A Heart-Breaking Blonde

It must be the “DOUBLE lemon rinse” that puts the heartbreak in the blonde. Although I think the idea is that she’s supposed to make the menfolk unhappy, not turn the heartbreak inward. That’s the wrong message to give the readers.

She doesn’t look all that happy, does she? Maybe it’s the housecoat that’s worrying her. That’s not really very glam. And wartime or not, the ads for hair and makeup products were usually, well, very glam indeed. This is supposed to be an “after” pic, isn’t it?

This ambiguous ad is from a 1940s British women’s magazine, for Snowfire Shampoo. It does a lot for you (don’t they all): it’s a root-stimulating, brightening, burnishing treat for your dull horrid lifeless hair. And if you throw in the Tinted Wave Set you can have enchanting – um, tinted waves. Nothing wrong with that!

But why does it come in Henna for dark hair as well? Do the dark-haired Snowfire users also become heart-breaking blondes? Heart-breaking brunettes? Do the brunettes do something else altogether? Maybe they hypnotize the men instead. That’d be good.

If you’re brownish blonde, like me – what they used to call a California blonde in the forties (i.e. you had light brown hair with sun-lightened bits) – maybe you could do both! The power of hypnosis and heart-breaking beauty. I’d like that.

I still wish the model looked a little perkier though. Since she seems to have used both the Snowfire shampoo AND the Tinted Wave Set. Man, she ought to be levitating and laughing hysterically with all that  on her head!