The figures in parentheses are the number of results I received as I wrote this post.Ĭonsidering the frequency of each phrase, electric blond would be a more suitable choice than bleached blond. Whenever you’re in doubt, click over to Google.įor instance, try the following searches, leaving the phrases in quotes for accuracy. Study people on the street and in shopping malls. Hair is usually a combination of a base color with highlights and lowlights that appear different in light or shadow. Teased, thick, thin, trimmed, uneven, unkempt, untamed, velvety, voluminous, wavy, wet, windswept, wild, wiry, wispy Scorched, scraggly, severe, shaggy, shimmery, shiny, short, shoulder-length, silky, singed, slicked-back, slimy, sparse, spiky, springy, stiff, straggly, straight, straightened, streaked, sweaty
Although salt-and-pepper is cliché.īalding, beautiful, bleached, bouncy, bristly, broken, brushed, buoyant, burnished, burnt, bushy, cascading, clean, clipped, clumpy, coarse, coiffed, combed, cropped, curly, damaged, damp, delicate, dirty, dull, dyedįeathery, fine, flat, flowing, fluffy, frizzy, fuzzy, gelled, gleaming, glossy, greasy, groomed, heavy, highlighted, kinked, ironed, lacquered, limp, luscious, moussed, nappy, nubby, patchy, permed, plush, polished, puffy The fluorescent lights reflected off Bill’s scalp, which peeked through scraggly salt-and-pepper hair flecked with dandruff. Consider these two paragraphs.īill’s balding, scraggly, dandruff-flecked salt-and-pepper hair barely covered his scalp, which reflected the fluorescent lights and made him look decades older than his professed age of thirty years.Īll the commas in the description scream too much. Judicious use of descriptors can augment a piece. The sickening stench of cigar smoke wafted from what I quickly realized was a poorly constructed toupee.ĭid you envision a chubby man who chain-smokes cigars? This could work for the heroine in a Victorian novel.Įddie’s pumpkin-orange hair bounced as he waddled toward me. Helena’s voluminous champagne curls cascaded over white shoulders, wafting a delicate aroma of honeysuckle into the sitting room as she swished in my direction.Īnother woman, perhaps affluent, in a long dress.
Make a list of 3 words that begin with snow serial#
What do you see? Perhaps a cold-blooded assassin or serial killer? Now contrast with another paragraph. I crouched behind the trash bin, holding my breath, as she swished so close I could smell the death in her hair. The way a person maintains or ignores their hair provides clues about their life.įrom some of the word lists that follow, I created three short paragraphs.ĭionne’s gunmetal ponytail flowed behind her while she sprinted after her prey - me. Match the hair to each character’s persona. A homeless person’s mane might be unkempt, with patchy straggles that smell like mold or trash.
I suspect it’s part of the reason somebody coined the phrase bad hair day.ĭoes your protagonist have blonde hair with dark roots? Maybe she’s a hard-working businesswoman with no time to make a salon appointment or perhaps she’s a harried mother who can’t afford a dye job because of a financial crisis in the family.Īn affluent hotel magnate could flaunt a perfectly styled toupee, every strand in place. Along with the eyes and prominent facial features, it makes a huge impact. Why Should You Worry About Your Characters’ Hair?Īudrey Hepburn said, “The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair.”Īudrey was right, but people still judge others and make snap assessments based on appearance.
(Discover even more words in The Writer’s Body Lexicon.)
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