Miss Universe: Blondes vs Brunettes
The brunettes are clearly dominating for the past years of Miss Universe beauty pageant, and blondes seemed to fade out in the background. After Jennifer Hawkins, a blonde from down under won the crown in 2004, the brunettes took over and won in 8 consecutive years. So the question now is, can a blond take home the crown this year?
The first ever blond to be crowned as Miss Universe is no other than the first-ever Miss Universe, Armi Kuusela from Finland. This blonde bomb only stands 5'5" tall when she won the crown in Long Beach, California on June 17, 1952 where she bested 29 other participants from all over the world.
The second blonde who won the crown came two years after Kuusela, a Swedish blonde named Hillevi Rombin who won the crown in 1955. Rombin is the first deceased title holder since the pageant's inception, she died at the age of 62 in a plane crash in 1996 together with her husband and her son due to an engine failure.
The third blonde came 5 years after Rombin, Marlene Schmidt, and the first and the only Miss Universe from Germany. Schmidt won the crown in 1961 against 47 other contestants, after her reign she became the third of the 8 wives of the American TV actor Ty Hardin in 1962.
Margareta Arvidsson is the fourth blonde to won the title 4 years after Schmidt, and she is the second Swedish beauty queen to be hailed as Miss Universe. Arvidsson won the Miss Photogenic on the pageant which was held in Miami Beach, Florida, and after her reign she became a fashion model for the Ford Modeling Agency and has a great success as an international model.
After Arvidsson, another Finnish blonde won the crown for Miss Universe and her name is Anne Marie Pohtamo who bagged the elusive crown for the second time around for Finland in 1975 held in El Salvador. Pohtamo claimed the crown 11 years after Kuusela won the crown for Finland, she is now a mother of 4 and married to Arto Hietanen in 1980.
Miss USA Shawn Weatherly became the sixth blonde to won the crown in 1980 and was followed by Lorraine Downes from New Zealand in 1983, then by Yvonne Ryding from Sweden in 1984, Angela Visser from Netherlands in 1989 and then Jennifer Hawkins from Australia.
All in all in the 61 years of the Miss Universe pageant, the beauty contest produced 10 blonde winners and 51 brunettes.