An ad for budget airline German Wings has three air hostesses. Guess what their hair colors are.
An old ad for hair dye kicks off with a set of not-yet-born triplets fantasizing about what hair colors they will come out with. One looks forward to being a blonde, another to being a ravenhead, and the last to being a redhead. Sadly, they're all born with boring old brown, which is where the dye comes in when the girls are older.
An advert for Heineken had a Blonde, Brunette and Redhead sitting in a drinking establishment, along with a trio of priest, minister and rabbi; and a man with a duck under his arm. The claim was that the beer was "the real reason they all walked into a bar." The Blonde doesn't get it.
Ino, Hinata and Sakura are sometimes grouped this way.
Ino, Shikamaru and Choji, although Choji's hair is more reddish-brown. It's played totally straight with their dads, though.
Odd varation in Sasuke's group: Suigetsu (white hair aside), Karin and Juugo.
Naruto, Sasuke and Gaara are also sometimes grouped this way.
The Sand Siblings: Temari, Kankorou and Gaara respectively.
Lest we forget Team 7: Naruto, Sasuke/Sai and Sakura.
Hikari, Honoka and Nagisa in Futari wa Pretty Cure MaX Heart. Love, Miki and Inori in Fresh Pretty Cure! can also count if Miki's purplish-blue hair counts as stylized black hair. Yes! Pretty Cure 5 has (excluding Nozomi and Komachi) Urara (blonde), Karen (bluish-haired brunette) and Rin (redhead). Also from the same series, Nuts (blonde), Coco (brunette) and Syrup (redhead) in their human forms may count as a male example.
It could be argued that we end up with this set: Rei (blue, but, as the lightest shade, it counts as blonde here), Misato (dark blue, therefore brunette) and Asuka (redhead). Not that they're not distinct in just about every possible way anyway.
For the (relatively) normal humans, it'd be Akagi (blonde), Misato (brunette) and Asuka (redhead).
Karinka, Saki and Kurumi (pink hair could count as red in this context) from Steel Angel Kurumi.
From Magic Knight Rayearth, we have Fuu, who is your typical anime blonde, Hikaru, who is literally REDheaded and Umi, who fills the role of the brunette, but due the You Gotta Have Blue Hair trope, she has...blue hair! You can also count blonde Emeraude, brunette Presea and redhead Caldina (ok, so hers is more like pink).
From Rose of Versailles, Oscar is blonde, Rosalie has dark blonde hair in the anime and brown hair in the movie and thus counts as the brunette and Marie Antoinette is often accused by Mme. DuBarry of having red hair, so she can be the redhead.
In Hime Chen Otogi Chikku Idol Lilpri, we have the main trio of Ringo (pink, which can count as red like with Kurumi above), Leila (blonde) and Natsuki (purple, which can count as stylized black hair).
Gender-flipped: Jack (Blonde), Yusei (Brunette with Blonde streaks), Crow (carrot-top Redhead).
In addition to the in-series examples, Anzu/Tea, Asuka/Alexis and Aki/Akiza are a cross series example, albeit with the brunette coming first.
Yutaka and her classmates from Lucky Star could fit this, with the pink-hair Yutaka (the redhead), blonde Patty and black-haired Hiyori, with Minami as the odd girl out with her green hair. Or one could count it as being that Minami's classmates are a blonde, brunette and redhead...
The three heroines of Amuri in Star Ocean. Amuri is the brunette, Perrier is the blonde and Suzu is the redhead.
Cho Hakkai, Genjo Sanzo and Sha Gojyo are the main characters in Saiyuki, who each respectively have brown, blonde and red hair. Then, simply throw Son Goku into the mix for a distinction between light brown and dark brown.
An interesting variation in Slayers: Lina (red), Gourry (blonde) and Amelia (black with stylized purple highlights). The chimera Zelgadis has light purple hair, but Word Of God allegedly put his human hair color as a dark brown, despite an anime flashback having his human hair color the same shade of purple his chimeric hair is.
Played with concerning the S-Class Mage; first, it's Laxus (blonde), Mystogan (blue) and Erza (redhead). Then, Mirajane (white), Gildartz (brownish) and Erza.
Also, there Lucy (blonde), Wendy (blue) and, again, Erza.
Superman's three major love interests: Cat Grant (blonde), Lois Lane (brunette), Lana Lang (usually redheaded).
Black Canary, Oracle and Huntress in Birds Of Prey. However, Dinah's actually a brunette and uses hair dye. Black Canary would later leave the team, but Lady Blackhawk was still around to fill the blonde role.
The original Supergirl (Kara Zor-el), Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and Wonder Girl (Donna Troy) were an example of this trope.
The three Batgirls so far have been Stephanie Brown (blonde), Cassandra Cain (brunette and a minority) and Barbara Gordon (redhead). They were also the three major female characters in Cassandra Cain's Batgirl series.
Roy Thomas has stated that when introducing the character of Red Sonja into the Conan the Barbarian comics, he created a redhead because the two other major women in Conan's life were Bêlit (a brunette) and Valeria (a blonde).
ElfQuest has the trio Murrel, Vurdah and Maleen (Skywise's little harem in Sorrow's End).
The first three Flashes: Jay Garrick (Brunette), Barry Allen (Blonde) and Wally West (Redhead).
Spider-Man brunet, and his best friends are red-haired Harry Osborn and blond-haired Flash Thompson. As Spidey, his best friends are red-haired Daredevil and the blond-haired Human Torch. And his Amazing Friends are blond Iceman and red-haired Firestar. Whew.
Early on, Peter's three main love interests: Gwen Stacy (blond), Betty Brant (brunette) and Mary Jane (redhead)
Comic Strips
The three main characters in long-running soap comic Apartment 3G. While blonde Lu Ann plays to the stereotype, redhead Tommie and brunette Margo seem to have swapped theirs.
Sally Forth's daughter (blonde) and her two friends (brunette and redhead).
