Long beforeFriendsfans flocked to beauty shop asking for Jennifer Aniston ’s “ The Rachel , ” Jean Harlowpopularizedanother head - turning coiffure : locks so blonde they count white . Her appearances in picture show likeHell ’s Angels(1930 ) and the aptly titledPlatinum Blonde(1931 ) root on women to bleach their pilus , too .
Hairdressersusedhydrogen and ammonia to turn tresses pale yellow , but the closed book to reach that silver shimmer was a blue chemical solution called a “ dispirited rinsing . ” It was n’t an horrid idea , since citizenry were already accustomed to brightening their white linen with bluing agents . Almost right away , beauticians and advice columnist startedrecommendingblue rinses to old charwoman as a way to restitute luster to their gray or xanthous - white pilus . Though it worked well when properly done , a botched rinse could leave hair looking anywhere from slimly bluish to decisively purpurate . This come about often — and not always by accident .
“ Some women , having observed the lavender effect and decide that it heightens rather than depress their standing in the beauty scale , go in for it deliberately , ” a columnistwroteinThe Baltimore Sunin 1939 . “ At this finicky bit , it appears , the ladies are on the threshold of forget the original intent of the blue rinse and are using it for its own sake . ”
“ If you have gray fuzz and like it , why not dramatize it a bit ? Use a juicy rinse , ” Edyth Thornton McLeod wrote in a 1953articlefor her syndicated columnBeauty After Forty . “ you’re able to have a soft blue cloud effect or you’re able to make it cryptical and dramatic and twin your accessory to the color . ”
By the 1970s , the phraseblue - rinsing brigadebegan bolt down up in reference to sure-enough ladies doing just about anything , fromattendingScottish National Orchestra concert toprotectingthe streets of Vienna , Austria , from small-minded malefactor . It also became a popular ( and at times pejorative manner ) todescribethe sr. distaff voter who advance the Conservative schedule in Britain .
While down in the mouth hair might not be quite as popular among old women as it was a few decades ago , the fad has n’t died out . Jean Harlow ’s blue baton has beenpassedto Lady Gaga , multiple Kardashian sisters , and alsoBenjamin Netanyahu .
