Blond Male Idols: An (Incomplete) Overview

Aug 18, 2011

The ultimate K-Pop makeover includes not only outrageous clothing and a sleek physique, but a bottle of peroxide to apply liberally to one’s hair. Although I’m not quite sure why a blond mane or mop is considered an indispensable component of the K-Pop image, I suspect it has to do with the way that yellow hair really stands out among all the raven black heads in Korea. And we all know that K-Pop stars like to look as unique as possible, so a stand-out hairstyle is a necessity!

Here’s a random assortment of male celebrities who’ve gone legally blond, as well as a brief (and entirely subjective) review of whether they pulled it off or not. You’ll undoubtedly realize that this is a totally incomplete overview, but hopefully you’ll realize (as I did after an hour of collecting photos) that attempting to review every single blond K-Pop idol in existence is sort of like… well, attempting to review every single K-Pop idol in existence. They’ve almost all bleached their hair at some point, right? Anyway, let’s begin!

Jay Park

One of our contributors suggested that I review Jay Park’s new hairstyle, because he looked really bad. But you know, I like blond Jay! To me personally, it helps that he paired the outrageous hair and tattoos with those classic Levi’s outfits. I once read an interview with a blond-turned-brunette actress in which she expressed that she could pull off much wilder styles and brighter colors as a brunette than as a blond. Since I’ve never been blond, I don’t know whether that’s true, but it kind of makes sense. If the hair is bright, maybe the clothes have to be a little more subtle. No?

Anyway, look at this:

C’mon, you have to admit, that’s really super cute.

2PM’s Nichkhun

While I don’t think platinum is his best look, I have a soft spot for blond Nichkhun largely because he appeared in an adorable cheese ramen CF opposite a tiny dancing girl wearing a cheese hat. I thought it was very suitable that Nichkhun’s hair actually matched the color of the cheese! That CF (and maybe Nichkhun’s hair) really made me want to try the ramen!

Check out the CF:

Big Bang’s TOP

When TOP debuted this voluminous platinum style at the 2010 Chungyong Movie Awards, you could almost hear his fans around the world howling in agony, “WHY, TOP, WHYYYY???” It turned out even TOP himself didn’t like the hairstyle and had felt awkward walking down the red carpet looking semi-electrocuted. Not one to worry his fans for long, the stylish rapper soon showed up with a modified, more flattering version, proving that TOP can pull off anything, even silvery blond hair. Just not THIS style:

I have yet to see even the most hardcore TOP fan defending this.

JYJ’s Jaejoong

Probably one of the best K-Pop blondes ever, like in the history of K-Pop. I’ll attach a few pictures as proof:

The last picture says it all! Doesn’t he look even more like an anime character with blond hair?

Super Junior’s Sungmin

My humble opinion is that Sungmin is one of the few idols who really managed to pull off platinum blond. I’m not sure what it is — maybe he chose the right shade, or maybe he just happens to have the right skin tone for it, but for whatever reason, I just really like Sungmin with blond hair. He just looks really good.

Super Junior’s Siwon

What is this? The hair is pure Eminem, while the suit is 1970’s leisure. On someone as smoking hot as Siwon. Was this a weird attempt to go incognito? Did the stylist hate him? I just don’t understand it. Do you?

Super Junior’s Heechul

I don’t know. Not that blond Heechul looks bad or anything, but it’s just not necessary. Heechul has such striking features anyway that bright yellow hair is almost overkill. This shocking color doesn’t really add anything to his Heechul-ness.

There is one exception, though… in the form of… Lady Heehee. Lady Heehee must be blond.

FT Island’s Hongki (on “You’re Beautiful”)

It’s not the color that I mind. It’s this:

And this:

And finally… and especially… this:

I know it’s a character. I know how much everyone loved “You’re Beautiful.” But please don’t ask me to get on board.

Big Bang’s G-Dragon

Another contributor advised that I include G-Dragon, because his blond hair was iconic. Well, with G-Dragon, I think I’d just sort of forgotten that he ever went blond in the first place, because his whole image is so outrageous that the bleached hair just kind of blended in. But yeah, I have to admit, he looks really cute. If/when he grows out his hair, this might be a style for him to consider resurrecting:

Infinite’s L

This picture confuses me. It looks like a portrait. Is his hair drawn on? And something about the crunchy, brittle-looking texture gives me the heebie-jeebies. I guess that’s one of the side effects of peroxide?

And the rest…

I sat around for awhile, trying to figure out how I felt about, for instance, blond Key, blond Kevin, blond Eunhyuk, etc. Finally I came to the conclusion that I didn’t really have a strong opinion about most of them. They didn’t look terrible, but neither did they look more attractive (to me, anyway) than they did with darker hair. So I’ve put some of the rest of my photos in this category.

BEAST’s Yoseob

Super Junior’s Eunhyuk

U-Kiss’s Kevin

U-Kiss’s Dongho

2PM’s Wooyoung

SHINee’s Key and Taemin

These are more strawberry blond than platinum, but since I have them on my computer anyway I might as well include some SHINee goodness:

SHINee’s Jonghyun

Initially I didn’t include Jonghyun because his hair looked like a mix of light brown and blond. But it seems I’m already getting comments about this omission so here you go! I guess the gradient effect on his hair is pretty cool.