The classic Flash Gordon newspaper serial comic has had several major female leads, so it's not surprising that this trope would eventually come into play. In the "golden age" of the strip, as drawn by creator Alex Raymond, the women who best fit the trope are Flash's requisite Love Interest Dale Arden (who has black hair), Queen Fria of Frigia (a blonde) and Queen Desira of Tropica (a redhead). There's also Queen Undina of Coralia, who has long dark tresses similar to Dale's. (In case you haven't figured it out yet, the planet Mongo has Loads and Loads of Royalty.) Princess Aura is a bit harder to pin down, as she started out with red hair (plus yellow skin and pointy ears), but later underwent Art Evolution and became a blonde with Caucasian features, right around the same time she rebelled against her father's evil regime and joined Flash's band of good guys. (And while we're on the subject of hair, Fria's hair buns were copied rather shamelessly by George Lucas for Princess Leia's hairstyle in Star Wars.)
Fanfiction
Axis Powers Hetalia: England is blond, and when fans create OCs representing his siblings, they'll usually do this trope. The directions very. Some follow the basic stereotype, with Wales a brunet and Scotland a redhead. However, it's just as common to make Wales a blond, for the gag of him getting mistaken/interchanged with England a la America and Canada. In this case, the three major Celtic countries will usually form this trio, most often when Scotland is a brunet because the fan wants to reserve the red hair for the Irelands, or when they make Ireland a brunet/te (both male and female Ireland have been considered by the author) and keep Scotland a redhead if they prefer the slight statistical differences over stereotypes.
Films — Animation
Cinderella, Drizella and Anastasia from Disney's Cinderella. Interestingly, by the sequel the one that's evil is the brunette.
The Little Mermaid: Ariel is a redhead, while her six older sisters fill in the blonde and brunette qualifications.
Captain Amelia and Delbert Doppler's daughters from Treasure Planet.
Mirage, Violet and Elastigirl/Helen from The Incredibles. Note that if you exclude the criterion of a uniform gender, the Parr kids - Dash, Violet and Jack-Jack - also follow this pattern.
In The Princess and the Frog, Naveen sings about having a redhead and brunette on each arm with "a blonde or two to hold the candles" while surrounded by butterflies in the corresponding colors. Of course, he ends up falling for the African American Tiana. The trio of bimbettes that follows him around also fits this trope.
In the oft-compared half-animated films Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Cool World, we have these three in the animated female leads: Holli Would (blonde), Lonette (brunette) and Jessica Rabbit (redhead). However, Lonette is the more dull one, Holli is sassy and Jessica was the smart one.
In The Callback Queen, Luci (blonde), Joanne (brunette) and Kate (redhead).
Batman Returns: There are three female criminals in the Penguin's gang. The Poodle Lady is light blonde, the Snake Woman has fiery red/orange hair, and the Knifethrower Dame never shows her hair but dresses like a Native American, so it's easy to imagine the hair being black.
Interesting twist in the 1960s pastiche Down with Love: Barbara Novak, the main character, spends most of the film a blonde, but in the Big Reveal towards the end, she reveals that she had fallen in love with Chivalrous Pervert Catcher Block, but he didn't notice her because she was a mousy brunette secretary, so she reinvented herself as a sassy blonde feminist writer to get his attention, but in the end, she dyes her hair red so she's "in between" the mousy brunette and the sassy blonde.
Dracula's "brides" are this way in Van Helsing and probably in other adaptations as well. In the Original, there was only the blonde and two brunettes.
In the Scooby Doo movie from 2002, we have the addition of Mary Jane, played by Isla Fisher, a blond, and of course, Velma (Brunette) and Daphne (Redhead). They do fulfill the traditional roles - Mary Jane is a little spacey, Velma is the brains and Daphne is really sassy in this version. Interestingly Daphne was more the dimwit in the show.
In the James Bond spoof Our Man Flint, the protagonist has live-in "playmates", one of each hair color. (Actually, there are two brunettes, one being Asian).
Iron Man. The three go-go dancing stewardesses on Tony Stark's private jet.
Amber, Tracy and Penny in Hairspray and all its adaptations.
Upon Cady (redhead) joining The Plastics in Mean Girls, she completes this with Regina and Karen (blondes) and Gretchen (brunette).
The Cleary sisters in Wedding Crashers. Claire fits the Brainy Brunette bill, yet Gloria isn't so much a Fiery Redhead as completely insane whilst the third, blonde sister doesn't come across as dumb, just vain.
The Andy Sidaris movies Guns, Do or Die and Hard Hunted feature heroines Donna Hamilton (blonde), Nicole Justin (brunette) and Edy Stark (redhead). The actresses who played the characters (Dona Speir, Roberta Vasquez and Cynthia Brimhall, respectively) are all Playboy Playmates.
In Heartbreakers, Sigourney Weaver (Max) and Jennifer Love Hewitt (Paige) each switch between all three for each of the different people their characters impersonate. Both are brunettes as themselves, Max is redhead as "Olga" and blonde as "Angela" while Paige is redhead as "Wendy" and blonde as "Allison".
The three girlfriends of the Jets in West Side Story: Riff's girlfriend, Graziella (redhead), Ice's girl, Velma(blonde) and another girl, a brunette.
The Pleasure Seekers, a remake of Three Coins in a Fountain set in Spain, stars Ann-Margaret (redhead), Carol Lynley (blonde) and Pamela Tiffen (brunette).
James (blonde), Laurent (brunet) and Victoria (redhead) in the film version of Twilight. In the books, James is described as having brown hair that is buzzed short, rather than blonde hair in a ponytail. Esme (redhead), Alice (brunette) and Rosalie (blonde) also qualify.
Iris and her friends in The Lady Vanishes are a rare pre-War and black-and-white example.
The Van Waldenberg siblings in Blades of Glory (props for one of them being male).
Period Drama Liberty Heights presents a male version of this trope, with the blond Ben and his two brunet and redheaded best friends (plus, they're all Jewish).
