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How to say “Elizabeth is a blonde; she has blonde hair” in Chinese: Yi1 li4 sha1 bai2 shi4 ge5 jin1 fa3 nv3 lang2, ta1 you3 jin1 se4 de5 tou2 fa3 伊丽莎白是个金发女郎她有金色的头发。Yi1 li4 sha1 bai2 （ 伊丽莎白 proper noun, Elizabeth) shi4 (是 verb, is) ge5 (个 measure word for person) jin1 (金 adjective, golden) fa3 (发 noun, hair) nv3 lang2 (女郎 noun, lady), ta1 (她 pronoun, she) you3 (有verb, has) jin1 se4 (金色 noun, gold color) de5 (的 particle to connect the attribute with the noun it modifies) tou2 fa3 (头发 noun, hair).
There are so many different colors （颜色 yan2 se4）of hair in the world. Why do people have different colors of hair? We know that it is to do with genes （基因 ji1 yin1）. The melanin (黑色素 hei1 se4 su4) inside the body decide the pigmentation of hair follicles (毛囊 Mao2 nang2 mao2 nang2). If more melanin is present, the color of the hair is darker; if less melanin is present, the hair is lighter.
The Fischer–Saller scale is used in physical anthropology and medicine to determine the shades of hair color. The color groups can be divided as : light blond (浅金黄色，qian3 jin1 huang2 se4), blond, dark blond （深金黄色 sen1 jin1 huang2 se4 or 暗金黄色 an4 jin1 huang2 se4）, brown （咖啡色 ka1 fei1 se4 or 棕色 zong1 se4）, dark brown/black, red （红色 hong2 se4）, and red blond （红色的金发， Hong2 se4 de5 jin1 fa3).
Our hair goes through a continual （连续的 lian2 xu4 de5） cycle of loss and replacement everyday. For example, people normally have about 100,000 – 150,000 hairs, up to 100 of which fall out every day. After the hair falls out, a new hair grow through the same hair follicles. An average hair grows 0.3 mm a day and 1 cm per month.
How the hair got nutrients （养分 yang3 fen4）to grow so rapidly you might ask. A tube-shaped follicle beneath the skin holds the hair root （发根 fa3 gen1）, which absorbs nourishment from blood vessels.
Why does color turn gray when people get old? Some parents might say having teenagers （青少年 qing1 shao4 nian2）as the cause of their gray hair.There are many reasons why hair turns gray:
Intrinsic factors:
Genetic defects
Hormones (荷尔蒙 he4 er3 meng2 or 激素 ji1 su4）
Body distribution
Age
Extrinsic factors:
Climate (气候 qi4 hou4)
Pollutants ( 污染物 wu1 ran3 wu4)
Toxins （毒素 du2 su4)
Chemical exposure
Should you complain about your gray hair? A little gray hair is a small price to pay for all the accumulated wisdom （智慧 zhi4 hui4) you got. If you can’t stand the gray and want to dye your aging hair to disguise them, then you are going to pay a big price for that small price and also will spend a lot of time too. So, why not see those gray hair as the soft gentle light of the moon, silvering all over the evening tides of life ocean.
This makes me think of a song with three versions. For translation, lyrics and pinyin see : http://www.chinesetolearn.com/?p=2870
费玉清-在银色月光下
在那银色月光下/蔡琴
王洛賓 -《在銀色的月光下》
