Anonymous asked: As Iām not a rude weirdo going around touching other peopleās hair Iāve been struggling to describe my PoC protagonistās hair and itās texture. Iāve seen ācloudlikeā as a description I really like! Any suggestions, tips, or advice for describing natural hair both to depict a character and to indicate her race when white readers tend to assume white regardless of skin color?
Glad to hear you aināt touching folksā hair! ;]
I happen to love the description of cloud-like. Thereās something very lovely about it to my ears. As for describing natural hair as a means to depict a character and indicate race, youāll likely want to pair that with other indicators.
For example, you can describe a PoC who has coils ān curls and still readers might be like āAh, very curly-haired White person. Got it.ā
But when youāve got description like, say, āDark cloud-like hair formed a halo around her brown face, a silver stud protruding from a short, rounded noseā¦ā It makes it easier for readers to imagine a PoC from the get-go. Thereās no sin in just stating their race either, in one way or another. See this post on introducing race & skin color.
Another way of getting a feel for describing natural hair is by looking at images of it. Hit up your pal google and get to studying all the different variations, from texture to color to curl pattern.
Natural hair comes in all mixes & shades of black, brown, blondes, redsā¦ it can be rough, soft, a combination of soft and roughā¦ It can be wiry, tight under the hands like a spring, coilyā¦. this not even covering dyed, styled, & braided states and suchā¦thereās just too much diversity in natural hair to cover in one post to be honest!
So yes, cloud-like is good. Better when paired with other indicators of race.
UPDATE: āWords to Describe Hairā has several descriptions for natural hair.
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