Some of it was a carryover from the 50s and early 60s preoccupation with sexy Mediterranean types, male and female. Before that, Rita Hayworth had to, with the help of a little shave off the bridge of her nose and some hair dye, go from a beautiful Spanish brunette to a smoking British-American ginger, which got her out of Hollywood’s “exotic foreigner” ghetto. Then came the mid-60s, when every girl in my school, even the Italians, was suddenly blonde. Or, in the case of the Poles, blonder.
By the late 60s and early 70s there was a hippy backlash that valued natural hair color, typified by Ali McGraw (half Jewish). Well, that and the cultural remembrance that Italian and Jewish (and Greek and Spanish…) girls are really hot, with their flowing raven tresses that become iridescent in the sun and whose looks keep a lot better than blondes. The Prophet, may a truly righteous piece be upon him, knew the power of Arabian women’s hair and thought it best if it stayed covered, lest men get distracted. And their eyes, because a guy could get lost in their inky depths; so mysterious; so enrapturing…
What was I talking about?