Blondes Parade Weekend, Riga, Latvia

From the German for flax or hemp touw , the expression tow head literally means someone flaxen haired. Other variations are towhead or toe head, the latter being a misspelling that does not relate to the word origin.
Writers of English either use the spellings interchangeably or continue to distinguish between the masculine blond and the feminine blonde; and, as such, it is one of the few adjectives in English with separate masculine and feminine forms, at least in written language. Each of the two forms. American Heritage's Book of English Usage propounds that this particular use of the term is an example of a "sexist stereotype [in] that women are primarily defined by their physical characteristics." (Another hair color word of French origin, brunet(te), also functions in the same way in orthodox English.)