A Knight's Tale has the three squires of blond William Thatcher, fat but loyal brunette Roland and violent young redhead Wat.
The 1932 film Three Wise Girls is in black and white, but according to the poster one is brunette, one redheaded, and the third (played by Jean Harlow) is blonde.
The movie Xanadu has a song, Dancin'. There is a trio of female singers with blond, red and brown hair.
The three anti-heroines of Bachelorette (imagine Brides Maids if the 'maids were bitter and jealous of the bride for finding a hot husband despite being fatter and having less fashion sense then them): type-A blonde (Kirsten Dunst), redheaded party girl/sex maniac (Isla Fischer, evidently the go-to gal for this trope), and mousy/brainy-looking brunette (Lizzy Caplan).
The Bellas in Pitch Perfect: brunettes Beca, Stacie, Cynthia Rose and Lilly; blondes Aubrey and Fat Amy, and redhead Chloe.
Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth film-verse has Arwen (brunette), Tauriel (redhead), Galadriel and Eowyn (blond).
There's also a male version in the three hunters: Aragorn (brunette), Legolas (blonde) and Gimli (redhead).
Literature
In Shannon Hale's Books of Bayern series, Isi is the blonde, Enna is the brunette (actually, her hair is jet black) and Dasha is the redhead. With the addition of Rin, it becomes 'blonde, brunette, redhead and black hair'
In Charles Ogden's Edgar & Ellen, Stephanie is the redhead, Cassidy is the blonde and Pepper is the brunette.
Opal, Jade and Amber respectively play this trope straight in The Prophecy Of The Stones. The three of them are known as "the Stones" of the prophecy (referring to their namesake magic stones).
In Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Jubal Harshaw's secretaries are Anne (blonde), Dorcas (brunette) and Miriam (redhead). Jubal mentions many times that this is exactly the way he wants it. Whenever one of his secretaries leaves his service, he will only hire a replacement with her hair color to keep things evened out.
Neville (blonde in the books for a masculine version), Harry and Ron.
In the films, the secondary trio also fits the bill with Neville (brunet), Ginny (redhead) and Luna (blonde).
The Fanon grouping of Albus Potter (brunet), Rose Weasley (redhead) and Scorpius Malfoy (blonde) counts also. (Note that Rose's hair color is never stated in the book, though.)
From the novelization of Iron Man: "One was a blonde, the other a brunette. Stark glanced around, hoping that he could find a worthwhile redhead in order to complete the set..."
The three women Luke describes as the greatest loves of his life: Callista (blonde), Gaeriel (brunette) and Mara (redhead).
This seems to be something of a trend, as well. Obi-Wan-Kenobi has had three major women in his life: Duchess Satine Kryze (blonde), Asajj Ventress (brunette, thanks to a recent Retcon) and Siri Tachi (canonically blonde, but famously dyed her hair red for an undercover operation). Obi's Angels, anyone?
Ben Skywalker, Luke's son and Obi-Wan's namesake, has officially picked up on this tendency. So far, he's been involved with one canonical love interest (Vestara Khai, brunette), had one off-hand flirtation with another Jedi (Seha Dorvald, redhead) and been the recipient of one really twisted molestation attempt as a part of a Sith plot ( Tahiri Veila, blonde). Hopefully, his options will get a little better with time...
Yasmine Galenorn's The Otherworld Series has three full sisters with very different hair colors. Camille, the eldest, has black hair, Delilah has sunny blonde hair and Menolly, the youngest, has bright red hair.
The It Girl series by Cecily Ziegesar features power trio Callie (blonde), Tinsley (brunette) and Brett (redhead). Newcomer Jenny is also a brunette. Guess which of the three feels most threatened socially and works hardest to try to tear Jenny down (at least to begin with).
Pauline (blonde), Petrova (brunette) and Posy (redhead) in Ballet Shoes.
Emily (redhead), Adriane (brunette) and Kara (blonde) from the Avalon: Web of Magic series.
The Wheel of Time: Elayne (blonde), Min (brunette) and Aviendha (redhead).
In the Deepgate Codex, we have Rachel (blonde), Carnival (black hair), Mina (brunette) and Alice (redhead).
Circle of Magic: Sandry (light brown), Daja (black) and Tris (redhead). And Briar (boy) is the odd man out.
Betsy (brunette), Tacy (redhead) and Tib (blonde) in the Betsy-Tacy books. Plays with the hair types a bit: Tib is definitely not dumb — she's generally the most sensible and practical of the group and Tacy, far from being fiery, is fun and charming with her friends, but suffers from crippling shyness. Betsy may be brainy in that she's a good writer, but she's generally average at school work. Also somewhat subverted as a cliche in that the three characters are based on three real women, who were a blonde, a brunette and a redhead.
The Doctor Who Expanded UniverseEighth Doctor Adventures feature a blonde (Sam), a redhead (Compassion) and a brunette (Anji, who happens to be of Indian descent) who travel with the Doctor, just none of them at the same time. There's also Trix, who's sort of mousy-blonde but usually wears wigs. And if we were counting the guys, Fitz has dark brown hair and the Doctor's hair is chestnut brown and, if backlit a certain way, looks practically orange, so there would pretty much be two full sets.
In Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Annabeth is a blonde, Thalia has dark hair and Rachel is a redhead. However, Annabeth is smart, Rachel is a bit ditzy and Thalia's the one with the fiery temper.
In the Gone series, the three main girls are Astrid (blonde), Diana (brunette) and Lana (unspecified hair color). However, none of the girls fit any of the blonde stereotypes (such as Dumb Blonde). Lana fits the typical redhead personality, but Astrid is one of the most intelligent characters in the series, while Diana is a snarky, sarcastic Dark Chick.
On the cover of Saving Zoe, Echo, Janay and Abby are depicted this way. Janay is the blonde, Echo is the brunette and Abby is the "redhead" (which is really more of a dark blonde/strawberry blonde).
