Show me pictures: What is dishwater blonde/blond hair? What is olive skin? And what is strawberry blond/blonde?
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Anonymous
mousy does not equal messy. Mousy is the color. Mice have pretty neat fur. Not sure where the connnection with mousy and a mess comes from. |
Anonymous
Because it is never used as a complement. It’s a slight to some bad brown hair. Where do you live that people routinely use the term mousy in a nice way to dicuss a very particular shade? |
Anonymous
So many people on this thread have clearly not read much fiction. "Mousy" brown is a literary term. It originally just described a color and could be applied to anything -- a mousy brown dress, a mousy brown wallpaper. It just described a specific shade of kind of dully, grayish brown. Over time the use of the shade description died out, except as applied to hair. Likely because authors came to like how describing a character as having mousy brown hair could also convey a kind of mousiness about their personality as well -- a smallness or a skittishness. Because the term dates back to the early 19th century and became broadly used during a time when people had limited options for haircare, it wouldn't make sense for it to describe hair that is a "hot mess." This sort of hair didn't really become a concept until more recently because men and women wore their hair mostly the same (women, in particular, pretty much always wore their hair long and then braided or pinned up, even across socioeconomic classes, until the early 20th century) the primary descriptor here is color, not messiness. There may be characters described as being both messy in appearance and having mousy hair, but I've also seen characters with mousy hair described as simply being "plain" or even in some cases being "neat" or "tidy". Mousy just describes a color. |
Anonymous
It does have a negative connotation but to shade only. It's a dully, mousy color. Have you ever heard someone say "wow, the color of that mouse is really beautiful"? It's like dishwater blonde -- it's a dull, plain, unappealing color. But it describes the color only. You can have neat mousy hair. It can be long, it can be short. But it is not shiny or glossy, it is not chestnut or caramel or espresso or mahogany. It's mousy. Has nothing to do with how messy or dry it is. I also think both mousy and dishwater describe how a lot of adult hair looks naturally (without highlights or color which actually tend to dry out hair). Rich, saturated browns and golden blondes actually tend to be more rare as a natural occurrence, especially in adulthood when hair tends to get duller and darker. Lots of dishwater blondes and mousey browns just dye and highlight to get glossy, richer shades. But it's not about tidying up the hair or adding moisture. It's all about color and tone. |
Anonymous
Some "white" people have olive skin and describe themselves that way in looking for color tips for clothing and makeup. It's a yellow/green undertone, as opposed to a pink/blue one. Mediterranean Europeans often have it, eg Spanish people that are not Celts. |
Anonymous
There's a whole Pinterest page about mousy brown hair. It's a shade. https://www.pinterest.com/ideas/natural-mousy-brown-hair-colour/960323971494/ |
Anonymous
+1 Mousy brown is definitely a light brownish hair color. I have heard "mousy" used to describe a girl/woman who is plain. But "mousy brown" is a reference to hair color. |
Anonymous
Also 1980 here and I don’t think I’ve ever heard “dishwater blond” or “mousy brown” in person, but there are plenty of references to both in children’s literature. So I grew up knowing those terms even though no one I know uses them. |
Anonymous
NP. "Mousy" is absolutely a reference to color. I have never heard someone attempt to argue that it means "messy." |
Anonymous
And Madison Reed agrees in the link a PP posted |
Anonymous
Yes, a white person referring to someone as having "olive skin" is not racist, lol. Plenty of white people have olive skin, and "pale olive" is a term used often in makeup forums and social media. |
Anonymous
I've heard it a lot because all my great grandparents are Russian, and I and most of the people in my family have that hair color. It's super common in Slavic countries. There's even a specific Russian word for it, and it isn't pejorative. For the OP saying "mousy" hair is "messy" and dry/unkempt, consider that many Eastern European models have that hair color, and also that Slavic hair, which I think is more likely to have that color than many other Euro groups, fetches the highest prices in the extension market because of both its quality (thick, glossy) and shades of that specific color, which make it easy to highlight or dye without bleaching. Google this and you'll see. Mousy hair CAN be dry or dull, but it can also be glossy and healthy. The term has nothing to do with hair quality. |
Anonymous
This is mousy brown for reference: https://pin.it/3MepOVzlf |
Anonymous
Here’s another one, hair colors in this range are also mousy https://pin.it/7EW7aRJUK |