blue hair
n.— «And the waitresses. I imagine some of them have been here for decades, and probably dispense as much attitude and opinion as they do iced tea and iceberg lettuce salads. In the restaurant business they’re affectionately known as “lifers.” Perhaps less affectionately they’re known as “blue hairs.”» —“Chicken-Fried Steak With a Side of Kiss My Grits” by J.C. Reid HoustonPress Blogs: Leftovers (Texas) Feb. 26, 2009. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Gene calls from the Badlands of South Dakota to ask about ordering a glass of water at a restaurant by asking for a blue dolphin neat. Is that widely used? There are many slang terms used when ordering water, such as windmill cocktail, city coke...
After our conversation about restaurant codes used to ensure efficient service, a chef in Charlotte, North Carolina, shares more examples from his experience in an upscale establishment. This is part of a complete episode.
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I grew up in Chevy Chase MD and this term was widely used as far back as the 1960’s. Also was in school in Oregon and Colorado in the 70’s and it seemed pretty common to our generation’s vernacular.
In Kingsville Texas, The U.S. Navy has had their precision flying team known as the “Blue Angels.”
Older women volunteers (in hospitals or nursing homes) are or have been referred to as the
“Blue Hair Angels.”
Hell, when I was a kid back in the early 60’s, you would often see elderly ladies downtown with their coiffed hair-do’s done in soft auras of blue, pink, or green.
Because of their age, their hair was obviously very white but it had been tinted to a soft pastel color. It was always a single color, colored overall and not streaked.
Though I never heard the term back then, if you had said to me something about “blue hairs”, I would have known immediately what and who you were talking about.
Nowadays of course a “blue hair” could refer to a young girl (or even guy) with bright streaks of blue in their hair.
By the way, Molly Sugden playing Mrs. Slocum on the BBC show “Are You Being Served” often had her hair tinted in one of those soft pastel colors.