Back in the ’40s and ’50s, blonde silver-screen sirens
were everything. Their platinum hair coupled childish
innocence with the neon “look at me” business of being
a star—and the effect was intoxicating. As a kid, I was
fascinated by Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich and
Carole Lombard. My own hair was strawberry blonde
with a lot of red in it. In the summer my highlights would
really come out. I hung around with older girls at the
municipal pool in Hawthorne, New Jersey, where I grew
up. There was one girl in particular whose blonde hair
I really liked. Her mother was a beautician, so I asked
her about accelerating the highlight process.
She said to mix two-thirds peroxide with one-third
ammonia and comb it through your hair and it would
react in the sun to bring out the blonde. It worked.
I liked being blonde. I have an adventurous personality,
and I like to be creative and play roles. So, for me, part
of it was about developing and performing a character.
There were different times in high school when I went
platinum or light blonde. I experimented. I tried henna,
bleach...whatever was available. One time my hair
actually turned green. I think I mixed
regular dye with henna, and that’s
a complete no-no.
After high school I worked in
a Paramus salon doing facials and
make-up. My high school friend Ricky
started the place with his boyfriend,
Johnny. It was fun. People who work
in shops are kinky and kooky and like
extreme styles. That was when I really
went fully blonde. I mean, I couldn’t
escape it. They’d throw me in the chair
and say, “Okay! Going blonde! Okay,
going this colour! Going that colour!”
That’s what people do when they work
at beauty shops. They fool around.
In 1974, when I was in my first band
the Stilettos, I actually had short brown hair. But by the
time Chris Stein and I formed Blondie a few years later,
I was working as a beautician and I was back to blonde.
I was walking across Houston Street to meet Chris and
someone yelled “Hey, Blondie!” at me. We’d been trying
to think of a band name, and I was like, “Blondie—that’sgood. Let’s do that.” I tried to convince everyone in the
band to dye their hair blonde too. It would have been
fabulous! They didn’t go for it.
At that point, I was only blonde around my face
because of my inability as a colourist. I always had a
brown underlayer in the back, and it actually became
a style. Back then, nobody was doing that—you had to
bleach the whole head. But my two-tone colour gave
me a look, something to talk about. Eventually, the
blonde made it all the way to the back. I’d go to amazing
stylists here and there over the years, but really I’ve
mostly done it myself. I was on the road seven or eight
months a year and always in different places. So I’d just
buy the bleach, throw the sh** on and be done with it.
Time it out and wash it off. I was a little bit reckless. But
I didn’t burn my head off or anything. No matter where
I was, I could usually find a basic pre-bleaching kit that
lifted the colour. I used to keep it on for 30 minutes,
and my hair was light enough that I didn’t have to use a
double process. My hair is so fine, and if you look at live
shots of Blondie shows from the ’80s, I had sort of wet,
hangy hair. During long shows under hot
lights it would sort of just flop. I guess in
the punk era that was acceptable.
I’ve always liked doing my colour at
home myself because I can walk around
and do things. I used to take a bath while
I had the bleach on my head, and at the
end I’d just submerge. It may not have
been the best method, but it was
expedient. I get very antsy in a salon
chair. I think about playing with darker
colours from time to time. It’d be fun to
have dark brown or black hair—but that’s
what wigs are for. I actually like wearing
wigs when I perform—they allow you to
maintain visual continuity from beginning
to end. Right now I’m trying to get my
hair to be as full as possible. I’ve come up with a new
colour process that I do every few weeks, but I don’t
really want to talk about it. Intrigued? Good. After all
these years of experimentation, I have a pretty fair idea
of what’s going to work. —AS TOLD TO LEIGH BELZ RAY
Blondie’s new album, Pollinator, is available nowIt’d be fun to
have dark
brown or black
hair—but
that ’s what
wigs are for”
MY BLONDE by DEBBIE HARRY
126 I n STYLE JUNE 2017