Sunstar essay: Filipino blonde
By Erma M. Cuizon
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Sunstar Cebu
A NEWSY item two months ago came out to engage the curious. This was about the international Filipino singer Charice Pempengco. She came for a concert and she looked unlike the Charice we could recognize. She’s now a blondie!
A newspaper reacted, “Gone is the long-haired, preppy Charice who graced the cover of a fashion magazine last January and in its place is a different image ‘persona’ that had sent Netizens buzzing.”
Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.
She shocked the public—that was how it seemed—also because of the tattoo in her left arm with a line etched there that has something to do with “eternal love.”
From a Twitter user came a comment, “Uhh what in the world happened to CHARICE! Eww she dyed her hair… uhmm… yeah… eww.”
But isn’t fair hair like a song in the dark?
Yellowish or golden blonde, or platinum, catches the eye these days. All you do is stand in a corner along the walkways of a mall or at the bus stop and you see groups of teeners in colored hair passing by.
Hair grows all over the surface of the human body, except in the lips, the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet.
I guess the hair is there for us to touch and re-touch, color and flush. And even the light colors of the hair of women, say in Europe, was never held in reserve just for them. As in the color of the skin, it’s said that there are and have been changes in colors of the hair hundreds of years from the Ice Age and after, whether in Europe or in Asia, or the Pacific.
I wonder at how fantastic the Creator’s thoughts were at creation of parts of the human being’s body, even of an item as simple as hair. He would create with thoughts on protecting his creature from its enemies in the big, dark early world. It’s said hair used to help camouflage man against the danger of being noticed by unfriendly animals.
Years ago, natural changes in the human body occurred with changes of the weather, like in the last Ice Age. A group of scientists in trips to old China found red-headed Chinese mummies, even blonde mummies.
Hundreds of years back, no one then artificially tampered with the shape and fall of the human hair nor were unusual natural hair colors seen in unexpected places.
Thoughts on hair, outside its colors, are rather special. Way back, there was always the act to protect it, like in histories of covering men and women’s hair, or hiding it. Among some Hindu sects, head scarves are worn, especially inside the temple, also covered in turbans in the case of men, and “hijab” in the case of women.
Some years back, there was even talk (or tales) about religious sisters of the Catholic Church and the attempt to hide hair. The tale was that the sisters had their head bald under the hood! There was also the time when worshippers inside the Catholic Church wore veils. Relatedly, some Islam women wear veils in and outside their mosque.
Today’s hairstyle in color (“filipino blonde hairdo”) isn’t so off. It goes with techno music, chat rooms, multiplayer online games, messages sent in CAPS and lowercase.
A hairstylist says more girls go for colored hair, haven’t I noticed? She says there are days when the whole beauty parlor is filled with girls wanting colors, who’d order for “shocking” blonde, like golden blonde. Girls in these days want to be fair-haired and flaxen for many reasons.
The style is color to go correctly with the hue of the skin. “Kanang makahayag sa nawong.” Besides the fact that it’s “in,” color of the hair brings with it a light feeling with the light look.
The blonde-ness probably is any color that is light—golden, orange, copper, reddish brown or burgundy “for virgin hair.” Of blonde types, there is honey and caramel blonde, even dirty blonde.
Blonde dyes are selling like hotcakes, says a hairstylist. We are looking for light.
(ecuizon@gmail.com)
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on May 20, 2012.
By Erma M. Cuizon
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Sunstar Cebu
A NEWSY item two months ago came out to engage the curious. This was about the international Filipino singer Charice Pempengco. She came for a concert and she looked unlike the Charice we could recognize. She’s now a blondie!
A newspaper reacted, “Gone is the long-haired, preppy Charice who graced the cover of a fashion magazine last January and in its place is a different image ‘persona’ that had sent Netizens buzzing.”
Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.
She shocked the public—that was how it seemed—also because of the tattoo in her left arm with a line etched there that has something to do with “eternal love.”
From a Twitter user came a comment, “Uhh what in the world happened to CHARICE! Eww she dyed her hair… uhmm… yeah… eww.”
But isn’t fair hair like a song in the dark?
Yellowish or golden blonde, or platinum, catches the eye these days. All you do is stand in a corner along the walkways of a mall or at the bus stop and you see groups of teeners in colored hair passing by.
Hair grows all over the surface of the human body, except in the lips, the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet.
I guess the hair is there for us to touch and re-touch, color and flush. And even the light colors of the hair of women, say in Europe, was never held in reserve just for them. As in the color of the skin, it’s said that there are and have been changes in colors of the hair hundreds of years from the Ice Age and after, whether in Europe or in Asia, or the Pacific.
I wonder at how fantastic the Creator’s thoughts were at creation of parts of the human being’s body, even of an item as simple as hair. He would create with thoughts on protecting his creature from its enemies in the big, dark early world. It’s said hair used to help camouflage man against the danger of being noticed by unfriendly animals.
Years ago, natural changes in the human body occurred with changes of the weather, like in the last Ice Age. A group of scientists in trips to old China found red-headed Chinese mummies, even blonde mummies.
Hundreds of years back, no one then artificially tampered with the shape and fall of the human hair nor were unusual natural hair colors seen in unexpected places.
Thoughts on hair, outside its colors, are rather special. Way back, there was always the act to protect it, like in histories of covering men and women’s hair, or hiding it. Among some Hindu sects, head scarves are worn, especially inside the temple, also covered in turbans in the case of men, and “hijab” in the case of women.
Some years back, there was even talk (or tales) about religious sisters of the Catholic Church and the attempt to hide hair. The tale was that the sisters had their head bald under the hood! There was also the time when worshippers inside the Catholic Church wore veils. Relatedly, some Islam women wear veils in and outside their mosque.
Today’s hairstyle in color (“filipino blonde hairdo”) isn’t so off. It goes with techno music, chat rooms, multiplayer online games, messages sent in CAPS and lowercase.
A hairstylist says more girls go for colored hair, haven’t I noticed? She says there are days when the whole beauty parlor is filled with girls wanting colors, who’d order for “shocking” blonde, like golden blonde. Girls in these days want to be fair-haired and flaxen for many reasons.
The style is color to go correctly with the hue of the skin. “Kanang makahayag sa nawong.” Besides the fact that it’s “in,” color of the hair brings with it a light feeling with the light look.
The blonde-ness probably is any color that is light—golden, orange, copper, reddish brown or burgundy “for virgin hair.” Of blonde types, there is honey and caramel blonde, even dirty blonde.
Blonde dyes are selling like hotcakes, says a hairstylist. We are looking for light.
(ecuizon@gmail.com)
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on May 20, 2012.
