Q&A: Hair color?

 During a recent interview I offered; "I wrote the first draft as a gift for my sister, and she is a plot detective. She also objects to nearly every cliche known to novelists, so I was particularly hard pressed to create this character and her story arc.  I plotted out a fresh course, and it passed muster with Abigail, so I think I have succeeded.
  So Fia doesn't have golden, jet, or fiery red hair. Just an ordinary rusty-brown. She isn't gorgeous, willowy, wonderful or has all the young men falling in love with her..." 
   
Which prompted a reader to say...

Red hair: popular with even the Old Masters.

  Q: Come, come, what's cliched about red hair? ;-)


  A: What's cliched about red hair? Aww... come on! What's not cliche about it? ;-)
 I mean, really!
 Okay, maybe it's not as cliched as golden, but it's sort of become a "stock item" on the Mary Sue list! Sorry! ;-)
  (Oh! And I just thought of why. All those racy romance novels you see in the book section of thrift stores. Count 'em. LOTS of red heads. Why? I assume because it's sensational, like everything else in those books. ;-) )

  And yes, I can understand that if you actually, indeed, really and truly, have red hair it would change your perspective. (You must have been very happy when you read Anne of Green Gables. ;-) )

  But imagine my perspective, if you will. I happen to have... not jet black tresses, not golden locks, not a flaming mane, NOR chocolate curls. I have an in-between color. How many heroines have in between color of hair? I ask you!
  (And yes, when I read Anne of Green Gables I became so heart-ached about the fact that my hair was Not Red, that I didn't get over it for years. Literally, years.)

  And, here I was trying to draw a cliche-free heroine. (Also raise a banner to all those future little girls who have in-between hair, and feel that other people are all prettier, more glamorous, etc. then themselves. *Psst! To all those future girls: It's not your hair color! Hair color is nothing. It's Personality, and a good Attitude. THAT is what makes people attractive/glamorous/insert-adjective-here. Who you are, not what. It's much more complicated. And only you have control over Who.* )

  I did find, though, that all cliche-free hair colors seem also to be, across the board, awfully hard to describe; without stopping the flow for a paragraph so we can explain just how "every day" this heroine's hair color is. (Maddening!)
   I now have a huge understanding to all those authors who slap down, "She flicked her fiery hair over her shoulder," "The breeze riffled through the golden strands," and "In the crowd, her hair shone black as midnight."

That was Easy.

And effective.
    Instant portrait.

You could say; "But, if it's easy, where's the challenge?"
And I could say; "We're writing a novel here! Over 50k words of action, emotion, plot twists, plot line, back story, foreshadowing... all of which we have to keep suspended in glittering array before the readers tired eyes until the last page closes. What do you mean 'Where's the challenge?'!"

   But in all truth, red heads are awfully fun to write. I've been working on another, unrelated story, (which is a blast!) in which we're temporarily dealing with a red headed cont-agonist. (The heroine's hair is a dutifully dull, but easily described; straw color. {Hey, give me a break! I got to cut corners every once in a while!} )
   The redhead is a spicy little eye full; ...which red heads everywhere will probably be glad isn't them.
And she's tons of fun to write.


 What's the most fun for you to read about?