Lestat (blonde), Louis (brunette/jet black) and Armand (redhead/auburn) from The Vampire Chronicles.
The starting premise of Aimee Bender's short story "Off", where the protagonist makes a goal to kiss a blonde, brunette and red-haired man in one night.
Cupcake Diaries is about Katie (a brunette) and her three new friends, Emma (who has blonde hair, Mia (who has black hair) and Alexis (who has redish hair).
The boys of the Spy High series: Ben (blond), Jake (brunet) and Eddie (redhead). For the girls, there's blonde Lori, brunette Cally and Bex; who dyes her hair a variety of bright, unnatural colours, sometimes red.
The trio of Bess, George and Nancy in the Nancy Drew series. True to form, Bess is the ditz, George is the smart, practical, athletic and tomboyish one, while Nancy is the series Canon Sue.
The Hatter sisters from Howl's Moving Castle. Sophie (redhead), Lettie (brunette) and Martha (blonde).
Three of the Princesses of Amber fit this trope; black haired Deidre who seems to be something of a tomboy, redheaded Fiona, the 'brainy' one and Dumb Blonde Flora. The fourth princess, Lewella, has green hair.
Buffy (blonde), Willow (redhead) and Faith, Cordelia, or Dawn (brunette), depending on the situation.
If one allows male participants, the most commonly seen Blonde, Brunet, Redhead trio on Buffy is Buffy, Willow and Xander. Rather amusingly, the traditional traits associated with each hair color exist in this trio, but palette-swapped; Buffy is the Fiery Blonde, Willow is the Brainy Redhead and Xander is the Dumb Brunet.
The leading ladies of three shows in the CSI Verse: Catherine (redhead — Vegas), Calleigh (blonde — Miami), Stella and, later, Jo (brunette — New York).
On CSI: Las Vegas, from seasons 5 through seven, they had Sofia (blond), Sara (brunette) and Catherine (redhead). Also in Season 12 we had Morgan as the blond, with the other two girls still fulfilling their roles.
During the fifth (and last) season of the original 1970s series, the Angels were Cheryl Ladd (blonde), Jaclyn Smith (brunette) and Tanya Roberts (redhead). The producers had wanted to use this trope since the beginning.
Married... with Children in the early seasons had the female half of the cast fit this trope. Marcy was a brunette before her hair started to get lighter at Season 3 and just became blonder and blonder from then on. Kelly and Peggy, however, remained blonde and redheaded respectively from beginning to end. Al, Bud, Steve and Jefferson avert this trope, since the male half of the cast all have plain brown hair.
Teen Wolf has this. Erica's the blonde, Allison's the brunette, and Lydia's the redhead.
The Tudors have this with Henry's children, with Mary being a brunette, almost a ravenhead as a child, Elizabeth being a redhead, although her hair looked more blondeish in her toddler years, and Edward being a blonde. The six wives almost fall into this with the series banner making Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard's hair look like red hair, despite how, on screen, they were blonde, along with Jane Seymour and Katherine Parr, while Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn were brunettes.
Charmed generally avoids this since the Halliwells are brunette siblings, but Phoebe occasionally favors blonde highlights and Paige dyes her hair red.
In the fifth season finale, when the sisters become Greek Goddesses, Phoebe's hair is turned blonde, thus invoking the trope as Paige was red-haired at the time. Phoebe became the Goddess of Love and thus making her a little ditzy, Paige became a God of War to increase her temper ,while Piper became Goddess of Earth and was thus more grounded and mature.
Laurie, Ellie and Jules on Cougar Town. True to form, Laurie's a Dumb Blonde, Ellie's a Fiery Redhead (although she's more of a light brown with reddish highlights) and while Jules isn't exactly brainy, she's smarter and more calm and collected than the other two.
Susan, Jane and Sally on Coupling. Jane is the Ditzy Brunette, thus avoiding the usual personality trio. Plus, Sally can't exactly be called the fiery one, nor is Susan a dumb blonde.
For a good portion of Season 5, Criminal Minds gave us JJ the blonde, Prentiss the brunette and Garcia, whose hair was red for approximately half a season before she returned to her traditional blonde. This is also the hair color scheme of the UnSub's doll collection and thus her victims, in "The Uncanny Valley".
The 4-girl version with Lynette (blonde), Susan (brunette), Gabby (the Latina) and Bree (redhead).
Their children sort of do this too, but change the combination: Bree's kids are brunettes, Lynette has redheaded twins, and Susan's daughter is blonde. Maybe they all traded babies?
You also get this with former or secondary women. Edie (blonde, dead), Katherine (redhead, left the country) and either Betty (brunette, left the show) or Mary Alice (brunette, dead).
The three main companions in Russell T Davies-era: Rose (blonde), Martha (brunette) and Donna (redhead).
11th Doctor (dark brown/black), Rory (light brown) and Amy (extremely Fiery Red Head), plus River (currently blonde; she was also African-American for a while).
Notice that the New Who females are Colour-Coded for Your Convenience; the Doctor's love interests are blonde (Rose, Astrid, River), his best friends are redheads (Donna, Amy), and the unrequited loves are brunette (Martha, Christina, River—notice she only became his love interest when she became blonde). Whether the new companion Clara will carry on the tradition is yet to be seen...
The Fifth Doctor (blond), Tegan (brunette) and Turlough (redhead) Trio count, even though two of them are guys.
The three witches of Eastwick, which makes sense since the movie it is based on did the exact same thing.
8 Simple Rules has Cate (brown), Bridget (blonde) and Kerry (red). Paul and Cate's children can also count, with Rory being the brunette. In an interesting case, Bridget and Rory are the Dumb Blonde and Dumb Brunette respectively, while Kerry is both a Brainy Redhead and a Fiery Redhead.
Rachel on Friends was a kind of reddish honey-blonde, placing her between brunette Monica and blonde Phoebe.
