Can Blonde Soften “Hard” Features?

Everyone is talking about how great Kelly Osbourne looks lately—because if there's one thing our appearance-obsessed culture loves, it's a good old-fashioned makeover story. Apparently she had some dirtbag cheating boyfriend, but she ditched him, dropped a few El Bees, dyed her hair blonde again and emerged looking pretty freaking great. (How do I know all this? Well, it's not for nothin' that the only mag I subscribe to these days is Us Weekly.)

Anyway, I don't think I've EVER seen Kelly look this good. And although I applaud anybody's efforts to achieve a healthy body weight, it actually doesn't have anything to do with her size at all. It's really a combination of beauty stuff: the hair colour, the hair style (although perhaps it could be a tiny bit less poufy on top), the absolutely flawless skin, the superb makeup (just lashes 'n lips)…

But mostly it's about the hair colour.

Because you see, blonde is sort of magical in that it casts a flattering halo of light around the face, diffusing and softening any features that you might not like.

Dark hair, on the other hand, is like a frame around a picture—it just draws MORE attention to your features. Anybody who has ever dyed their hair darker knows this. The very first thing everybody tells you is “Wow! It makes your eyes really stand out!”

This works for some people, yes, but as you can see, not so much for our Kells:

Now I know we're comparing different hair styles here, but do you see what I mean? Girl has a fairly prominent chin/jaw line, and I just think the blonde (combined with a softer hair style) makes it less in your face. With the blonde, you're more likely to notice her pretty eyes and smile and skin. Right?

Now don't get me wrong—I'm not saying blonde hair is good for EVERYONE. There are enough celebrity examples out there of women whose skin tones just cannot pull off the blonde. (Others, like Nicole Richie, are hair colour chameleons who can go back and forth from blonde to brunette without a hitch.) And I certainly detest the cheap n' tacky Heidi Montag-style solid platinum blonde that a certain segment of our population continues to perpetuate.

My advice is simply this: if your colouring does suit blonde (some advice on that here), and there is a feature you wish to de-emphasize, it wouldn't be a bad idea to lighten things up.

Just look at Ashlee Simpson, for example:

Even pre-nose job, the blonde made it less obvious…

Or Tori Spelling:

Now, I'm not AT ALL a fan of her current hair colour (it's way, waaaaay too platinum blonde), but when she was preggers, I thought she had a really nice, flattering, colour. (Holy boobs though!)

So… do you agree?

Is blonde hair—on the right skin tone—more feature-flattering?

Or do you think it's simply a matter of what shade suits your skin tone?

Have you experienced the blonde versus brunette flattery scale yourself?