Learning vocabulary about hair is more useful than it might initially seem, and not just for those moments when you find yourself desperately trying to explain your desired haircut to a barber or stylist—though, admittedly, that's a pretty good reason on its own!
Firstly, hair vocabulary enriches your descriptive language skills. Imagine you're telling a gripping story about someone you met, and you want to paint a vivid picture for your listener. Describing their hair—be it curly, straight, short, long, blond, or brunette—can add a significant layer of detail and bring your story to life.
Secondly, hair-related vocabulary often pops up in everyday conversation, not just in personal grooming contexts but also in idiomatic expressions and cultural references. Phrases like "let your hair down" (meaning to relax and enjoy yourself), "hair-raising" (something very frightening), or "split hairs" (argue or worry about very small details) are just the tip of the iceberg. Knowing these can enhance your understanding of English in a variety of contexts, making conversations more engaging and enjoyable.
Moreover, hair descriptions can serve as a stepping stone to learning other kinds of descriptive language, helping you to talk about clothes, facial features, and so on, thereby broadening your overall vocabulary.
Lastly, on a more humorous note, if you're like me and once accidentally ended up with a haircut resembling a 1980s football player because of a vocabulary mishap, you'll understand the practical importance of hair vocabulary.
So, dive into the world of hair vocabulary, and ensure you're well-groomed for any hair raising English conversation!
Useful Vocabulary
Long / Short / Medium length
Curly / Frizzy / Straight / Wavy
Colours
*Black - jet (deep black)
*Black - raven (black shiny enough to be blue)
Black - sooty black (true black)
Blond - ash (if light enough)
Blond - brassy
Blond - bronze
Blond - flaxen
Blond - golden
Blond - honey
Blond - platinum (artificial blond or silver in color)
Blond - tawny
Blond - wheaten
Brown - ash
Brown - chestnut (red brown with orange undertones)
Brown - mousey (light dull brown)
Brown - russet (deep brownish red)
Brown - sable (blackish brown or yellowish gray brown)
Brown - sandy (yellowish red)
Brown - sorrel (brownish orange to light brown)
Grey - ash
Grey - iron
Grey - salt and pepper (mix of gray and dark hair)
Grey - silver
Grey - steel
Red - auburn
Red - ginger
Red - copper
Red - flaming
Red - strawberry blond
White - pearl white
White - snowy white
Build Up
Hairstyles
- Afro - Big hair hairstyle, featured heavily in Afro-American culture, popular through the 1970s in the United States of America. A typical texture of Black African hair that has not been altered by hot combs, flat irons, or chemicals (by perming, relaxing, or straightening). Each strand of this hair type grows in a tiny spring-like, corkscrew shape. The overall effect is such that, despite relatively fewer actual hair shafts compared to straight hair, this texture appears (and feels) denser than its straight counterparts. Due to this, it is often referred to as "thick", "bushy", or "woolly".
- Asymmetric cut - A haircut where the hair is longer on one side.
- Beehive - A hairstyle in which the hair is raised at the top of the head by padding or teasing so that the size and shape is suggestive of a beehive, hence the name.
- Big hair - Any hairstyle with a lot of volume.
- Bob - A classic hairstyle where the ends are cut to around jaw-level and aligned close to the facial area. This style is most common among women.
- Bouffant - Bouffant describes a style characterized by smooth hair that is heightened and given extra fullness over teasing or padding.
- Bowl cut aka pudding bowl cut - Named for the shape of the style as much as for a once common method of achieving it (i.e. using a bowl to style the cut by placing it on the head and trimming the exposed hair). Moe Howard from The Three Stooges has this hairstyle for his trademark and Henry V of England had a similar hairstyle. This hairstyle was popular in America during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
- Braid - A braid or braids, also known as a plait or plaits or a tress or tresses, is a type of hairstyle usually worn by women with long hair in which all or part of one's hair is separated into strands, normally three, and then plaited or braided together, typically forming one braid hanging down at the back of the head or two braids hanging down on either side of the head. See also cornrows, queue, crown braid (below), Dutch braid and pigtail.
- A Bun - A women's hairstyle where the hair is pulled into a knot at the back or top of the head. It can also consist of a bun at the side of the head or two buns on either side of the head - aka chignon.
- Bunches - Another name for pigtails worn unbraided.
- Butch cut - A butch is a type of haircut in which the hair on the top of the head is cut short in every dimension. The top and the upper portion of the back and sides are cut the same length, which ranges between one quarter of an inch and three quarters of an inch, following the contour of the head. The hair below the upper portion of the sides and back of the head is tapered short or semi-short with a clipper, in the same manner as a crew cut.
- Buzz cut - A buzz cut is any of a variety of short hairstyles usually designed with electric clippers. Buzz cut styles include the butch cut, crew cut, flattop and ivy league.
- Chignon - A loan word from French for this particular style of bun which is pinned at the nape of the neck and requires tighter binding than ordinary buns.
- Comb over - Hair that is combed from one part of the head to another often to cover up a bald spot. Donald Trump is described as having a double combover, in two directions.
- Cornrows - A hairstyle originating from Subsaharan Africa, popularised by African Americans wherein the hair is braided into a series of French-braid-like locks that cling to the head and travel the neck.
- Crew cut - A crew cut is a type of haircut in which the hair on the top of the head is cut relatively short, graduated in length from the longest hair at the front hairline to the shortest at the back of the crown. The hair on the sides and back of the head is usually tapered short, semi-short or medium.
- Crop - A short hairstyle in which the hair is cut very close to the head, with the hair left long enough to either touch or go past the fringe.
- Croydon facelift - A tight ponytail worn at the top of the head, giving the effect of a facelift as it tugs the facial skin upwards. Often inappropriately referred to as a "top knot".