Shelby Corcoran, Emma Pillsbury and April Rhodes on Glee. Shelby is a talented, hard working and methodical show choir instructor and April is an unreliable but well-meaning drunk, but Emma isn't quite that fiery (except for that one time...).
Cristina Yang, Izzie Stevens and Meredith Grey in Grey's Anatomy.
H 2 O Just Add Water has a light blonde, strawberry blonde and dark brunette, and in one episode, the strawberry blonde tried to go full-on red but couldn't because of her mermaid powers. Charlotte from Season 2 adds a redhead to the spectrum.
iCarly: in "iReunite with Missy", there's blonde Sam, brunette Carly and redhead Missy. Wendy, a recurring character, can be considered as the show's resident redhead.
Mad Men has Betty (blonde), Peggy (brunette) and Joan (redhead). The stereotypes associated with each color define the women. Also, season 4 episode "The Beautiful Girls" has the titular women as the before with Dr. Faye Miller replacing Betty as an intellligent blonde.
In the 1980s television miniseries North and South, the three most important women in Orry Main's life are his youngest sister Brett (blonde), his mother Clarissa (brunette) and the love of his life/wife Madeline (redhead). One could say that his (brunette) younger sister Ashton, (an eviler version of Scarlett O'Hara) could be important too, but it is clear throughout the series that Orry recognizes Ashton's cruelty and even disowns her. Twice.
The first season of One Tree Hill had Peyton the blonde, Brooke the brunette and Haley the redhead. Later, Haley dyed her hair blonde and then brunette, so Season 3 introduced us to the redheaded Rachel.
Shirley (blonde), Laurie (brunette) and Tracy (redhead) on The Partridge Family. Was also inverted with the boys Keith (brunette), Danny (redhead) and Chris (blonde) during Seasons 2-4.
Power Rangers has done this one more than one occasion, often replacing red with pink.
Power Rangers in Space could be argued, since Ashley's hair is so much lighter than Cassie's that it often looks blonde by comparison, and Astronema settled on being a redhead for the latter half of the season.
Power Rangers Ninja Storm has Tori (blonde), Marah (brunette) and Kapri, who generally has pink hair.
Power Rangers SPD has an all male example. Jack (minority), Sky (blond), Bridge (brunet) and Sam (redhead).
Power Rangers Mystic Force has Madison (brunette) and Clare and Leelee (blonde) and Vida dyed her hair pink in the finale to complete the trio as a fiery redhead. The adults also fall under the co-gendered version with Niella (blonde), Leanbow and Daggeron (brunet) and Udonna (redhead).
Privileged had Megan (redhead), who is often shown to contrast her relationship with her real sister, Lily, (blonde) and her tutees, the Baker twins (brunette), who she becomes more of a big sister to as the series goes on.
Sabrina (blonde), Roxie (brunette) and Morgan (redhead) in Season 5 onwards of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Subversions of roles again, as Sabrina is the Brainy Blonde, Morgan the Dumb Redhead and Roxie the Fiery Brunette.
The three ladies of the original Saturday Night Live cast were Jane Curtin (blonde), Gilda Radner (brunette) and Laraine Newman (redhead).
Carrie's closest friends of Sex and the City are Samantha (blonde), Charlotte (brunette) and Miranda (redhead).
Mr. Big:(to Carrie) I know your friends just fine. Charlotte is the brunette, Miranda is the redhead and Samantha is trouble.
The female leads of Smallville later on in the series, Chloe (blonde), Lois (brunette) and Tess (redhead). The odd thing is, Lana is traditionally a redhead but has black hair in Smallville, so it doesn't fit until she left and Tess came in.
As of Spartacus Blood And Sand, Lucy Lawless completes the trio after playing a brunette and a blonde (her natural hair color, amazingly). In the show itself her character alternates between blonde and red wigs, and her natural brown hair in the second season.
In Vengeance Lucretia is the redhead (after being forced to wear her red wig by Asher) with Seppia as the brunette and Illythia as the blonde.
Star Trek: The Original Series first pilot "The Cage". The Talosians, who want Captain Pike to breed them a race of slave workers, offer him blonde fellow captive Vina and, later, his own crewmembers — the coldly intelligent Number One (Brainy Brunette) and his pretty female yeoman (a redhead with "unusually strong female drives").
The first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation had Tasha Yar (blonde), Counselor Troi (brunette) and Dr. Crusher (redhead).
Star Trek: Voyager had red-highlighted Captain Janeway, brunette B'Elanna and blonde Kes, who was replaced by fellow blonde Seven of Nine.
That '70s Show had Laurie (blonde), Jackie (brunette) and Donna (redhead). They even did a Charlie's Angels sequence at one point. This cycle was broken when Laurie's character was officially written out and Donna went blonde.
In the "A Nice Place to Visit" episode of The Twilight Zone, even though it's in black and white, you can tell that the three girls hanging around with Valentine are the obligatory tri-color trio.
In What I Like About You, there are Val and Lauren (blondes), Holly (light brunette) and Tina (redhead from mid-Season 2 onwards).
In one episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Indy is simultaneously dating a sweet blonde, a talented redhead and an ambitious brunette. Until they all find out.
Pan Am has Laura (blonde), Maggie and Colette (brunettes) and Kate (redhead). Now that she's returned, Bridget also fulfils the blonde aspect.
Wizards of Waverly Place involves this trope in the forms of Juliet (blonde), Alex (brunette) and Harper (redhead), featured in a few episodes. Interestingly, all three have deep connections to Justin, the blonde being his canonicalLove Interest, the brunette his sister, and the redhead his Stalker with a Crush.
A UK reality programme, Girlfri3nds, covers the search for relationship partners for a 3-pack of women in front of the cameras. Aired on ITV 2 during 2012.
The X-Files: In the episode "Improbable", Agent Reyes finds out that a Serial Killer's pattern consists murdering women in a set of three, and each set has a blonde, a brunette and a redhead. Redhead Agent Scully and herself a brunette, they are trapped in an underground garage and fear they might be his next targets.
