Quite the opposite. Blond and red wigs were fashionable.

Then as now, most Italians had dark eyes and hair. But there were always a few who had blond or red hair and light eyes. In fact, the cognomina (family names) of prominent Roman families included Flav(i)us (blond), Rufus (red), and Ahenobarbus (redbeard) - in each case, presumably, because some important ancestor had been distinguished by those characteristics. Roman biographers mention fair hair and eyes, but not as significant details. Suetonius, for example, notes that Nero had "light blond" hair and that his eyes were "blue and rather weak" (51). But he does not attach any importance to these facts.

The Romans knew, of course, that northern barbarians often had light eyes and hair. Thus Tacitus claims that all Germans have "fierce blue eyes, red hair, huge frames" (Germania 4). When he staged his sham triumph, Caligula went so far as to make the "captives" in his parade (actually men from Gaul) dye their hair red (Suetonius, Caligula 47).

Blond hair in itself, however, carried no stigma. Roman women often wore blond wigs (made, or so it was claimed, from German hair). In one epigram, Martial claims that he is sending a courtesan a lock of hair from a German woman - so that she can see how much blonder her own wig is (5.68).