Afghan Hound Blonde Hair Watercolor Illustration
By Charlie

Blondes Have More Fun

Written by Charlie O'Shields

Since I don’t enjoy sketching humans, for our prompt of “Blonde” today, we ended up with a freshly quaffed and colored afghan hound. There’s just something so awesome about these dogs and they all tend to look like famous actors from the 80’s to me. Back in 1925, Anita Loos popularized the idea that blonde women have a bit of an edge over others in her novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, featured a young blonde flapper during the Roaring Twenties. And when I was a kid, Rod Stewart had a song out proclaiming Blondes Have More Fun. He’d bounce around on stage with his own long blonde hair and it made it seem more like he was singing about himself instead. Indeed, it’s one of the oldest stereotypes out there and since I’m brunette, it doesn’t really apply to me at all. But, I can admit that sketching a luxuriously blond afghan hound was incredibly fun, with just the right touch of ridiculousness. Though, in the end, I doubt one’s hair color is remotely important in the ability to have fun, that’s entirely a reflection of one’s heart and soul.

I actually thought I wanted blond hair when I was first started high school. It just seemed like a lot of people had blond hair at that time as they spent days laying in the sun. Of course, being in the sun was considered cool and not something that would actually kill you. And yes, when I was in the sun, my brown hair lighten a bit, which was promising, and this could be enhanced with a product called Sun-In Hair Lightener Spray. What they failed to tell you was that lighter hair didn’t mean blonder hair and my Irish roots came charging forth leaving my hair a bright orange. This, combined with my ruddy reddish tan skin that never bronzed like it should made me look less sun-kissed and more like the sun had just beaten the crap out of me. Thankfully, I gave up quickly and just left well enough alone. I’ve no idea what life might have been like had that transformation gone more successfully, but I doubt I would have been any happier. I had fun no matter what and still live like that today.

Looking back, I didn’t really want to actually be someone different, but simply wanted to experience something different. My life has been ruled by my constant curiosity. It’s been such a wild ride because of this and I truly wouldn’t have it any other way. Often, I don’t even have any sort of goal in mind beyond just wanting to try something new. I think that’s a super fun way to live, but it does leave me bouncing all over the place much of the time. Beyond picturing myself differently in the current moment in time, I’ve also been known to fast forward and ponder a future me. Each time I do so, it’s never an older version of me doing exactly what I’m doing today. Instead, it’s me doing something surprising, yet inevitable. Something that could only happen after taking the steps of the journey that I’m on. And for me, it will always be about the journey. Taking steps forward and having a blast each and every one of those steps along the way. Which means I have to ultimately question whether it could possibly ever be true that blondes have more fun.

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About the Doodlewash

Da Vinci Paint Co.: Yellow Ochre, Gold Ochre, Terra Cotta and Indigo. Lamy Al-Star Safari Fountain Pen with black ink  in an A5 Hahnemühle Watercolour Book. Want to purchase a print of this doodlewash? Send me a note with a link to this post, and I’ll add it to my shop!
 Afghan Hound Blonde Hair Watercolor Illustration Sketchbook Detail

 

Charlie O'Shields

Creator of Doodlewash, founder of World Watercolor Month (July), World Watercolor Group, and host of the Sketching Stuff Podcast. Sharing watercolor illustrations and stories while proudly featuring talented artists from all over the world!

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40 thoughts on “Blondes Have More Fun”

  5. Love this fancy blonde! And oh my gosh, I remember trying “Sun-In” spray one summer back in the 80s. Disastrous, streaky, bright orange results, but I liked that it was different from my normal, boring hair.

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  6. I too have often wondered what I would look like blond but no! LOL my picture for today’s prompt will probably be the closest I would come to being a blond..But your dog looks beautiful and elegant..and maybe they do have more fun..but like you I am enjoying the life I have now! Great picture and words 🙂

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  8. I haven’t dyed my brunette locks, but I did put red rinses in it a couple of times. I would make a terrible blond. Although both my mother and sister were blondes. Dad was almost black, and my brother a light brown. The most interesting thing I’ve ever done with my hair was twice growing it really long and donating it to Locks of Love for victims of cancer. I have thick curly hair that has never been chemically treated so it was prime to give away. Now it has too much white in it to be of much use. The other interesting thing about my hair is that I never had it cut by anyone but my grandma until I was 16 years old. I loved sitting on her hair cutting stool and chitchatting while she cut away. Oh, another interesting thing. When I was living in London I went to the Vidal Sassoon school for hair cutter and had a student cut it. She asked me to return and be her model for her final exam unfortunately I was headed back to the U.S. and couldn’t do it. That’s a lot more interesting hair stuff than I thought at first. I’ve only had one bad haircut in my life, so I’m fairly sanguine about it.

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  9. You made me giggle with the vision of a sun-beaten orange-haired Charlie. I bet you carried the look off with pizzaz! I had many colors of hair, including a metallic red when a wash-in shampoo collided with a previous color that I thought had long washed out. Fortunately, it made me a trend-setter as wild hair colors were just starting to be considered the rage. I tried to pretend it was on purpose, but had to admit my mistake when I couldn’t repeat the color. My 15 minutes of fame, I guess, although that might have come earlier when I had a letter published in a Daredevil comic book.

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