Amy, Cody and Britta in Go Girls.
The three major female characters of Grimm: Adalind (blonde), Juliette (redhead), and Rosalee (brunette).
When Tinka Hessenheffer is on the side of the protagonists, CeCe (redhead), Rocky (brunette) and Tinka (blonde) from Shake It Up count.
Music
Christina Aguilera, Avril Lavigne and Britney Spears each have music videos where they switch among the three hair colors. In fact, in Christina Aguilera's case, she's on camera as all three at once in the music video for "Candyman", as an homage to the Andrews Sisters. So does Britney, albeit very briefly.
For Pink, Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim and Mya's cover of "Lady Marmalade", Christina and Lil' Kim are blondes, Mya is brunette and Pink is, well, pink (it's lightish red!).
The Belgian girl group K3 and their German spin-off Wir 3
Girls Aloud has Sarah (blonde), Cheryl (brunette) and Nicola (redhead); Kimberley and Nadine tend to waver between blonde and brunette.
The Spice Girls have this going on with Scary (minority) and Baby (blonde), Sporty and Posh (brunettes) and Ginger (redhead obviously).
In Tom Smith's song "Lars Needs Women", the eponymous hero "want blonde, brunette, redhead — heck, whole set!"
In the all-girl wizard rock band The Parselmouths (based on Harry Potter), there were at one point three members: Kristina Horner (blonde), Brittany Vahlberg (black) and Eia Waltzer (redhead). However, Eia's hair is naturally brown.
The German girl group MeKaDo, known for placing third at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994. The group name comes from the first two letters of each member: brunette Melanie Bender, blonde Kati Karney and "redhead" (more light brown) Dorkas Kiefer.
The Sugababes had this with Heidi (Blonde), Mutya (Red) and Keisha (Minority).
Atomic Kitten started off with Natasha (red), Kerry (blonde) and Liz (brunette), but eventually became three blondes and then Natasha dyed her hair black, leaving Jenny with the lighter blonde hair and Liz with a darker shade.
The girls in S Club had this as well. To start off, Jo and Hannah were blonde (Jo being ash blonde with Hannah being honey blonde), Rachel was brunette and Tina had black hair. At the end, Tina had reddish blonde hair.
The Bangles: Vicki (medium blonde), Debbi (pale blonde), Susanna (brunette) and Michael (redhead).
The country music group SHeDAISY consists of three sisters: Kristyn (a blonde), Kassidy (a brunette) and Kelsi (a redhead).
Radio Disney's Pop Dreamers: Ella (blonde with pink highlights), Gabrielle (brunette) and Ari (redhead).
The Brooklynn indie band Vivian Girls.
Destiny's Child went for this in the video for "Bootylicious", where Beyonce was the blonde, obviously, though with a much lighter shade than usual, Michelle remained brunette and Kelly was the redhead.
Deliberately modelled on them, there are The Puppini Sisters.
Girl Punk band The Slits had this with guitarist Viv Albertine as the blonde, bassist Tessa Politt as the brunette, and lead singer the late Ari Up as the redhead(although she was more light brown haired than red.). In one video, it even shows the three riding on horses matching their hair colors with Viv on a white/palomino horse, Tessa on a black horse, and Ari on a chestnut horse!
In Florence + the Machine's video for "Drumming Song", there are two blonde and a brunette back-up dancer, with Florence being the redhead.
Stevie Nicks (blonde) and her long-time backup singers Sharon Celani (brunette) and Lori Perry Nicks (redhead).
Print Media
When the Brazilian Playboy created their official bunnies, there were three of them (and guess their hair color?◊) and they even posed for an edition together. The redhead has since left the magazine.
Pro Wrestling
The trio Extreme Expose had Kelly Kelly (blonde hair), Brooke Adams (brown-haired Caucasian) and Layla El (brownish-black hair, Moroccan/Spanish). Brooke would have counted as the "redhead" with her brown hair being lighter than Layla's.
LayCool had Michelle McCool as a blonde and Layla El as a brunette. They were joined by Vickie Guerrero, then a redhead (now black).
Trish Stratus and Lita often teamed up together with Trish as the blonde and Lita as the redhead. In six-diva tag matches, they would be joined by Ivory (brunette).
One episode of Monday Night Raw in the late summer of 2004 pitted the team of Stacy Keibler (blonde), Nidia Guenard (light brunette) and Victoria (dark brunette) against their Evil Counterparts, Trish Stratus (blonde), Molly Holly (medium brunette) and Gail Kim (dark brunette). Incidentally, Victoria, Stacy, and Nidia also qualified as, respectively, Big, Thin, and Short.
The recent Encores production of Merrily We Roll Along played this, and according to stereotype no less: Beth is blonde, Mary is brunette and Gussie is a redhead.
As mentioned above, Amber, Tracy and Penny in Hairspray (Penny has auburn hair).
Kendra, Lucy and Patrice in 13.
Elle's Girl Posse in Legally Blonde: The Musical is composed of the blonde Margot, African-American Pilar and the in between light brunette Serena. Elle, meanwhile, is the blonde of the interns chosen for Callahan's internship, along with brunette Vivienne and light-haired Enid.
In the version of The Pirates of Penzance with Jon English, Mabel (black hair) has three sisters that are blonde, brunette and redheaded.
Mary the Dumb Blonde, Kathy the Brainy Brunette and Joanne the Fiery Redhead in ACT's production of the musical of Vanities. In the original play, Joanne and Mary were both blonde and Kathy was a brunette. Also, in previous productions of the musical, Joanne was the brunette and Kathy the redhead.
In Wicked (at least with the original cast), the Witches of Oz would work. Elphaba is the Brainy Brunette,Galinda is a Dumb Blonde, but by the end, she gets better and Nessarose fits Fiery Redhead, since she's such a Yandere.
