among a sea of blondes.
Then Hollywood's blondes started flirting with
shades of brown: Renee Zellweger, Ashlee Simpson,
Reese Witherspoon, Drew Barrymore, who's
a walnut brunette on the cover of this month's
"Vogue" magazine. Some stayed brown. Others
just got a taste before going back to blonde.
As with so many trends that start in Hollywood,
the mainstream noticed.
"It takes time for a trend to move through to
the general public," Chmelar said. "But now it's
a regular thing."
Part of it has to do with the time of year. Traditionally
in fall and winter, chemically enhanced
blondes are encouraged to pull back on their
pale hair color, going darker with lowlights because
their skin doesn't get as much sun, and the
contrast of fair skin with blonde hair washes
them out.
But some women are opting out of blonde
completely because of the maintenance — and
cost — involved.
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Justin Dare, an owner of Glam Lounge in
Raleigh, said in winter, some women have to
come in every five or six weeks to touch up their
roots because there's not as much sun to lighten
the roots naturally.
"For some people, they think that's a little too
high maintenance," he said.
It's expensive to make those trips to the salon,
too. Some Triangle salons charge as much as
$300 for a color and cut, but prices usually range
between $100 and $200.
That's one of the reasons recent N.C. State
graduate Jaclyn White, 22, who's been highlighting
her hair since she was in high school,
asked her stylist Erin Mastrovito at Sam & Bill's
in Raleigh to take her from blonde to brown.
"It's easier to maintain," she said. "I want to
ease out of highlighting all the time."
Technology has helped too. Sarrah Azzawi, a
Raleigh stylist, said the new line of mochas are
richer, so brown isn't perceived as a mousey
color. "Now people feel better about it," she said.
For years, some women feared going brown because
the chemicals in the brown coloring sometimes
had a red tint that people didn't like. All
that has changed, said Sandy Brown, an owner
of Sam & Bill's. "If you're afraid of red, fear no
more because they've come a long way," she
said. "Manufacturers have mastered that."
While the trend now may be to go brown,
blonde is always going to be a popular choice, stylists
say. And no doubt, the trend will cycle back
to blonde soon enough.
Sara Romweber, a Chapel Hill psychotherapist
who wrote the book "Hair: Surviving the Fall,"
said one of the reasons so many women want to
be blondes in the first place is because of how
blondes are portrayed in movies, books and fairy
tales: Blonde often represents good while darkhaired
women are often the femme fatales or
seen as evil or bad.
And then there's the whole blondes-have-morefun
business.
White says there's no truth to it. "So far, so
good," she said.
But Morse, who is 36, says she doesn't get
the same looks she used to as blonde.
She's OK with that, though. "I think they were
prejudging me by my hair," Morse said. "I don't
think it's that way with brunettes. I think people
tend to treat them more respectfully."
That's partly why she likes her new color.
"It just looks better now," she said. "God gives
you a hair color for a reason."
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