Auburn is a light brown or reddish brown hair color (and subsequently color),[1] and may be described as somewhere between brown, blond, and red hair. Auburn comes Old French alborne, which meant blond, from Latin alburnus, "off-white".[1][2] The first recorded use of auburn in English was in 1430.[2][3] In hair color, auburn is frequently misused as a synonym for red.
The chemicals which cause auburn hair are phaeomelanin and high levels of brown eumelanin. It is common in Europe but rare elsewhere.citation needed
In cosmetology, a brighter shade called vivid auburn is used for dyeing hair.citation needed
Auburn in human culture
Palestinian girl with dark auburn hair.
Auburn hair occurs almost solely in European culture. The Roman writer Tacitus wrote that the hair of the Germanic peoples was rutilus, which is Latin for "auburn" or "golden blond".
Though the word was in use in the English language by 1430, the bastardization abram was frequently used.[4]
Today in the United States of America, the color chosen aby the American Council on Education (ACE) to represent such fields of learning as forestry, environmental studies, and natural resource management is called "russet",[5] but in practice schools and suppliers of academic regalia use an auburn.[6]
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