fairhaired

Fairhaired is an English adjective describing a person or animal with light-colored hair, typically blonde or light brown. The standard form is fair-haired, with the hyphen used to join fair and haired when the compound modifies a noun (as in a fair-haired child). The unhyphenated form fairhaired appears less common in contemporary usage and may be found in older texts or as a surname.

Etymology: The word derives from fair meaning light or beautiful, combined with haired from the English practice of forming compounds with -haired dating to Middle English. The hyphenated form helps signal that the phrase functions as a single descriptor before a noun.

Genetics and appearance: Hair color results from melanin content in hair follicles. Fair hair reflects reduced eumelanin and/or increased light scattering, often associated with Northern European ancestry, though it occurs in many populations. Hair color can be variable with age and environmental exposure; sunlight can lighten or darken hair temporarily.

Usage and connotations: In literature and folklore, fair hair is frequently used as a descriptive trait for youth, beauty, or nobility. In modern descriptive writing, it serves as a clinical or anthropological descriptor rather than a value judgment, and individual variations are common across populations.

See also: Blonde, hair color, list of hair colors.