MOVIE: Harry's haircolor

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 21785

Ender asked the reasonable question:

>   Where in the books is Harry's hair described as "jet-black" (as 
opposed to just "black")?  

Oh, wow, a nitpick question that no one has answered yet!  My inner 
LOON rejoices.

Three of the four first-time-we-see-him descriptions of Harry include 
this phrase.

PS/SS 1 (baby Harry described) "Under a tuft of jet-black hair over 
his forehead they could see a curiously-shaped cut . . ."

PS/SS 2 (10 y.o. Harry described) just says "black hair." 

The description of James in PS/SS 12 just says "black-haired."

CoS 1 says "jet black hair that was always untidy."

PoA 1 says "jet-black hair"

GoF 2 says "untidy black hair."

All of that said, it's true that even "jet-black" Caucasian hair isn't 
really as black as jet, viewed up close.  I don't know if human hair 
comes in true black at all, regardless of race.  What I get from JKR's 
descriptions is actually in keeping with this fact:  namely, Harry's 
hair is unusually dark.  Then, too, it might be that she is falling 
into cliche, that writerly tendency that makes one automatically write 
"jet-black" for "black," "white-faced" for "pale," etc.

It is actually all right with me that Daniel Radcliffe's hair isn't 
as black as hair can go, partly because the more scenes I see, the 
more it looks like what I might at first glance call "black" 
(close-ups undermine this view), but also because I am a mature 
grownup who does not obsess about the hair color of fictional 
children.  And because they got his eyes right <g>.

(I don't know if I've ever seen a Caucasion with truly black eyes, 
either, but Snape and Hagrid both have them.)

Amy Z