Ideal woman: Lauren Goodger boasts all three of the top characteristics named by British men as making up their perfect woman

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The popular saying would have us believe that gentlemen prefer blondes. But while the old adage may trip off the tongue, according to new findings, it no longer holds weight.

A study found that gentlemen, in fact, overwhelmingly prefer brunettes. The 2,000 men were polled by social network site Badoo to find out the features they find most attractive in the opposite sex.

Far from men finding blondes the most sexually attractive, the study found that more than 60 percent said they preferred raven-haired beauties over their blonde counterparts.

A third of all those polled - 33.1 percent - said they find brown hair the most attractive, while 28.6 said they liked black - making up a total of 59.7 percent over all preferring dark-haired girls.

Those gentlemen who indeed do prefer blondes made up just 29.5 percent of the vote, while redheads came in as the least popular with men, taking just 8.8 percent of the vote.

There was also excellent news for women shackledto a life of constant dieting by the misguided notion that men prefer women with a model-like physique.

Actually, the largest majority - 38.8 percent of guys - looked for an 'average' dress size of 12 to 14 in their perfect woman, with only 10 percent looking for a size 6 to 8.