Blond

Blond (MASC) or blonde (FEM), also referred to as fair hair, is a human hair color characterized by low levels of eumelanin, the dark pigment. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some yellowish color. The color can be from the very pale blond (caused by a patchy, scarce distribution of pigment) to reddish "strawberry" blond or golden-brownish ("sandy") blond colors (the latter with more eumelanin). Occasionally, the state of being blond, and specifically the occurrence of blond traits in a predominantly dark or colored population are referred to as blondism.

Because hair color tends to darken with age, natural blond hair is significantly less common in adulthood. Naturally-occurring blond hair is primarily found in people living in or descended from people who lived in the northern half of Europe, and may have evolved alongside the development of light skin that enables more efficient synthesis of vitamin D, due to northern Europe's lower levels of sunlight. Blond hair has also developed in other populations, although it is usually not as common, and can be found among the native populations of the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji; among the Berbers of North Africa; and among some Asian people.

In the Western Culture, blonde hair has at times been associated with beauty and vitality. Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty, was described as having blonde hair. In the Greco-Roman world, blonde hair was frequently associated with prostitutes, who dyed their hair using saffron dyes in order to attract more customers. In the ancient Greek world, Iliad presented the mythological hero Achilles as what was then the ideal male warrior: handsome, tall, strong, and blond. In Western Europe during the Middle Ages, long and blonde hair was idealized as the paragon of female beauty, and many figures in Norse mythology and Celtic mythology had blond hair.

Research conducted in the mid-20th century found that blonde women were over-represented in Western popular media, however studies of contemporary European and North American populations have indicated that blonde women are generally considered less attractive than women with dark hair, and blonde women are no longer over-represented in Western popular media. In East Asia and Central Asia, blonde women are ranked firmly below black haired women in the hierarchy of female attractiveness.