What hair color should my character have?

Hello!
I'm writing a story, it's gonna be a mystery/thriller book. There is a girl (daughter of my main character), she's gonna be a pretty big part of the story, I have everything worked out about her but I can't decide about her hair color. Black or red? What makes her more mysterious?
Her name is going to be Elsie and she's gonna be born on Halloween during the witching hour (not sure if this helps, at least it didn't help me with deciding).

 

This may sound facetious, but why not challenge yourself here? Give your character mousey brown hair or dishwater blonde hair. Force yourself to focus on her personality and overall charismatic appeal to make her 'mysterious.' That's what will make your character stand out. (Hint: you can change her hair colour later on, if you want to.)

I'd say avoid letting physical attributes like hair and eye colour determine what kind of character you are writing. That is the way to cliché. Don't be afraid to think outside the box a bit. If something seems too easy or too obvious, try a different approach?

I'd say go ahead with the dramatic physical appearance, if you already have a strong image of the character in your head. Nothing wrong with black or red hair. But to assume a character must have black or red hair in order to be interesting or mysterious is, I believe, a mistake. Since you don't have a strong image of this character yet, just start writing her without the physical description at all.

Maybe ask yourself these kinds of questions instead: How does she interact with her surroundings and the people she encounters? Is she lighthearted, or prickly, or shy, or overbearing? What does she think of the people she knows? What do they think of her? What can she do easily? What is it difficult for her to do? Is she organised and methodical, or does she operate via intuition and the spur of the moment impulses? How do other people's expectations weigh her down or inspire her?

 

Black hair with red streaks? Or red hair with black streaks?

 

Something in a plaid or a tartan, maybe.

I'm kidding. Go with red. We need more redheads in literature.

 

You know a lot of brown-eyed, tanned redheads?

 

I guess I don't read enough YA.

 

I've never really found natural red hair all that mysterious. Natural black hair on a pale white girl I suppose is a bit more mysterious in that it can be confusing what her heritage is.

 

To be honest, these full descriptions of characters are incredibly boring most of the time. The key to developing their looks is to introduce a few items that makes them notable. Describing hair, eyes, skin tone is generally just filler. Focus on the things that matter and draw interest. The slight limp when kicking off for a new step, the strangely colored ring on their right hand they never want to talk about, the tired way they carry themselves though they are always smiling...et cetera.

Character descriptions are a huge area of less is more. The reader is going to associate with characters they develop in their minds based off of the information you give them. Give the reader room to play. They'll make the character into what they want while you pull little strings in the right directions for the stories. Don't take that away from the reader by rigidly dictating their appearance.

 

Make her bald. Problem solved.

 

They say blondes have more fun.

I've always been fond of heliotrope, though.

 

Now I want to write a modern day Rapunzel. Except it will be about a man who stalks her, obsessed with her hair and thinking he's her prince charming. Oh, Rapunzel, let down that sweet hair!

 

Does it honestly matter that much? The lighter the red hair the lighter the eyes. I have very dark red hair and brown eyes, it's quite common if you have the darker tones. I have only ever been complimented on my red hair, because red stands out the most. But I would say that's the least interesting thing about me. I go deeper than my hair colour, which I've only noticed because others comment on it, otherwise I'd think my hair was no more special than any one else's.

 

Does the story take place in modern times? If so, she could always dye her hair. Maybe she was born with mousy brown hair but that was too "normal" and so she dyes her hair black with purple highlights because that feels more mysterious. Having her chose her hair color can make that choice say something about her character in a way that natural hair color can't.

 

Make her hair the colour of procrastination.

 

That's a really good idea—definitely thinking outside the box. She chooses a certain hair colour for a certain reason. Meaning she doesn't have it naturally, but she thinks she ought to have it? Or others expect her to have it? Interesting perspective. What does this tell us about her character? A lot, I imagine. She lacks confidence and adopts a persona that's not really her. OR, conversely, she has bags of confidence, but recognises that others won't recognise her worth unless she rubs their noses in it. So she decides to adopt a dramatic look, to get the kind of attention she needs/wants, in order to accomplish her goals?

 

Maybe you can use the word "raven" to describe her hair. Ravens are associated with mystery.

 

I dunno, this is a pretty important decision and I don't think I can make a call without knowing more about the character.

What kind of personality are we talking here? What is her role in the story? What do you mean by "mysterious"?

 

Just gonna throw in some two cents here as a person who loves biology... go with whatever you imagine her parents to have! Of course red is a recessive gene, if she has a redheaded aunt Margaret it will make her hair color feel natural as opposed to forced, unless you want her to be the single redhead at a family reunion on her father's side where her parentage might be in question... but that goes a bit beyond the scope of the question I suppose!

 

Going by that, I'd be temped to go all Type O Negative and say her hair should be Black No.1.
Going by personal taste, I'm mad about redheads. But if she's supposed to be a natural redhead, I would refer you slightly upwards to @Mana_Kawena 's post.
I looked it up once, because my MC is a redhead, so I had to find out what colour hair her parents could have, and if I recall correctly, red is the rarest colour and you can only get it if one of the parents is a redhead too.
This site should help.

 

White because she was traumatized by a uterine ghost prior to birth.

 

You could always not specify the colour of her hair. Leave it up to the readers to imagine her hair as they want. Just don't make any reference to it ever, as this might contradict the reader's imagination and be jarring.