Hair that is somewhere in the dark-ashy-blond to ashy-brown range is normally described as “mousy”. I could be wrong, but I have gotten the impression that this word carries negative connotations, I.E. that it implies that the color is dull or “blah”. Is “mousy” the proper term to describe this color, or is there a different more neutral, non-judgmental proper term for it or way of describing it?
By the way, I not only have nothing against mousy hair, I actively like it. I (a guy) have mousy hair myself and like to see ashy shades on women. I don’t want to be judgmental of anyone’s style choices or anything, but just personally, I’m glad women don’t color their hair nowadays as much as they used to and that mousy hair ends up bleached less often than it did in the past. While I don’t have any favorite color of hair (blonde/brunette/redhead, it’s not important to me; my only preference is for your hair color to NOT come from a bottle), if I could design my ideal woman, I’d give her light ash brown “mousy” hair just to make a point.
I have ash-blonde/brownish hair (ok, to be correct, nowadays it’s ash-blond-grey) and never knew before this thread that mousy was the exact descriptor for my hair color. I don’t object, in fact I like it.
ETA: I’m quite fond of mice, maybe that explains it.
Yes, that’s the “neutral” term that’s used in the haircare and hair color industry, though there are both ash blondes (I’m one), and ash browns. If you go to the drug store, and browse the hair color aisle, you’ll see a lot of Ash Blonde and Ash Brown shades.
Example pictures (though a lot of ash blondes and ash browns can look pretty similar)
I always thought ‘mousy’ meant just 'boring brown’s. Maybe because I only read it in books. Most of the mice I’ve ever met are more chocolate pudding coloured than blonde - ‘ash’ or otherwise
Look at those links- even the “ash blondes” aren’t really blonde. And I’ve never seen a chocolate pudding colored mouse- they are somewhere between gray and brown
And I’m with Dibble on the ‘ash’ part of blonde too - to me it means washed out and lacking colour. Greyer than a ‘real’ blonde, but not any darker.
I think it’s too do with association of ideas. People talk about someone’s skin ‘turning ashen’ with shock meaning they went pale - so ‘ash-’ gets associated with ‘pale-coloured’. Mousy hair gets associated with mousy personality, ie kinda boring - and there’s not much more boring in a hair colour than mid brown (I can say this - I have the most boring brown hair imaginable. Well, I did when I was 30 anyway…)
I think you and Dibble have missed something - a few of the posts that mentioned “ash blonde” also mentioned “ash brown”
Mine didn’t actually mention “ash brown” - but I did say those links to “ash blonde” aren’t really blonde- to my eye, they are too dark to be blonde , regardless of what name the hair color industry has given them.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard “mousy” as a description for someone’s hair, or if I did, it simply never registered. I would have assumed it had something to do with the styling of it more than the color. I do hear “mousy” to refer to somebody’s facial features, but that’s the only use of that adjective I can really recall in describing a person’s physical attributes.
In an episode of I Love Lucy, Lucy was forced to tell the truth about everything on a bet. When the famously red-headed Lucy was asked her real hair color, her answer was “mousy brown.”
I don’t mind hearing dishwater/ditchwater blonde. I’m blonde, but only in the spring/summer is it bright yellow. By December it’s back to dishwater- an ashy gray. I was born and raised with white-blonde hair, but of course it darkens over time, hence my dishwater all winter. Soon as real sun hits it, it looks like I’ve had a dye job. Currently its bright yellow again. But then I don’t give a whit about my hair as long as it fits in a ponytail and is out of my face.
Proud dishwater blonde, here, though ash blonde is the preferred term…
I’ll also vote for “ash blond” as the “proper” term. But I call it “used to be blonde”. The adults who sport that hair color were almost always blond as kids, and that’s what usually happens to the hair of blond kids when they grow up.
