I'm working on a story and I'm having a bit of trouble with describing hair.
Styles aren't too big a problem really, I've been able to find fairly good representative samples of most styles on the net.
What's killing me is trying to get colors right. I've been searching the web for a couple of days now looking for some site which can serve as a good reference to the names for various shades of hair.
My protaganist starts out in a platinum blonde wig ... no problem there as everyone recognises platinum blonde. But then later the character changes to a much softer blonde wig, and that's where the problem starts.
This page and this page both have identical pictures. Yet in one the color is described as caramel blonde and the other it's honey blonde.
I realise that I'm probably being too picky on this - but the fact is I have always had difficulty with shades of hair. It wasn't a problem when all my output was just for me, but now that I've decided to actually POST a story I'd like to at least try to get up to speed on hair shade.
I did have one idea ... wig sites. But I'm afraid that I can hardly say "She placed the Racquel Welch 'Magic' style wig in R14/25 on his head and straightened it carefully" :D
I had great hopes that the Fischer—Saller scale might help, but that's proved no use.
So to all that came before me ... can anyone recommend a good reference for hair colors?
Incidentally, my hair is now
Incidentally, my hair is now dyed an artificial shade of red orange called Electric Tiger Lily. But unless people actually see the color, no one really knows what all these color names stand for. Personally I would not care about being too exact when I read stories. What I usually encounter are the ff. : ginger, and blonde, and brunette, dirty blonde, ginger, auburn, strawberry blonde, raven, chestnut...
I just looked up Electric
I just looked up Electric Tiger Lily ... I found it on Manic Panic's web site.
That got me to thinking so I just looked up Racquel Welch 'Magic' style wig in R14/25 and ended up at a new site which tells me that R14/25 is a color called Honey Ginger.
I don't think that's gonna fly somehow, but it did make me laugh.
Dirty blonde is a classic example of how lost I get with hair shades. Truthfully, it sounds more like an insult than a color to me.
Answer
Describe what you see and let the reader form their own picture. I know EXACTLY what Steph, Annie and Sarah look like, but their hair is, respectively, red-lit auburn, strawberry blonde and dark.
Rude links
Be careful - one of those pages tried to infect me with a trojan.
There are no absolute rules for naming hair colors. The general idea is to use a metaphor comparing the color to something else, so the same hair could be called honey or caramel or golden or wheat or amber or even sunny blonde. You could try emphasizing the character's inner maleness by comparing the color to a particular brand of beer. Or point out that, ironically, platinum blonde makes you look cheaper than gold blonde.
I'm glad the link didn't
I'm glad the link didn't manage to infect you. It must have been a very recent contamination of the page, as it was definately clean when I went to it.
There are some excelent thoughts there, I shall tuck them away for future reference.
Thanks
I may be missing the obvious,
but if I were trying to fit a wig to my protagonist, I would visit a few actual wig sites, find the color that most closely matched what I want, and use that. Sure it's going to sound phony and pretentious, every company uses their own color names to make their products sound more grand to the buyer. Alternately, you could walk down the aisle of drug store and look at the hair colors there to get some names. After all there is no standard, right?
If you think hair colors are confusing, try matching a design pattern to different brands of embroidery thread!
Good luck,
Carla Ann
You can also describe a
character having a style and color matching a well known character or actor/actress.
May Your Light Forever Shine
Try this chart??
As I was looking for an answer under formulas I got locked up also, but this site under color charts appears safe
http://www.color-chart.org/loreal-clairol-wella-hair.php
Depends on the context...
Unless the description is a salesperson describing the wig to your character or said character ordering it from said hypothetical salesperson (in which case they might discuss the specific shade using terms like the wig vendor site might use), you shouldn't need to go beyond a general description of the color. I'll point you back to that "Physical Descriptions" thread from a few weeks ago -- don't get hung up on the exact Pantone shade of your character's hair. ;-) "Chocolate brown", "honey blonde", "strawberry blonde" (now I'm hungry!), "amber", "platinum blonde", "light brown", "red", etc., all mean different shades to each person, and that's fine! I'd say the hair color term that is probably the most specific these days in terms of the shade it represents is "ginger" (thank you Ron Weasley), but even that has a good bit of variation.
So, to go with your example, I might be fine with something like...
...but honestly I'd kind of wonder if you were working an endorsement deal. ;-) I'm not about to go and Google up the exact wig you're describing (the fact that I did for example purposes notwithstanding), so it doesn't mean a whole lot to me. Really, it actually gives less description because of that. You could just as easily go with something like...
It's a less precise, sure, and a bit longer, but it flows much better, is more natural, and--to tag back to your comment on that other thread--lets the reader decide for themselves how your character should look. They're going to do it anyway(*), so don't stress over the details!
(*-I remember there was some outcry when the Hunger Games movie was in the works that a black actress had been cast for one of the roles, even though the book plainly described the character as such. Haven't read the books or seen the movie, so I don't remember which role, but it goes to show you how much readers self-edit a work to suit their own preferences, even unconsciously.)
I'd probably kill for such an
I'd probably kill for such an endorsement deal!
Actually - I'd probably kill for the opportunity to grovel at her feet for 5 minutes.
Hmmm - probably TMI there :p
Thanks for your reply, there's a lot there that helped.
I do so agree...
...keep it creative, keep it less precise! let the colours shine through!
What I ended up doing was
What I ended up doing was avoiding the description of the shade altogether.
Instead I left it deliberately vague so that the reader can fill in details.
e.g
Unlike the earlier wig, which had been unrepentantly brash, this one was a much softer blonde. This was the color and style of a sensual women, not an agressive streetwalker.
Thanks to everyone to whom I didn't directly reply for their help :)
Exactly!
Let the reader make their own images.
try the manufacturers...
try L'Oreal, try Schwarzkopf, try Garnier, try Clairol........ make up your own range ofshades; it'll be great fun! I've written many hair stories and never found it a problem! Enjoy!! I'll be looking for you! Love Gingerxxx