The Down Index | 04/23/2009 7:30 am

Is the Blonde Age Over for Manhattan's Ruling Class?

Gotham's 'TARP wives' and other grandees begin to worry about 'too expensive-looking' hair.

By Billy Norwich

To not look like Ruth Madoff or Paris Hilton, some rich women are actually going back to their roots! (Well, sort of, says superstar New York hairdresser John Barrett.)

Overheard at Zitomer’s recently -- and, where goes Zitomer’s, the Upper East Side pharmacy and cosmetics emporium, goes Manhattan’s Ruling Class. Two rich women of a certain age -- one is blonde and the other is brunette -- bump into each other at the Chanel lipstick counter.

Blonde Rich Woman 1: “Ohmigod! I didn’t recognize you, you’re not blonde anymore!”

Brunette Rich Woman 2: “My kids said I looked like Ruthie Madoff so I changed.”

Along with such painful sacrifices as no longer flying private, letting the chauffeur go and never being seen again swinging shopping bags from Hermes and Louis Vuitton up Madison Avenue -- the packages are delivered discreetly home by messenger -- some women wishing to tone down any display of their wealth are even going so far as to no longer color their hair bright blonde. For younger women, anything to not look like twenty-something dinosaur Paris Hilton. For older women, it is to escape comparisons to Ruth Madoff.

Earlier this month you might have seen the photograph of Mrs. Madoff leaving the Manhattan Correctional Center where she was visiting her criminal husband Bernard Madoff. Especially if you saw the picture in color, here was a case study in oh-so-near-and-yet-so-far getting the look right.

Including carrying cash in a Ziploc plastic bag, Mrs. Madoff, 67, was dressed as drab, not fab, as she could: black pants, flats, a parka, sunglasses, and hair not blown out but brushed flat. She was almost convincingly contrite and humble looking but -- and nothing matters in New York until the “but,” as the novelist Jane Stanton Hitchcock always writes -- the color of her hair, blonde as a yellow Rolls Royce, was still too expensive looking, regardless of the fact that she has been banned from the Pierre Michel Salon in Manhattan where Mrs. Madoff got her hair done for the past decade or so.

Will we see the end of the Blonde Age? Famous New York hairdresser John Barrett -- his salon is atop Bergdorf Goodman -- says yes and no. He certainly is noticing the trend to tone blonde down.

“We’ll see softer, less brash color for sure,” says Barrett. “When one demonstrates some prudence in one's personal life, it inevitably will lead to a shift in the way one presents oneself to the world.”

But “I don’t think we’ll see the end of the blonde spectrum. The obsession with blonde is more about youth, and less about bling -- after all, so many of our early years are spent as blondes before nature takes its course, and I don’t think we’re anywhere near abandoning our obsession with youth.”

Barrett also points out that blonde is not just “Palm Beach”; it also, on the right woman, is a way “to be subversive. Madonna’s ‘Blonde Ambition’ moment,” he says, “was riddled with irony, imitating Marilyn Monroe, but Madonna was very much in control and calling all the shots: strong, powerful and blonde.”

[For information about John Barrett and his hair products, including his “Be Healed Styling Masque,” a secret weapon to protect and style blonde locks, go to johnbarrett.com.]

25 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

In that recent photo, Ruth Madoff’s roots were showing, too. To be honest, I didn’t think her hair looked all that expensive. To my everlasting sorrow, I have hair much like hers - very straight, very fine. I can have it cut at Supercuts or I can go to an upscale hairdresser. It literally looks the same either way.

By Deena B. on 04/23/2009 8:02 am

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Blonde is deeply ingrained in the American psyche.

An end to the Blonde Age - only temporarily if at all. Ever notice how haircolor is used in movies? The leading lady begins out as a sparkling sweet blond at the opening of the movie, experiences a downward cycle causing her to become depressed, surly and inexplicably brunette. Later, as she emerges from whatever ailed her, the lady bounces back triumphently, better than ever as a perky blonde. Sarah Jessica Parker’s metamorphosis in the Sex In The City movie is a prime example of this pigmentary manipulation.

By E . on 04/23/2009 8:13 am

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I’ve not noticed the use of haircolor as you described but will have to watch for that. I know what you’re saying, though. It’s an attitude that is almost forced upon us. My hair is sort of medium brown. Personally, if I had my druthers, I would have darker hair. As I mentioned elsewhere, I have always thought Elizabeth Taylor in her prime was the epitome of beauty. My daughter, on the other hand, would love to have red hair.

By Deena B. on 04/23/2009 9:42 am

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I like redheads myself. As for the "ruling" class—I believe were should be calling them the "criminalclass instead.