The trio of Chorus Girls in the 2012 cabaret musical Modern Luv: Madison = innocent blonde, Hillary = Brainy Brunette (since she's the dance captain/choreographer) and Kimmie = Fiery Redhead.
The G.I. Joe Team had Scarlett as a readhead and Lady Jaye as a brunette. Cover Girl's toy had auburn hair, but the cartoon originally showed her as a blonde (and eventually the toy followed suit).
Cobra had the black-haired Baroness, pink-haired Zarana, and in 2007 an exclusive set introduced female Cobra Troopers - one with each hair color.
The ultimate Blonde, Barbie and her two most prominent friends, Redhead Midge (the very first one) and Brunette/Latina Teresa
Similarly, Link has also embodied all three parts of this trope. In the first two games, he had reddish-brown hair and morphed over subsequent installments to different shades of blonde, but his hair in The Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess is more brown than anything, although he appears blondish in Brawl. If you throw supplemental material into the mix, he was a full-on redhead in the Zelda comics and a definite brunette in the animated series.
The three main female characters of Twilight Princess: Ilia (blonde), Zelda (brunette) and Midna (redhead).
If you could actually see Visas' hair at any point in Knights of the Old Republic 2 and you count the Handmaiden as blonde, your younger female party members count.
The Seijyun High team in Rival Schools manages to barely scrape by the requirements of the trope. While Biker Babe Akira and delinquent Zaki clearly fit the brunette and redhead respectively, gothicMusical Assassin Yurika is the blonde only because her beige-esque Ojou Ringlets are noticably lighter than either Akira or Zaki's hairdos.
In Super Robot Wars J, the Fury Girls - Melua, Katia and Tenia - fill this trope out nicely.
The "Wonderful Life" series has Muffy (blonde), Celia (brunette) and Nami (redhead) for the girls, and Rock (blond), Marlin (brunet) and Gustafa (redhead) for the boys.
The original three female protagonists. Brunette Pony, blonde Claire and reddish-brown Sara.
The trio of Ninja from Sengoku Basara - Kasuga (blonde), Sasuke (brunet) and Fuuma (redhead).
Kairi (redhead) has two lookalikes, Namine (blonde) and Xion (black-haired).
There's another two combinations: Riku (white), Sora (brunette) and Kairi are the main trio, and Roxas (blonde), Axel (redhead) and Xion are the mirror group. In fact, before Xion, most people added Demyx (brunet) to Roxas' group.
Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep then gave us Terra (brunet), Aqua (blue hair) and Ven (blond). In the same game, we got Vanitas as a black-haired version of Sora, pushing the brown-haired Sora up to the "moderate color" column with Roxas and Ventus as the blond.
Slight variation in the Jak and Daxter games, with Tess (blonde), Keira (Green hair) and Ashelin (redhead).
In The King Of Fighters, Iori Yagami, Mature and Vice fill in this trope whenever they form the Yagami Team.
While not all appearing in the same game, the series has Trish (blonde), Lady (brunette) and Lucia (redhead).
DMC 4 plays it straight with Trish (blonde), Lady (brunette, though she only shows up in flashbacks) and Kyrie (redhead).
The four female character options in Darkstone are a blonde (the Amazon), two brunettes (brown-haired Thief and black-haired Sorceress) and a redhead (Priestess).
The party's female members also fit in the looser sense of blonde (Natalia), brunette (Anise) and something in-between (Tear, who has light brown hair).
The iDOLM@STER 2 - Project Jupiter is an odd case where the redhead has green hair here.
Chrono Trigger has Ayla (blonde), Lucca (brunette) and Marle (redhead).
Web Animation
The three heroines from 3|Way, a series of erotic SF flash cartoons.
College Roomies from Hell!!! has a double-set example for both genders. Technically, there are also not one but two sets of brunettes, a pair of brown-brunettes and a pair of black-brunettes.
Furthermore, Yuri Zahard and Yihwa Yeon have black hair.
Lampshaded in Supermegatopia — after the appearance of blonde Buxom Gal and brunette Dark Buxom Gal, the public's reaction is to wonder whether a redhead will show up too. (Later, one does.)
In The Kamics, ex-valkyries Gertrude (blonde), Brunhilda (brunette) and Nikki (redhead).
Elia (blonde), Dores (brunette) and Vandi (redhead) of What Birds Know. In a variation of the standard trope, Dores is the fiery one and Vandi is serious.
The three female housemates in Catena almost fit the trope. Patches is blonde and Treiss is brunette, but Belle's hair is actually pink, not red.
The three female leads of Out There: red-haired Miriam fits the Fiery Redhead trope reasonably well, but also has some Dumb Blonde tendencies; the usually dark-haired Sherry (who sometimes bleaches her hair blonde) can be seen as the Brainy Brunette; and the dark-haired Araceli, despite her occupation (she's an attorney) and hair color, is somewhat of a Shy Blue-Haired Girl.
The two main characters and the first major villain they encounter of Wayfarers Moon.
Questionable Content: one could say this applies to the ladies working at the Coffee of Doom. Dora has black hair, Raven had a blonde streak and Faye's hair colour could qualify as being between the two. Later, after Raven gets Put on a Bus, Penny shows up to fulfill the blonde requirement, though she defies the trope in personality...
The three female leads of LCD: Julianne McIntyre is the blonde, Raven Svoboda is the brunette and Terry Sligh is the redhead.
The major female characters in Arthur, King of Time and Space are Guenevere (redhead), Morgan (brunette) and space/contemporary!Tristam (chestnut). Originally it was Morgan (brunette), Guenevere (redhead) and space/contemporary!Bedivere (blonde), until Bedivere was retconned as male in all the arcs.
Geoff (blonde), Drucilla (brunette) and Pibgorn (redhead). Alternately: Pigorn, Drucilla (black hair) and the hair fairy (brown hair).
