Acting White: Black Women Series, Hair Color and Attraction

From the day the first alchemist, with a brunette wife, saw a blond or redhead, hair color has been a sexual attractor, and something to put on and take off. This post is not only about hair color, but skin tone as well, as one can’t really talk about one without the other, especially if the subject is attraction.

With this discussion comes ‘negative sexual selection’, which describes intent away from long-term partnering, and toward casual sex, a grave issue in the black community. Men will pursue sex indiscriminately (including fathering children); while simultaneously remaining selective about the partner to whom they commit themselves. Managing these opposing interests will always be part of the female role, whether we think this is enlightened or not. Moderate hair coloring, within a strategy of looking attractive, is part of this critical family development practice, as well as a good chunk of the $9 billion/year (US) black hair-care industry.

The key to understanding attraction of hair color and skin tone is that humans have an innate sense of what is natural and healthy, as an indication of longevity and reproductive capacity. Any deviation from what looks natural challenges our senses, resulting in negative sexual selection. Also, coloring the hair is a tactic of short-term gain, due to the backend ‘cost’ of unattractiveness, once the natural color returns. For the record, coloring also damages the hair, leads to shortening of average length, and thinning, again enhancing unattractiveness.

Just as women who straighten or curl their hair mimic those women who have naturally straight or curly hair, so too should women behave when they choose to color. Because the genes that govern hair color also exert influence over skin tone (here), the relationship is critical. This is how nature aligns the two into the most attractive combinations. Violate nature’s rules for what goes with what, and viola, you get unattractive. A competent hair stylist is one who knows which hair colors will complement the client.

Enhancing natural color is the most logical coloring behavior, to stand out. Hiding gray, within natural colors, enhances youthfulness and attractiveness. Picking colors that look good on magazine models or Hollywood celebrities is a bad idea, as these rarely transfer as hoped.

As black women's hair comes naturally in brown and black, these are the colors women should stick to with their enhancements, understanding the long-term costs. Blonde and red enhancement should be limited to those women who have fair-hair/skin in their ancestry, so as not to set up a battle with skin tone.

For black females, when a man tells them that their hair looks good, they might consider if his motivation is simply to have sex and move on, or if he is saying that he thinks the woman is a good prospect to consider committing his long-term resources. The fate of large swaths of black humanity rest significantly on the black female response to the male approach. Too often this exchange, around hair and looks, is the seemingly harmless foreplay preceding fatherless children, single motherhood, and underclass struggle.

Up Next: Waist-to-Hip Ratio and Attractiveness.

James C. Collier

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