As is par for the course with many newly single people, 31-year-old Jill Snowden decided to immediately put herself back out there after a big breakup. However, she did something most newly single people don't do: Over the course of a six-month dating spree, she changed her hair color three different times…the perfect process (so to speak!) for finding out the type of guy who was right for her. Call it a social experiment—with big implications for her love life.

Her first color choice — blond — begged the question: Do they really have more fun? Maybe for a minute, says Jill. "When I was a blond, I certainly got a lot of attention, which was really good at first, especially after a breakup. But then I started to get to know the guys, and I realized how much more superficial they were—guys who were really into themselves, and very needy." Whether it was the reality-show star or the front man of a band, it was, she says, all about "me, me, me."

 

The now very blond Lindsey Breen, 23, is also a veteran on the hair-color front. “I have had literally every hair color there is,” she reports. “And I’ve definitely gotten the feeling that guys think blond is sexier. I think I’m more confident walking around this way, which also makes a big difference as far as talking to guys when I’m out. I think basically we attract more guys when we’re comfortable in the way we look, and often that means having a hair color that you feel natural in, since in a sense, it’s our most basic accessory.”

When Lindsay had darker hair, she drew in the more intellectual types, observing that "blonds really are stereotyped as being a bit more ditzy, and I actually did notice that certain guys who I knew in college took me more seriously when I had dark hair instead of just assuming I was the slightly crazy blond girl who tended to drink a few too many cocktails on the weekends!"

Jill too met the deeper, more intellectual, brooding types when she had significantly darker hair. " There was the guy I met who lived in Brooklyn and liked to discuss the environment and the latest independent film he just saw and who liked to attend downtown art shows and listen to up-and-coming bands at little hole-in-the-wall clubs," she recalls.

But at the end of the day, maybe it’s actually the redheads who have more fun. With flowing red locks, Jill claims she met "the fun guy, the guy who doesn’t take life too seriously but is out to enjoy himself." Who, specifically? Bartenders, marketing guys, promoters, and freelancers trying to make their dreams come true.

James Corbett, owner and colorist at the New York City-based James Corbett Studio also believes hair color is a great accessory and can be the little (or in Jill’s case, big!) boost for how a woman feels about herself.

"I think fear holds a lot of women back," he explains, adding with a smile, "That’s not to say that a new hair color should replace the exploration of deeper psychological issues, but it can definitely be a lift."

But ultimately, maybe there’s some truth to what beauty magazines say after all: Being your natural mousy-brown or dirty-blond self can be pretty great too. Beth Michael, 32, a reformed hair dyer, says, "As I settled into my relationship [with her now husband], I started to outgrow the blondness in me. The personality — tons of fun, party girl, supersexy — that I had created around being blond became unnecessary, and I could finally just get in touch with me and who I really am: a slightly highlighted brunette!"