Eye and hair color in the Merryverse

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Does anyone else get the feeling that after the first book, LKH got a lot of feedback from people pointing out that triple-ringed eyes aren't that uncommon in humans*?

Looking back, it seems that she got more and more inventive with eyecolor (multipetaled flowers, the gold/copper/lapis lightning-shot of Maeve) as the series went on. Hair color as well, although less so as unnatural haircolor was established from the beginning.

*Both I and my husband have multiringed irises--I have hazel eyes with an asterisk-shaped ring of brown near the pupil, green outside that and a thin outer ring of VERY dark green. He has brown near the pupil with a wide outer ring of misty grey. Alas, my hair is just brown and his is greying brown. :( LOL

Comments

[watersheerie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have multi-hued eyes too. Light blue with a ring of dark grey along the outer edge. To be honest LKH spends so much time waxing poetic about the amazing eyes and hair colors that after a while it all became a rainbow-colored blur. The characters don't really differ besides eye and hair color anyway.

[dreamstrifer.livejournal.com]

Mine are multi too, if you look close or see them in the sun (and apparently when I cry). They're a reddish brown in the center and go out to hazel, and have a black ring around the iris....

PAY ATTENTION TO EYES, LAURELL.

[killiara.livejournal.com]

And I've always been jealous of my mom's eyes. Right next to the pupil, it's a starburst of gold, surrounded by green and finally a thin ring of dark green right at the edge. It looks like a solar eclipse mirrored in the waters of a still pond. She thinks it looks like swamp water, wish I could make her see them the way I do.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

According to my friends, my eyes are dark mahogany wood brown with gold and amber flecks and with dark blue rings around the irises.
My husband has bright blue eyes with silver rings, silver flecks, and starbursts of gold around the pupils.
My mom has gray-blue eyes with gold starbursts, and my dad has coffee-colored eyes with red starbursts.

Sheesh, LKH, quit being such a special snowflake. Oh, wait.

Most of the people I know have multi-colored eyes. Eyes like turbulent seas, stormy skies, misty forests, etc. One girl I know has gunmetal eyes. They're amazing. One minute they're insanely blue, the next minute they're like polished steel.

[albinowolf.livejournal.com]

My left eye is blue with brown splotches scattered around.

When I was younger my hair actually was three different colors. Brown, blondish, and black. When I wore a French braid you could see the colors twisting around.

Alas, as I aged the other colors changed and now it's just brown.

[dreamstrifer.livejournal.com]

That's cool about your hair! Me, I was born with black hair, it fell out, grew out blonde, then darkened to medium brown a couple years before I hit puberty.

[kyoko-minamino.livejournal.com]

This may be semi-relevant, but your post made me think about Stana Katic (Kate Beckett from ABC's Castle) and how incredibly interesting her eyes look. From far away, they appear hazel, but in close ups you can see they are grey with a ring of green around the pupil. She was one of the first people who made me notice people with multiple colors in their eyes.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have two shades of blue-grey on the outer and a pale green around my pupil, my mother has similar but with hazel instead of green. It's very striking on her.

I also want to argue that Merry's special shade of red hair doesn't require going to a salon to acquire, either. A few years ago, I found a pack of Schwartzkopf in the supermarket that -- if you're a natural dark brunette -- will give you the exact shade of intense red with dark parts as she describes. It's not that weird or special a colour.

Then again, I don't find her descriptions of unnatural coloured hair "like a really good dye job" and waxing on with various highlighting shades all that great either. I mean, an internet search will yield people with all kinds of zany hair colours, it isn't that odd to have people with rainbow hair in the world.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Never heard of Schwartzkopf, but the Manic Panic people may be why she went to the hologram hair and ivy-print hair--you know, flailing around for something "unique".

The henna pages have some pretty gorgeous reds too. (I henna from time to time to accent the red highlights in my chestnut color.)