- Dreadlocks - The hair is 'dreadlocked' into individual sections using one of several methods, usually either backcombing, braiding, hand rolling, or allowing hair to naturally "lock" on its own. Dreadlocks can vary in size, tidiness, and length. Dreadlocks are associated most closely with Rastafarians.
- Ducktail - A hairstyle predominantly favoured by men, though some young female fans of Elvis Presley sported a similar look in his heyday. The style required that the hair be combed back around the sides of the head. The teeth edge of a comb was then used to define a central parting running from the crown to the nape at the back of the head, resembling, to many, the rear end of a duck. The hair on the top front of the head was either deliberately disarrayed so that untidy strands hung down over the forehead, or combed up and then curled down into an 'Elephants trunk' which would hang down as far as the top of the nose. The sides were styled to resemble the folded wings of the duck.
- Eton crop - A very short, slicked-down blunt crop.
- Extensions - A hairstyle that is lengthened by lengths of real or artificial hair.
- Fauxhawk - Also known as the 'frohawk', this hairstyle is an approximation of a mohawk made without shaving or 'buzzing' the hair on the sides of the head, thus allowing an imitation of the look of a true mohawk without having to commit to removing most of one's hair. The name is a portmanteau of faux, the French word for false or fake, and 'mohawk'.
- Feathered hair - Feathered hair was popular in the 1970s and the early 1980s with both men and women. The hair was grown long on both sides (normally covering the ears, although it could be down to the shoulders), left unlayered (although some men with curly hair did have it layered) with either a side or a centre parting.
- Flattop - A type of crew cut where the hair on the top of the head is cut as a flat plane giving a levelled 'flat-topped' look.
- Flip - A women's style that was popular in the 1960s. Characterized by upward curling ("flipped") ends. Leslie Gore wore the flip in 1963 and Cybill Shepherd wore it as a beauty queen in 1966.
- French braid - A French braid is a braid that appears to be braided "into" the hair, often described as braided backwards—strands, going over instead of under as in a Dutch braid.
- French twist - A hairstyle wherein the hair is twisted behind the head into a sort of bun style.
- Fringe (bangs) - Hair that is combed to the front of the head and cut at or above the eyebrows.
- Half updo - Popularised in the 1960s by sex icons like Brigitte Bardot, this women's hairstyle requires medium-length or longer hair. The hair is divided from the temples back and then fixed into bun, chignon or ponytail to secure into place (therefore, half the hair is in an 'updo'). If a woman has a fringe, that area is usually left free and not pulled into the 'updo'. Frequently, the hair at the crown of the head is "teased" or backcombed first to create volume.
- Highlights - The style involves highlighting or dying various thin sections of hair through hair colouring.
- Ivy League - An Ivy League, also known as a Harvard Clip or Princeton, is a type of crew cut in which the hair on the top of the head is long enough to style with a side parting.
- Mod cut - A men's haircut where the hair flips outward, like wings.
- Mohawk - Hair that is shaved or buzzed on the sides leaving a strip of hair in the middle. It is often spiked up.
- Mop-Top - A mid-length haircut that has a fringe (bangs) that brushes over the forehead, collar length at back, with the ears partly covered by the hair, dependent on style. Was made popular by The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr).
- Mullet - Hair that is short in front and long in the back. Often described as "Business in the front, party in the back".
- Pageboy - A longer version of a bob, typically worn with a fringe (bangs) and reaching shoulder-length or a little longer.
- Perm - Hair that is chemically treated to retain curl (curly perm) or lie straight (straight perm). New hair is not affected by the chemical treatment and will grow out naturally.
- Pigtails - Hair that is parted down the middle and tied into two pony tails on either side.
- Pixie cut - A short wispy women's hairstyle with or without a shaggy fringe (bangs).
- Pompadour refers to a hairstyle which is named for Madame de Pompadour.
- Ponytail - Hair that is pulled to the back of the head and often held with a hair tie or ribbon.
- Queue - A man's hair worn in a tail.
- Quiff - The quiff combines the 1950s pompadour hairstyle, the 1950s flat-top, and, sometimes a mohawk. The hairstyle was a staple in the British 'Teddy Boy' movement, and became popular again in Europe in the early 1980s and 2010s. Recently examples of people sporting quiffs are - Alex Turner and Matt Helders of Arctic Monkeys, Tom Meighan of Kasabian, Eugene McGuinness, Bruno Mars, and One Direction.
- The Rachel - A square-layered haircut popularized by Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green.
- Rattail - Hair that has been grown out long and shorn, or 'buzzed' except for a long, thin braid at the very top of the neck.
- Razor cut - Includes choppy short layers, thinned at the bottom. Not dissimilar from "emo" hair. Usually has a side-sweep fringe.
- Ringlets - Hair worn in tight curls.
- Shaggy - A choppy layered hairstyle, characterized by layers to create fullness in the crown and fringes around the edges.
- Short back and sides - Does what it says on the label. Usually a man's haircut.
- Short hair Hair that is cut short.
- Slicked-back - Gair that is combed back, away from the forehead, then held in place with a hairstyling product.
- Spiky hair - All hair sticking up, like spikes sticking out from the head.
- Surfer hair - A tousled hairstyle.
- Tonsure - Traditionally worn by monks in the Middle Ages, still worn by some traditional monks today.
- Undercut - The undercut is a unisex haircut whereby the top section of hair is held in place whilst the side and back sections are cut, thus making the top longer and the back and sides undercutting.
- Updo - An updo is the hairstyle in which the hair is twisted or pulled up. Often requested by brides for their wedding day.
- Wave - Short Hair Waves, shortened to just waves, is a very common and sought after hairstyle for African American men that create the appearance of water like waves of the hair.
- Weave - A hairstyle where artificial hair in sewn into the natural hair to increase length or volume.