El Goonish Shive hasn't included this trope proper for a while, but the first three female protagonists to be introduced in the comic were Sarah (blonde), Grace (brunette) and Nanase (redhead). The next two girls had dyed dark blue hair*
she was naturally blonde
(which appeared black) and brunette hair respectively. Nanase's hair became dark as a result of her magic burning out in later arcs and Susan's dyed hair color became permanent as a result of her magic awakening, leaving Sarah as the only blonde in a cast full of dark-haired girls.
In Pacificators, from the main cast alone, there are two brunettes (Daryl and Muneca), a blonde (Larima), a redhead (Cinna) and two with black hair (Bismun and Taffe). That's not even counting the supporting and minor characters...
Rocketboom has this with the hosts of its three YouTube channels: blonde Meme Molly on Rocketboom Daily, brunette Ellie Rountree on Rocketboom Tech, and redheaded Ella Morton on Rocketboom New York City.
SourceFed's female hosts, Lee Newton (blonde), Trisha Hershberger (brunette) and Meg Turney (redhead).
Buffy Duval, Bunny Rabinowitz, and Barbie Hammerschmidt, three super-villainous cheerleaders from the Global Guardians PBEM Universe who together are The Cheerleaders, are blonde, brunette, and redhead, respectively.
In The Spectacular Spider Man, now that they're all part of the same clique (sort of), there's Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane and Liz Allan, though Gwen, the blonde, is the brainy one and Liz, the brunette, is the cheerleader.
Fireman Sam: Penny (blonde), Elvis (black) and either Sam (red) or Station Officer Steele (white). Sam, Elvis and Penny are notable for actually being the opposite of their hair colour stereotype tropes (Dumb Blonde, Brainy Brunette, Fiery Redhead). Sam (redhead) is very even tempered, Penny (blonde) is very brainy and compident, while Elvis (brunette) is, well...not.
Gwenevere, Fallon and Tamara in Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders. Of course, the so-called redhead is a shy girl, whereas the purple-haired black girl is the sports loving genki type.
The Chipettes in the 80s cartoon Alvin And The Chipmunks. Then comes their CGI selves and it's their fur, though with a tuft of hair on top of their heads that looks◊ like◊ hair◊.
The Hex Girls in some Scooby-Doo films. Also, Fred (blond), Shaggy (brunet), Daphne and Velma (redheads).
The titular Lady Lovely Locks and her friends, Maiden Fair Hair and Maiden Curly Crown.
Pebbles (red), Penny (brunette) and Wiggy (blonde), from The Flintstones Comedy Show.
Fin (blonde), Lo (brunette) and Emma (redhead) from Stoked.
Caitlin (blonde), Nikki (naturally black, dyed purple) and Jen (redhead) from Six Teen.
The short-lived Comedy Central animated series Kid Notorious (which starred real-life film director Robert Evans) had one episode in which Evans is posing as a Nazi to expose a fellow filmmaker. While throwing a party at his mansion for a skinhead group, Evans says (in a German Accent) "It's entertainment time! Take your Pick! In all your favorite flavors! Blondes, brunettes, redheads, all with matching collars and cuffs!"
Nara Burns (blonde), Rita Torres (brunette) and Maggie Weston (redhead), the three female leads from Exo Squad.
The three Batwomen in Batman Mystery Of The Batwoman: Kathy (brunette), Rocky (blonde) and Sonia (reddish brown). In a subversion of stereotypical roles, Rocky is a genius metallurge, Kathy is a fighter and Sonia is the stoic leader.
Lily, Violet and Poison Ivy in the Batman episode "Eternal Youth".
A rare male version can be found in the founding members of the Young Justice team with Aqualad being the Dark-Skinned Blonde, Robin as the brunette and Kid Flash as the redhead.
The cycle continues when they added Superboy (brunette), Miss Martian (redhead) and Artemis (blonde). With the addition of Zatanna (black) the girls of the team become this trope as well.
Season two adds Batgirl (redhead), Wonder Girl (blonde) and Bumblebee (brunette) to the roster.
Stella (blonde), Flora (brunette) and Bloom (redhead) from Winx Club also count. Of the six Winx girls, they're the more popular ones.
An episode of The Simpsons showed that Pattie & Selma are respectively blonde and redhead but turned dark blue because of cigarette ash and smoke. Marge is the brunette. So how'd Marge's hair turn blue? She dyes it. "She's been gray as a mule since she was 17."
Patti (blonde), Connie (brunette, but more blue-violet) and Beebe (redhead) from Doug. However, Patti and Connie swapped their hair stereotypes, as Patti is the brainy one and Connie's more naive. Beebe's still a Fiery Redhead. Funnily enough, Connie was blonde in the show's first season.
Sarah, James and Henri from Liberty's Kids fall into this trope.
Sharon (blonde), Maria (brunette) and Nina (redhead) on Braceface.
On Gargoyles, the Weird Sisters are a variant — identical except that they have black, golden and white hair. They respectively represent fury, grace and fate, according to Word Of God, though act much like Single Minded Triplets in order to bring all three forces into fruition. It also isn't clear what their Grace aspect is truly like, since they never had any episodes when that aspect was "ascendant".
Bionic Six: Meg (blonde), Madam "O" (Brunette) and Helen (Redhead).
Kenny (blond), Stan (brunet) and Kyle (redhead) in South Park, along with Cartman who has light brown hair. They also follow the traditional stereotypes. Kenny being an overindulgent slut. Kyle being smart but hotheaded at times. Stan being the consistent and levelheaded one.
The three "Hey Girls" of Holly Hobbie And Friends— Holly Hobbie— blonde, Carrie Baker— brunette, Amy Morris— redhead.
As Told by Ginger has red haired Ginger, blonde Dodie and brunette Macie. Ginger and Macie are both Brainy Redhead and Brunette respectively while Dodie is both a Fiery and Dumb Blonde.
Real Life
Britain's Prince William (blond), his wife Kate (brunette) and his brother Harry (redhead) have been described as a "power trio" and often appear together at events (most recently as the official ambassadors of the London Olympics).
