With Halloween coming in three weeks, I’ve been trying to figure out what to be this year. I dressed up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz (surprise, surprise) throughout my undergraduate career, and I’m ready to move on to something else.
In fact, I don’t think I’ll be Dorothy again, at least for a long time. Maybe one day, when I have a family of my own, I’ll make everyone dress up as a character from the Wizard of Oz, but till then…
I’ve tried Googling “Halloween costumes for women with black hair” or “black hair Halloween costumes,” but I only found one website that gives suggestions for women with black hair. How depressing! A quick search using other hair color criteria proved equally fruitless. I can’t believe that with everything out there in the Interwebs (Halloween pun), practically no one has tried sorting Halloween costume ideas by hair color! It seems obvious and practical idea for people looking for hair-color specific costumes.
Hair color might not be a big issue for those with brown or blond hair, but as a black-haired person, and in particular, an Asian, it’s a little harder to find appropriate Halloween costumes, without resorting to wearing a cheap, obvious wig. Isn’t it interesting that this is the case, given that the majority of people in the world have black hair? Pretty much, anyone who isn’t Caucasian will probably have black, or at most, dark brown hair, and yet, there aren’t that all that many options for us. I guess part of it is the Caucasian-dominated culture of the U.S., which leads to an overabundance of Caucasian figures in pop-culture, film/literature, and history, but for a country that calls itself a “melting pot,” you might expect there to be more black-haired costume options. I could dress up as Serena van der Woodsen, Betty Draper, Princess Zelda, etc., but as you might imagine, it wouldn’t look quite right and people would be asking me all night what I was going for.
This should be obvious, but just to be sure, I’m not saying you can’t go as whatever the hell you want to go as, but I just wanted to offer some suggestions for people of my hair color specifically. So since no one else has tried coming up with a list, what are our best options, as black-locked ladies (well, at least black-haired, but rather light-skinned ladies, since I’m speaking for myself)? (And isn’t it telling that there’s no term for people with black hair in our culture, whereas we’ve got the terms blonde, brunette, and redhead?)
1. Any occupational or role-playing costume (e.g., cop, firefighter, teacher, nurse, jailbird, clown, sailor, cowgirl)
2. Morticia Addams
3. Cleopatra
4. Wonder Woman
5. Slave Leia, Leia, Padme
6. Elena (Catherine Zeta-Jones in Zorro)
7. Dark-haired Disney Princesses (Snow White, Mulan, Pocohantas, Jasmine, Esmeralda)
8. Any traditional ethnic costume that features black hair (Geisha, Latina, Native American, Polynesian/Hawaiian etc.)
9. Hermione, Cho Chang, random Hogwarts student
10. witch, devil, zombie
11. Sailor Mars, Mercury, Saturn, or Pluto (Yes, I am a Sailor Moon nerd)
12. Chun Li from Street Fighter
13. Any black-haired celebrity (Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian, Lucy Liu)
14. Alex from Charlie’s Angels (the Asian one)
15. Jersey Shore girl, Snooki
16. Catwoman
17. Nothing that is made recognizable by another hair color (Jessica Rabbit, Poison Ivy, Princess Peach, Elle Woods etc.)
18. For law students: a character from a case
The options aren’t endless for people of other hair colors though. Some costumes just don’t look right, especially with weird sumo-wrestler wigs on:
I’m not sure what I’m going to be yet, but I’m glad I made this list, just to get ideas flowing. I hope I also helped some other black-haired girls in the process!
Sincerely,
Procrastinator