Monday, September 13, 2010

Fashion Hates: the misuse of black


Black is nice. Don't get me wrong. I love black dresses, black skirts, black heels, black coats... I've never really been very excited about black tops. But that's just me. I love color.

What bugs me is when black is sorely misused. You know when you look at someone and you're just like "Woah. Too much black." Obviously there are goths and all that, but that's not what I'm talking about. Goths will be goths, and it doesn't seem to me that they are too interested in looking good...
so I'm just not going to talk about them.

I mostly get upset when people have hair that is naturally blond, light brown, or even on the darker side of brown, who dye their hair black. And they were meant to have blond/brown hair! Trust me on this.

Miley Cyrus as an example. I guess she's trying to make her pale face match her hair
better by putting on a lot of black eye makeup.
Not working for me. What is her real hair color anyway? I think it's blond... haven't seen it in awhile though.

Personally, I'm not really into hair-dying at all... but it can be done tastefully, and although I don't think I would ever do it, I like it on some people.

Usually people have a pretty nice skin color/hair color combo that makes them look natural, and when you are lighter haired and you go super-black... you're gonna look washed-out and weird.
Some girls who have darker complexions can go black without it looking unnatural. For instance, my sister Bethany could totally pass for an Indian if she dyed her hair black. But although my skin is also darkish, I have light eyes and so I think I would look a little odd.


Black fingernail polish is one of my pet peeves of all time. It's a big trend right now, though, so sadly, my feelings are unpopular. I think it makes peoples' fingers look like they are rotting. When I have girls I will literally tell them they can't wear black nail polish. Hopefully they don't hate me for it. (I won't let my boys wear black nail polish either, in case you were wondering). 

Any color of fingernail polish is better than black. Even poison green. 
I did that once and it was actually kinda cool.

12 comments:

  1. I agree. Especially about black eye makeup. But sometimes, IMO, some people can pull off black nail polish nicely. Sometimes. I think any color, used in excess, can be tacky. Like in the 80's - 90's then dyeing shoes to match your outfit was a huge big deal.... ugh.
    Funny that today I did a post all about black hats on my blog. :)

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  2. I love black as in black dresses, black heels, black peacoats. ;-)

    BUT! I sooooo agree that black is sooooo overdone.

    I. Cannot. Stand. The. Black. Raccoon. Eyemakeup. Look. Deranged Cleopatra look. Besides, she wasn't that nice of a gal...do we really want to look like her?

    Oooooh, yes about the hair. Now, I'm not against coloring your hair, but blondes cannot pull off black b/c of their coloring, as you mentioned.

    (on the opposite end of the scale... I wish someone would tell people that not all women can go blond!!! ;-))

    And kudos to forbidding black polish...I was! Black was absolutely, positively a no. Not at all. As my dad liked to say, "Witches and goths wear black polish. Do you want to be associated with that?" ;-)

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  3. I agree 100%!!!
    Especially on the black nail polish front, it does nothing for the people who wear it, especailly if they already have black hair, dress, shoes and eyeliner!

    ~Anna

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  4. I agree with everything you said, especially the black nail polish thing. I've always thought it looked pretty disgusting. Actually, I'm not really big on fingernail polish in general (I prefer the natural look :), but black is the worst.

    ~Kristin

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  5. I'm gonna disagree here..I think black nailpolish can look nice and grown up even. The picture you posted looks terrible, and you should never paint your nails black if they're stubby like that. :P BUT, I think a nicely manicured nail painted in a glossy black looks quite nice if the rest of you is dressed up classically.

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  6. Nice post! I think in general, definately yes, black is a bad idea for hair color if you're a brunette. But I have to say I agree with Ellen on the nails one... I mean, I wouldn't personally paint my nails black but there are some hands and some nails (if you have nice nails) that can definately pull it off.

    Oh..... and... you might kill me but... I totally love Andrew W's hair!
    There. I said it. LOL.
    (He is an exception, though, to the rule of hair dying. In general, for guys, I think it's a bad idea...)

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  7. Yeah, I actually don't think he looks bad... I just am not a huge fan of guys dying their hair... as a rule.

    And I agree, Ellen, nicely manicured black-nail-polished hands are much more attractive than stubby fingernails with black nail polish. But still... for me... it's sort of the concept of it. :P

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  8. I agree with everything Ellen said. I think that black nail polish CAN look good if used properly. I also disagree that people CANNOT dye their hair. My sister dyed her hair and it looks awesome. :) But, Miley Cyrus DOES look weird. More weird than normal. :)
    ~MJA

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  10. Okay, so you hit the nail on the head with black nail polish looking like rotting nails. They have always annoyed me and now I realize why. :) Oh, yeah...so going to be a "no no" for my kids. :)

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  11. My one exception is black eyeliner.

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