So many Greek-origin words to be found under ‘x’ in the dictionary, don’t you think?
This particular one — xanthous — strikes me, perhaps because it is one of the few adjectives I’ve seen among the few x-words that exist… And perhaps because I find it an apt description of myself.
I have, in fact, had in my lifetime all three colors of hair described: yellowish, brown, and red.
As a newborn, I was so blonde you couldn’t even see my hair: it was white.
As a toddler, my hair was still white-blonde. Once I reached elementary school it was more yellowish.
By the time I hit junior high, red-golds had started to shine through. And when I hit adulthood, I was in dark blonde/light brown territory.
I have purposely changed my hair color over the years, but always — quite unbeknownst to me — I was choosing from the xanthous spectrum.
With the exception of my chop-off-and-dye-myself home salon experiment during the first summer of COVID (the color being the box variety that washes out in eight weeks), I have not messed with my hair color in eight years.
And that lack of coloration means my hair (now long again and in need of another whacking off home salon style) is gradually finding its way back to its ‘roots’ (so to speak).
I’ve no doubt that my hair is well on its way back to its color of origin: minus the qualifier of ‘blonde’, it will one day once again be white. 🙂
Is your hair xanthous?
Do you experiment with cut{s} or color{s}?
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For this year’s A-to-Z I am asking (and answering!) questions.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s topic in the comments below. 🙂
Yellowish, brown, or red… that sounds like a lot of the natural hair-colors.
J Lenni Dorner~ Co-host of the #AtoZchallenge, Debut Author Interviewer, Reference& Speculative Fiction Author recently posted…#SFF #AtoZChallenge Vengeance
I think it was a word used for describing Europens.
Xanthous – never heard it!.. I have grey hair since my college days ! I opted to colour my hair because of increasing grey hair. I feel like stopping coloring my hair and embrace whatever color they may b !
Dropping by from a to z “The Pensive”
I have a lot of gray in my hair; it looks like silvery highlights.
My mother’s hair is silver. I”m hoping mine looks like hers eventually.
My hair used to be brown before it turned grey. While I know men who dye their hair, such vanity is not for me. My only experimentation with color has been with wigs at Halloween.
Given that xanthan is a gel/gum, I would have thought “xanthous” would have implied similar characteristics. I now know otherwise.
I wonder if that gel/gum is derived from a yellow flower?
My husband does not dye his hair either. It’s still mostly brown on top, but his beard is primarily white and he has just a slight bit of gray/white at the temples. Interestingly (to me), the hair on his chest and pubic area turned white many years ago. The hair on his arms and legs, however, still retains the reddish hue of his youth.
Praise to the Greeks for making so many of our X entries in the A-to-Z possible! I’m on the reddish brown continuum of the xanthous scale. I consider myself lucky because my mother was thinking of naming me Penelope so she could call me Penny, in hopes I would carry the copper-color hair gene that sometimes shows up in our lineage. I wear my hair pretty short, so I’ve done many, many, many whack jobs these past couple of years. You’d think I’d get better at it, but no. Luckily ease of hair care is more important to me than admirable styling, so it all works out. 😊 I’ve done temporary color rinses, but never anything permanent. I still laugh at my friend who home colored and ended up with an ultra-violet head – and I mean that in a totally un-wonderful way. From that moment forward she became Sweet Violet to us all.
Your “sweet violet” tale made me laugh. I once used a red dye that turned my hair purple!
I did not know this meaning of Xanthous. My hair colour experiments ended with Covid and now I proudly wear my natural hair colour.. . black streaks in white!! Truth be told, hair texture has improved tremendously after stopping hair dye and several of my friends vouch for this. Good post!
Archana recently posted…X is for Xmas
Oh yes, it’s so much better for our hair to forego chemical treatments! 🙂
My last hair colour was for my daughter’s wedding, 15 years ago. The silver has been gradually appearing but at 71 I am still 80% brown. I really can’t be bothered getting it coloured as I want to see how long it stays that way.
I really like silvery grays.
A great new word for me. My hair was brown with ginger tones, or red dye. Now I’m a geriatric Snow White 😉
I’ve had red tones for much of my life, first turning strawberry blonde in early adolescence and later tending slightly toward auburn. The reds have mostly turned gold now, and the blondes to silver. So I’m not sure how it will end up.
I normally change my hairstyle twice a year- once for the summer and once before my birthday!
Last year for my birthday, I got purple streaks and I absolutely loved it!!!
Oooh — streaks!! That sounds fun. 🙂
I colored my hair for most of my adult life, from blond to red, and back to blonde. Then in September 2017, I decolored it and just let it grow. It’s beautiful soft grey and I love it!
~ Marie xox
I like natural gray hair.