salt and pepper

[thedaffodils]

Mr Blair had lost a little weight, certainly from the face. The aura is now one of sunlounge lizard rather than beast of burden.
He has less hair these days and it is now salt and pepper. 'How you guys doin'?' he asked the committee. He was slightly short of breath and bared his white, white teeth. If there wasn't actually a whiff of spearmint mouthwash, there should have been.

Hi! Here are my questions. Please help. Thank you.

Q1: it is now salt and pepper =?

Q2: I am wondering why the author wouldn't like to type " doing" but " doin' "?

[rj1948]

Hi! Here are my questions. Please help. Thank you.

Q1: it is now salt and pepper =?

Q2: I am wondering why the author wouldn't like to type " doing" but " doin' "?

Salt and pepper.-grey hair.
quote:..doin. -spoken form for doing.
Regards,
rj1948.

[thedaffodils]

Hi rj1948, thank you for your help. I got it.

[Anglika]

Hi! Here are my questions. Please help. Thank you.

Q1: it is now salt and pepper =?

Q2: I am wondering why the author wouldn't like to type " doing" but " doin' "?

Salt and pepper - the hair has grey hairs amongst the dark ones. It is not entirely grey

He is replicating Blair's usage of "common speech patterns" in which ends of words are lost - all part of his technique with people.

[thedaffodils]

Salt and pepper - the hair has grey hairs amongst the dark ones. It is not entirely grey

Good morning, Anglika. Thanks for your answers.

How do I understand this phrase? In China, salt is something of white and pepper is usually grey. It is easily for me to associate it with "grey" hair.

But what colors are salt and pepper in the UK? Black pepper and grey salt?

By the way, I looked at Tony Blair's picture and found he is a blond. It seems he doesn't have dark hair.

Here's the URL link about this article with his pictures available, if it is necessary.

The old fraud Blair's face was flawless, almost plastic | Mail Online

[Kraken]

Hi mate.
In Spain (and I guess in the rest of the world too) there are many varieties of pepper, being black pepper only one of them. More info at
Black pepper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

By the way, idioms "are provided as they are" and many times they have nothing to do with the words in them

[Anglika]

European hair can either go grey or white [all the hairs do this - ie they actually lose the pigment in the hair] or some hairs go grey/white and others remain pigmented. The latter is known as "salt and pepper" - salt being white and pepper being brown.

Blair is not blond - before he started going grey, his hair was naturally a mid-brown >> http://tinyurl.com/4ltqso. Current photographs may make him look fair-haired, but in fact it is the salt and pepper effect that makes it light.

Boris Johnson, on the other hand, is truly blond >> http://tinyurl.com/48zddc

[thedaffodils]

Hi Anglika,

Thank you! So does the phrase refer to a person with brown hair only?

If a Chinese becomes old and some of his hair turns white, I can't say his hair is salt and pepper, can I? ( Chinese hair is black)

And I can't say a blond's hair is salt and pepper when some of his hair turns grey( amongst fair hair), right?

[Kraken]

Hi mate.
I don't think so. I think it applies to "some hairs going grey/white while others remain pigmented", as opposed to an even decolouration. I don't think it matters if the hair is brown, blonde or black. I for one think that it applies to every one whose hair starts losing its pigments in that way (some hairs lose it-some others don't).
But that's just my point of view. As you know darn well, I am not a NES.

[Anglika]

Yes.

I really can't answer about Chinese hair - my impression is that it is less likely to have the kind of greying met with European hair, but I may be quite wrong. A trichologist would be able to tell you

If you look at this photo of George Clooney, you will see how his hair and beard are not all one colour: http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2007-10/33240184.jpg

I don't have the sense that this happens with Chinese hair.

You are right that you would not say that a blond going grey is "salt and pepper". There is not enough contrast between the grey and the fair hair.