gray hair vs white hair

Status
Not open for further replies.

keannu

VIP Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Korean
Home Country
South Korea
Current Location
South Korea
I wonder why they say "gray hair" instead of "white hair" when such hair's color is actually "white" not "gray".
In Korean, we say "white hair", but I'd like to know if "gray hair" is just an idiom without any reason or it just has the "gray" color nuance.
 

Rover_KE

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
This is white hair, and this is grey (BE spelling) hair.

Rover
 

keannu

VIP Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Korean
Home Country
South Korea
Current Location
South Korea
So do they usually get gray hair as they age?
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
So do they usually get gray hair as they age?
Some people start going grey at a very early age. My first grey hairs appeared when I was in my twenties. Others go grey a lot later. I have a 64-year-old cousin who has not a single grey hair. Pure white hair is not all that common, though, as people are now living longer than they used to, it may become more common.
 

Tdol

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Staff member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
Also, the older the person is, the more likely their hair is going to be described as white.
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
Also, the older the person is, the more likely their hair is going to be described as white.
I wish you hadn't said that.
 

BobK

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 29, 2006
Location
Spencers Wood, near Reading, UK
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
....And there are stories about people's hair going 'white with fright' (usually after a night spent in a supposedly haunted house) - I think the rhyme is probably more important than the precise colour.

An incidental bit of vocab: a 'grey-hair' is an old man.

b
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
....And there are stories about people's hair going 'white with fright' (usually after a night spent in a supposedly haunted house) - I think the rhyme is probably more important than the precise colour.

An incidental bit of vocab: a 'grey-hair' is an old man.

b

There is some truth in those stories. Pigmentation in hair can be linked to stress levels - I can't remember which vitamin/mineral/enzyme it is which supports the pigmentation of hair, but whichever one it is can become severely depleted by stress and can cause the hair to lose its colour. Whether it can happen overnight is a matter of some conjecture but it can happen.
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
OK, Whistler.
 

keannu

VIP Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Korean
Home Country
South Korea
Current Location
South Korea
I was purely interested in the color of "gray hair" and reading through the teachers' explanation, it seems "gray hair" = "black hair" + "white hair", but as I'm quite accustomed to the notion of "pointing out" only "white hair" in Korean, I couldn't understand it.
Maybe I'm throwing a wet blanket on the flow of the discussion. :oops::oops:
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
I was purely interested in the color of "gray hair" and reading through the teachers' explanation, it seems "gray hair" = "black hair" + "white hair",
No, it means Grey,Grey, grey, grey, grey
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Someone who has some dark hair still, but quite a lot of grey mixed in with it, is said to have "salt and pepper hair". Grey hair is just that - grey. I can't see any of the explanations giving the idea that "grey hair = black hair + white hair". Which posts do you think suggested that?
 

Tdol

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Staff member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
I was purely interested in the color of "gray hair" and reading through the teachers' explanation, it seems "gray hair" = "black hair" + "white hair", but as I'm quite accustomed to the notion of "pointing out" only "white hair" in Korean, I couldn't understand it.
Maybe I'm throwing a wet blanket on the flow of the discussion. :oops::oops:

We don't dye our hair as much as people in Asia. Our seventy-year-old politicians are grey (or white), not black. There may be a cultural issue here too. ;-)
 

keannu

VIP Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Korean
Home Country
South Korea
Current Location
South Korea
Maybe I was mistaken. In Korean tranlsations of "grey hair", it's always "white hair", which confused me.
Now I realize we should know it from the scientific point of view. I never realized grey hair is there - Whenever I took out my white hair to look younger, it always looked white - but now I think I didn't take a closer look.
 

Grumpy

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2009
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
On a related topic, what about the equine convention that there are no such things as white horses; only greys?
 

Amigos4

VIP Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2007
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
On a related topic, what about the equine convention that there are no such things as white horses; only greys?
Ahhhhhh, but now you are talking about a horse of a different color! ;-)
 

dawnngcm

Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
Hong Kong
Current Location
Hong Kong
but as I'm quite accustomed to the notion of "pointing out" only "white hair" in Korean, I couldn't understand it.
Also, the older the person is, the more likely their hair is going to be described as white.
I think Chinese share the same thought. We usually say his/her hair is white. We won’t say people’s (or eldely people's) hair is grey.
 

emsr2d2

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 28, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
I think Chinese share the same thought. We usually say his/her hair is white. We won’t say people’s (or eldely people's) hair is grey.

Interesting! Perhaps hair of different races goes a different colour.

By the way, dawnngcm, your signature line says "I fond of learning English!" You have missed out the verb after "I".
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top