Also on the hair issue, it's been pointed out before that ankle-length hair is almost impossible to maintain by yourself. (Look up Crystal Gayle's haircare routine, forinstance.) I suppose you can handwave it away with "it's magic hair", but wearing it DOWN in everyday use is just not practical either. (Tangling and catching on everything--mine is waistlength and that's bad enough when I wear it down.)

[dwg.livejournal.com]

AMEN, I used to be able to sit on my hair. The upkeep was ridiculous, and if I wanted to do anything I'd have to have my hair up in a severe bun just so I didn't get it snagged on anything. By that length, my hair was so thick and heavy, it just was not feasible to grow it any longer.

Throw in a side of the ridiculous styles that LKH gives her dudes, and I'm pretty sure most of the dudes in both the Merry and Anitaverses would spend all their free time doing haircare. I bet the dudes love it when Anita's out of town because they can finally grode around in sweatpants and their favourite t-shirts, eat cold pizza, and just not care how their hair turns frizzy on humid days.

[terrie01.livejournal.com]

I know! Let's be practical. If you don't have it bound up in some fashion, your partner will end up pinning you to the bed by your hair. Someone will shut it in a car door. It's MESSY.

[polymexina.livejournal.com]

I don't have multi-colored eyes -- mine are a very steady, solid mahogony brown. My husband says they make him think of that ep of the Cosby show, where Bill Cosby starts talking about the allure of brown eyes and how they can be as soothing as a hidden pond in a forest.

<3

I kinda wish more people would talk about more common eye colors! I feel like brown is pretty under-appreciated.

[watersheerie.livejournal.com]

I find brown eyes to be incredibly attractive. Dark eyes and hair are beautiful.

[polymexina.livejournal.com]

I agree! :D

[knitterleigh.livejournal.com]

The Lady herself said that the multi-ringed eye thing seemed so cool, but she kept forgetting who had what so she abandoned it. Not sure I believe that.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

You'd think that would be something you'd keep a file on.

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

I have heterochromia :) The outmost ring is very dark blue, the inner ring is grey shot with a creamy yellow, and the innermost is creamy yellow. Recently, I did a photoshoot for my business with a bunch of models. The ones who were getting the most 'face' work were the ones with heterochromatic eyes. The photographer even 'shopped her own picture to add it, to be more striking. I was kind of flattered that she used grey and blue, like mine. (I did not model).

My hair is very faded now as I'm getting older, but it used to be a shade of strawberry blonde that more than once had people stop me to quote Raymond Chandler at me "Her hair was the colour of gold in old paintings." I can dye my hair any shade of red as I have that very pale, very specific skin you only see on redheads.

My sister has dark titian red hair, naturally, exactly the way that sidhe scarlet is described in the Merry books.

I have a lot of male friends who have very long hair. My husband's is nearly waist length! I wear mine very long as well. I have seen below hip length hair on a man recently, honey blonde. You learn ways to wear it loose without catching it in everything and tangling it in other people's stuff :)

Some of the fae from those books would easily pass for human, albeit striking humans.

[marveen.livejournal.com]

Especially with the NO POINTY EARS thing.

I just found out the word "heterochromia" a couple hours before your comment showed up.

Your hair color as described reminds me of something I read in a book years and years ago, where someone attempted to woo a strawberry-blonde by describing her hair as "the color of a ____ sunrise viewed through a glass of ________ champagne." (Can't remember the specific locale of either sunrise or champagne production, sorry.)

[pandaemonaeum.livejournal.com]

There's a genetic defect where you're born with ears that come to a point, too, so clearly her much-vaunted biology degree didn't teach her much about genetic variances in humans.

I've read a couple of the Merry books, I had fun mapping my friends over some of the characters as stuff like long, weird coloured hair isn't uncommon in the goth scene, but it squicked me too much when everyone started having sex with Merry so I stopped. lol.

[atypia.livejournal.com]

Mine are three coloured as well.