I am planning on moving to Madrid in January- finally! My question is this: I have very blonde hair, and have noticed on various trips to Spain and other countries that it attracts unwanted attention from men. Will I stick out in Madrid, or is the city just so international that no one will notice? Someone please answer before I dye my hair...

Dye your hair.

Although there is people, like me, who do not consider more attractive a girl who is blonde (i like the same brunettes or red-haired), people in Spain tend to look (seems to be) too openly when they see somebody very apart from the usual looks, and that includes you!

Even I, myself look a lot (try to be discrete but I not always am) if I see a person very blonde, very black, very yellow, very tall, very small, or very anything.

Anyway if you are very tall and pretty slender (as many swedish girls are) you will get some looks.

But looks do not harm!

Hehehe... don't bother dying your hair. You'll be in good company. I think that yes, blondes do have more fun.. err.. I mean... they DO get more attention from men but probably less so than when that comment got started, probably 15-20 years ago. MANY MANY Spanish women now dye their hair blonde - and SOME are naturally blonde too!

So don't dye it. Wait 'til you get to Spain and see what kind of reaction you get - if any - from men. If you're attractive AND blonde you'll surely get some attention whether you're United Statesen or Spanish or Swiss or Swedish.

Have fun and hope you have your work/student visa all prepared if you're going to live there!

Saludos, MadridMan

Thanks for the advice! I think I will wait to dye my hair. Blondes DO have more fun, I just don't want to be noticed only for my hair color, you know? I can hear shouts of La Rubia as I walk down the street...
I'm Swedish but living in the US- since I'm a citizen of the EU I don't think I need any special visas.

Madrid Man- you really need to move to Spain! What are you doing in Ohio? Come on! I'm in Illinois. The Midwest is great but it's no Madrid!

I discovered this site today and it's really helpful. I'm already starting to find potential roommates and people to meet. Thank you so much!

Many many Spanish people have blonde hair but most Spaniards from my experience are born with blonde hair that naturaly darkens through puberty.

Don't forget this is a western European country you are talking about here are not going to be fascinated by blonde hair.

Madridman,

United Statesen????? I love it.

Quintos:

I agree to the darkening of the hair of many (my brother was VERY blonde and now his hair ir dark brown), but there are not SO many blondes, and natural ones are very unusual. Unless you call blonde, as some spaniards do, to clear brown hair.

Yes, most of us are not fascinated by blonde hair anymore. And, unlike some may believe, many of us have very white skin and fair eyes.

LaSueca: I think that nowadays you won't have those shouts unless you go through a group of construction workers or drunken youngsters.

Thanks for your comments. I'm from Europe so I know us fair blondes are not extremely rare. I guess what I'm trying to ascertain is how common we are in Spain and if I'll really stick out. Hope I didn't offend anyone. Still can't decide if I should dye it...

Simple being a blonde won't make you stick out what are you dirty blonde? That is common in Spain mabey like Anglo Saxon/Swedish blonde as like yellow like the sun rays then you will stick out I guess. If you simple have light hair I wouldn't worry about it.

La Sueca, I, for one, am not offended. It is just that it itches a little when many times you are identified abroad with the dark skinned black-eyed black-haired 'torero' when u r not, and maybe I (we) are a little sensitive on that. But your question is reasonable.

Besides, along with the 4.000.000 spaniards living in Madrid, there are about 1.000.000 latino ans morocchian inmigrnats, and most of these ARE impressed by blondes.

I personally feel that being impressed by blondes is proper of underdeveloped societies. It probably has nothing to do, but that's how I understand it, after, e.g., being told once by a Cuban girl that all her brothers and sisters had "improved" or "gone forward" because they married whiter or blonder couples. She actually said that, because she was pretty extroverted, but it's not difficult to see if you speak with latinos, or africans (at least) that this idea lies in their culture.

I have been about 10 days in Poland and about 15 to 20 people ask me an adress while I was there, guess what, they all thought I was polish, haha.

Here, in Czeck Republic, have only been asked twice in Czeck, but I have only been here for 4 days now, :p

Fair blondes in spain, let's say straw-like colour are very very very unusual, and when you see one spanish, it's thanks to chemical products 99% of the times. As for canary bird-like yellow, this is pretty uncommon, although you'll see more (apply here the chemical rule in a 90-95%) Other darker blonde or fair hairs are more and much more common respectively.

As for Quintos, I think he means by "dirty blonde" a darker blonde colour (language imperfections, eh Quintos?)...