Perception of hair color in Poland

I used to work with in Iceland a Polish woman, and she kept calling low-saturation blondes (aka ash blonde) "brún" - Icelandic word for "brown", or German word for the "Icelandic race". It was really a creepy matter, because she was calling people by their pseudoscience race, and apparently it was not intended.

Now I'm quite concerned. From my experience, almost all Poles are brown-eyed blondes - and people around say that the most popular hair color is brown.

And that was not enough - every hair color, except black, they'll call "the typical Slavic hair". Whether it'S blonde, brown, whatever the shade is. They'll argue that Scandinavians have more "colder colors". Which I wouldn't agree, because Scandinavians actually have some reddish shades due to Keltic admixture.

So, why that? Is there some sort of "colorblindness gene" in Polish DNA?

It has nothing to do with Polish DNA and everything to do with the fact that different languages (and cultural groups) categorize the 'same' or 'different' colors differently.

Most Poles are not really blondes, brunettes (by my US typology) are far more common. There are some traditional negative connotations for redheads (rudy/ruda) and also some toward blondes (more modern). Sometimes people with dark brown hair might have the nickname czarny/czarna (black).

Merged:

@mafketis about the hair colors

hmm, guess I was in some blonde enclave then. Northwest Poland, makes sense.

But still, with what you've said, hair color seems like some sort of racial identity in Poland. Like skin color in America...
wondering, do they judge foreigners (aka, African, Asian) by their hair color too?

I don't think a foreigners, especially those from outside of Europe, are judged by their hair color in Poland. Since there's not many of them in Poland, especially those of a different race, they are just named by a part of the world they came from. And it has nothing to do with Germanic race typology, like you've mentioned before.


In where I come from (NE Poland) majority of people have blue eyes and brown hair, blondes are not uncommon but redheads and brunettes are rare. That's too bad cause I like Celtic redheads :-)

Most of my family are blue eyed and either fair haired or blond.
Some brown eyes and brown hair too.
I think Poles look at redheads as something unusual.
I have a red haired friend with freckles and pale skin called Kucharski.
He feels his ancestor was a Scottish cook on a trading ship to Poland,probably Gdansk.

Life is not fair. Women look fine when they color their hair. Men look like wax museum exhibits.

Often yes, though it depends how skilfully you do it ;-)

You were obviously not in Poland in the early 90s when many young women completely devastated their hair with multiple dye jobs (so you have a pleasant looking young woman in her early 20s or so with frazzled out lifeless old-lady hair..... brrrrrr

They were everywhere in PL at that time, a post-PRL version of the standard 'biurwa' henna rinse.. A few years later I was working at L'Oreal in Warsaw; by that time they were producing more garish colours for Russia etc and more subtle ones for Poland. Not everyone bought those premium brands though, and you do still see some real sights for sore eyes.

I was born in the United States and have never visited Poland, however, my Polish family including my mother are almost entirely blond haired and blue or grey eyed. I have dark blond hair and light brown mixed/hazel eyes.

Fairly typical, I should think. When in Poland, I observed how much I stood out from the crowd, even in a medium to large city!

OMG... so many lies and prejudices here...........
This might be the most typical hair color in Poland:
instagram.com/p/Cm4W4dFtC1p/
instagram.com/p/CsOySFaNyeP/
People call it (usually) light brown.
I would say most Poles have this hair color and blue eyes, but, of course, all other colors occur too and people don't feel bad about it... - variety is beauty.

What's more, women mostly die their hair and they do not choose this light brown shades because it is so common here.

I don't see either.

Most people in Poland have brown/dark brown hair., sometimes black. I do know a few people with almost black hair who insist they're 'dark blond' which is simply something on their part rather than reality.

As for women (and some men) dying their hair, this tends to go with the fashion of the day and the individuals' circumstances however sales of hair dye in PL are not at an unusually higher or lower level than the rest of Europe.

It changes with age. All my kids except one dark haired son were fair haired in their childhoods. Now when adult or still in their late teens they have brown hair. I have always found it amasing.