Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” is a success at the box office and beyond, spawning fashion and beauty trends inspired by Mattel’s popular doll. Platinum blond hair is just the latest example of the film’s reach, with TikTok and the wellness marketplace Fresha reporting a bump in searches and salon requests for the striking shade.
A month before the premiere of “Barbie,” Fresha saw a major uptick in the popularity of beauty services like pink manicures and platinum blonde hair dye. The platform recorded a 508 percent year-over-year increase in the number of Barbie-inspired services offered by salons, while requests for these services saw an 83 percent increase year-over-year.
Barbie herself wasn’t always a platinum blond. The first iteration of the doll, which came out in 1959, had strawberry-blond hair, but by the ’60s, models like Twist and Turn Barbie tried out platinum blond tresses. Once the ’80s rolled around, most Barbies came with flowing ashy manes and today, many of them still feature platinum hair.
Margot Robbie’s Barbie is also a platinum blonde, matching with her plastic partner in crime, Ken, who is played by Ryan Gosling in the film.
Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling on the set of “Barbie” in 2022.
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Additionally, Barbie-related beauty hashtags have blown up on TikTok, with #barbienails, #barbiemakeup, #barbiebeauty and #barbiehair accumulating 171 million views in the past month, indicating that these trends continue to capture the zeitgeist.
In Hollywood, starlet Jean Harlow first popularized peroxide blond hair in the 1930s. Decades later, this inspired actresses like Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe to dye their curls platinum.
Jean Harlow in 1934.
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Platinum blondes saw a major resurgence in the ’90s and 2000s, with starlets and socialites alike lightening their locks. Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson became synonymous with the shade, while others including Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan briefly partook in the trend.
