Words to Describe Hair

Image: Words to Describe Hair: Afro | Curly | Straight | Look | Texture | Style | Color

Photo credits: Alex Nemo Hanse

This began as a guide to describing Afro / curly hair but of course, I got carried away. From look and
texture of hair, colors and various styles, this guide serves as a thesaurus of sorts for hair, as well as
pointers for use in your writing.

Please check under the read more for an accessible version of these lists

Culturally Significant Hair Coverings:

 Know the meaning behind head wear and why it’s worn, when and by whom, such as a Native
Nation’s headdress, before bestowing a character with it.

Texture – Look – Styles

Hair Colors and Style

Writing Tips & Things to Keep in Mind:

 Combination Words: Try combining words to illustrate look of hair. A character with springy
coils that dance across her shoulders with every movement, the man with thick silvery hair
slicked back into a ponytail…

 Mind Perspective: Depending on POV, a character might not know exactly what cornrows or a
coiffure style is, at least in name, and it might make more sense if they described the hairdo
instead. More defining terms might come from a more knowing source or the wearer
 themselves. One book I read described a girl’s afro puff as “thick hair pulled up into a cute, curly,
poufy thing on top of her head and tied with a yellow ribbon.”

 POC & Hair Colors: People of Color’s hair comes in all shades and textures. There are Black
people with naturally blond and loosely-textured to straight hair, East Asian people with red
hair, and so on. Keep that in mind when coding characters if you tend to rely on hair color alone
to denote a character is white vs. a Person of Color.

 Related Tropes: There are tropes and discussion related to People of Color, colored hair, and
light-colored hair and features.

Other words for hair:

Crown | Curls | Locks/Locs | Mane | Strands | Threads | Tresses

Accessories & head coverings

Beaded | Bonnet | Clips | Gele (Nigeria) | Headdress | Headwrap | Hijab | Jeweled | Pinned | Scarf |
Turban | Veil

Length and Cuts

Cropped | Trimmed | Short | Line-up | Long | Mid-length | Shoulder-length

Afro – Curly – Straightened

Afro Textured & Curls

Afro | Cloudy | Coils | Corckscrews | Crimped | Curly | Jheri curls | Natural | Rinflets | Spirals |
Texturized | Wavy | Kinky

Afro Styles
Afro | Bantu knots / Bantu knot-out | Blow out | Braids / Braid-out | Locs | Fade | Fingerwaves | Plaits |
Puff(s) | Twists / Twist out | Waves

Braids

Crossed | Folded | Interlaced | Layered | Looped | Plaits/Plaited | Rolled | Woven

Straightened hair

Blow-dried | Flat-ironed | Hot-combined | Keratin-treated | Permed | Pressed | Relaxed | Straight /

Straightened

Texture – Look – Styles

Texture

Bushy | Coarse | Dense | Downy | Fine | Fluffy | Frizzy | Gossamer | Heavy | Light | Limp | Loose | Lush
| Luxuriant | Porous | Poufy | Shaggy | Silky | Sleek | Slick | Soft | Springy | Thick | Thin | Tight | Wiry |
Wispy

Look & State

Bed head | Big / Full | Brushed | Bouncy | Dull | Flared | Flowing | Frayed | Glossy | Greasy | Hat hair |
Knotted | Lackluster | Messy | Oily | Ruffled | Sheen | Shiny | Split-ends | Straggly | Tangled | Tousled
| Voluminous | Wild | Windswept

Styles (General)

Bangs | Blunt | Bumped | Bun | Choppy | Coiffure | Comb over | Combed | Down | Face-framing |
Feathered | Flipped | Fringed | Gelled | Greased | Hair-sprayed | Layered | Moussed | Mullet |
Parted | Pigtails | Pomaded | Ponytail | Spiky | Teased | Up-Do
Shorter Styles

Bald | Bob | Bowl cut | Buzz cut | Clean-shaven | Clipper-cut | Crew-cut | Fade | Flattop | Pageboy |
Pixie | Pompadour | Shaved | Tapered

Hair Colors and Style

Color (general) and style

Bleached | Blended | Bright | Dark | Dyed | Fair | Highlights | Light | Lowlights | Luminous | Ombre |
Matte | Streaked | Stripped | Sun-streaked | Tinted | Toned

Black/Brown

Ash brown | Brunette | Caramel* | Dark / Deep brown | Ebony | Honey* | Inky | Jet | Raven | Umber

White/Gray

Alabaster | Ashen | Frosted | Platinum | Pearly | Powder | Salt and Pepper | Silvery | Snowy

Red

Amber | Auburn | Chestnut | Crimson | Redhead | Russet | Copper | Mahagony | Maroon | Wine

Blond

Bronze | Dirty Blond | Fair-haired | Flaxen | Honey-blond* | Golden | Sandy | Strawberry-blond* |

Tawny | Yellow

*hair – food comparisons are generally acceptable with discretion. This is not the case for skin and food
comparisons. Avoid making those comparisons.