"Blue rinse brigade" is a somewhat pejorative term used, particularly in the United Kingdom, to describe elderly middle-class ladies usually of a conservative socio-political persuasion. This group is usually characterised as forming the backbone of local branches of the Conservative Party.
The term arises from the blue rinse dye applied by hairdressers to disguise the often yellow tones of greying hair, together with the pejorative sense of "brigade". There is also an allusion to the political symbolism of blue in the United Kingdom.
Famous quotes containing the words blue and/or brigade:
“Down the blue night the unending columns press
In noiseless tumult, break and wave and flow,”
—Rupert Brooke (1887–1915)
“[John] Brough’s majority is “glorious to behold.” It is worth a big victory in the field. It is decisive as to the disposition of the people to prosecute the war to the end. My regiment and brigade were both unanimous for Brough [the Union party candidate for governor of Ohio].”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)