Hair Color

See Also: BLACK, BROWN, GRAY, RED, WHITE

1. Black [hair] with only a few gray streaks like a timid motif running through it —Helen Hudson
2. Blond as a Zulu under the bleach —Raymond Chandler
3. Blond hair … like long uncut grass but no color —Rosellen Brown
4. Braids, brown and shiny like a ripe hazelnut —Henry Van Dyke
5. A carroty mass of hair flaming round his cheeks and crown like a brush fire —T. Coraghessan Boyle
6. (Her long) chestnut hair was waving about like a curtain of silk —Francine du Plessix Gray
7. Gray hair … like meringue —James Lee Burke
8. Gray hair that looks like the head of an old worn-out wet mop left out to dry and bleach in the sun —George Garrett
9. Gray hair, which he wore like a kind of silver beret —Robert Traver
10. Hair a fading mixture of black and gray, like an afternoon storm —Laura Furman
11. Hair … artificially streaked, as though someone had emptied a bag of feathers over her head —Lynne Sharon Schwartz
12. Hair, as straight and red as ironed ketchup —Tom Robbins

    Redheads and their problems feature prominently in Robbins’ Life with Woodpecker, and this is one of several similes about red hair.

13. Hair, black and shining like mica —Jean Garrigue
14. Hair, black as a seal’s wet fur —Jean Garrigue
15. Hair..bronze and silver like pear trees in full bloom —William Alfred
16. Hair … dark and live as snakes —George Garrett
17. Hair … had gray in it like streaks of milk —William Styron
18. Hair [red] … like a fiery wick dipped in a well of incendiary sunlight —John Farris
19. Hair … like Montana wheat planted in contours on a slope of hill —John Gunther
20. Hair looks as if it had been stained with blueberries —W. P. Kinsella
21. Hair, not just blonde, but radiating gold like a candleflame behind a window in winter —Stuart Dybek
22. Hair … streaked like old piano keys —Reynolds Price
23. (His head and his) hair … white like wool —St. John
24. Hair … without definable color, as though it had very early begun to rehearse of its inevitable whiteness —Doris Grumbach
25. Her locks were yellow as gold —Samuel Taylor Coleridge
26. Her long hair was naturally a light brown, but the sun had bleached tawny streaks in it, like the stripes of a very old battle flag seen through imperfect glass —R. V. Cassill
27. His white hair stood out from his head like the fur of an Angora rabbit —Thomas McMahon
28. Long yellow hair like broken egg yolks spilling down all over her head —Helen Hudson
29. Pale auburn with a touch of gold … like butter with paprika in it —John Gunther
30. Red hair … all fluffed out, like her face lived in a pink cloud —Sharon Sheehe Stark
31. Red hair … as glossy as plum-skins —Beverly Farmer
32. Red hair like a curtain that would draw down like a shade —Shirley Ann Grau
33. White hair … flecked all over with little rust colored dashes, like India ink put on with a fine brush —Willa Cather
34. White hair like a cloud —Helen Hudson
35. White hair made her face look like a rose in snow —L. P. Hartley
36. White hair shone, like mountain snow —Percy Bysshe Shelley
37. White-headed as a mountain —Thomas Hardy
38. Yellow hair, like strands of gold —Anon line from early American ballad, “Locks and Bolts”