By f p on 04/23/2009 8:40 am

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I adore redheads. But it seems that red hair stirs reactions in people and is a ‘love it or hate it’ shade.

By darcus grey on 04/28/2009 3:44 am

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BUt some of us are BORN redheads and we can’t do anything else because it would clash with our freckles…which come in several tones themselves. You can always tell something is a bit"off" with haircolor on a freckled person if there is no harmonious agreement between the hair and the sun-kissed spots. A good colorist knows how to make a heavenly match between the two. There are so many, many differetn tones ans shades of red and skin tones of redheads…most of which 99% of available makeup is NOT made for!

By Rosemary Celeste on 04/29/2009 9:15 pm

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As a (natural!) platinum blonde, I can only say THANK GOD! I hate seeing all those poseurs out there. But what would REALLY impress me, is if they would take all the money spent on having those packages from Hermes etc delivered to the back door (talk about stupid! Why do these people care what people think anyway?) and donate it to help replenish the pension funds? Oh wait, that would entail thinking about somebody besides themselves… my mistake!

By nanchan u on 04/23/2009 9:43 am

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I honestly believe most people look best with their natural haircolor. No matter how well done, if it is dyed, it almost always looks dyed.

By Deena B. on 04/23/2009 11:14 am

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There will always be blond jokes whether the hair color stays the same or not.

By Judy K. on 04/23/2009 9:45 am

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I was a natural blonde but now my hair is a mixture of grey and muddy ash. Saw my hairdresser yesterday and am presentable again. I am dead white (no tanning pigment) and eyebrows and lashes still blonde (not to mention other body hair). I can’t go any other color and unlike my late mother, a natural strawberry blonde, who went gorgeous dead white by the time she was sixty, I have no choice unless I want to look scary. Hairdresser told me that Ruth’s hairdresser told her not to come to salon, so unless a home visit is in the works, that explains the roots.

By andrea haber on 04/23/2009 11:29 am

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Aren’t the TARP women clever enuf to learn how to take care of their own hair at home? (P.S. colorists have been known to divulge recipes for maintaining color at home or on the road.) There are even root kits in the drug store!

By Pamela Munro on 04/23/2009 3:50 pm

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Ruling Class? Where did that term come from in relation to hair color? In fact, hair coloring is dangeous - unhealthy. By law in most states no more than 40% peroxide can be used, but it is - routinely - I caught one infamous bloke using it in his "upscale" salon, and I walked out (he was in LA for years, only).

No one can even dream that putting such strong chemicals on their heads won’t adversely affect them, it does. When someone remarked how youthful someone looks (who had dyed their hair for years), I think they must have a a vision impairment.

By C jay on 04/24/2009 1:45 am

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Well, well, growing gray is the new way! Not because of Mrs. Madoff, but because it reveals who we are: unafraid, competent, willing to admit that we are no longer nubile wenches, and because we are mature women. (And mature is not a four-lettered word.)

Someone wrote above that "Blonde is the American way!" Aren’t we over that nonsense? There is no American way, for we have black, red, gold, gray hair, and it’s time to grow up. I look at the masthead of this website and wonder about all those blonde women.

Born blonde, I naturally turned brown, and almost brunette, and after a short period of ghastly dye (never blonde, though ) I packed it in, and now my helmet of salt and pepper suits me, for it declares who I am, and it all derives from my genes, not a highly paid genie!

Give me a break, gals, and give yourselves a break! Go gray and love it!

By SURA B on 04/24/2009 9:07 am

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When I lived in San Francisco spent…wouldn’t even want to know how much spent on hair for last 10-12 years at the top salons. Since in Carmel have been getting my hair cut at Supercuts [infrequently] and touch up some graying roots myself with blonde…..and have been thinking misses the subtle touch of pro using ‘low tones’ like honey to warm up color. But…strangers still say ‘you have pretty hair’ and men still look and smile. So I guess it’s OK for now. Still blonde but without the weave tones I used to like so well. C’est la vie.

By Suzanne de Cornelia on 04/24/2009 9:11 pm

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I have always wanted to be blonde. But, I was born the child of a black haired man and a dark brunette woman so need I tell you I was a dark haired Saturday’s child.

Now the gray is beginning to come and the hair is totally white in the front at the crown on both sides and the durn stuff is rather sparsely arranged on the top of my head due to some medical conditions. Dare I get the full treatment and become a blonde or a redhead or at least something sophisticated before I join the ranks of the age where people don’t dye their hair and go gray all the way? I always think of the old commercial….only your hairdresser knows. (And your mate too!)

By Rainbow Power on 04/25/2009 10:50 am