Quote:
Originally Posted by Supperman
When it comes to silver/gray hair, I think of Japanese Keigo system.
Sonkeigo and Kenjogo.
I think "silver hair" is sonkeigo, while "gray hair" is kenjogo, or just neutral expression.
From the Japanese-keigo-system point of view, if someone says "My silver hair's got too long, so I'll go to the barber tomorrow", he seems arrogance.
"My gray hair's......" is humble enough.
If I saw a respectful 'gray hair' woman, I would say, "your silver hair is so beautiful!" instead of "your gray hair is so beautiful!"
What do you natives think?
I don't think it is not just the way of Japanese thinking, but worldwide.
In other words, when the polite expression would be proper, one should choose "silver hair".
When neutral or we don't have to consider any respect, we would choose "gray hair", I think.
edit)
On second thoughts;
When the black hair and the white hair intermingle, we should call it "gray."
When there is no black hair, and only white hair, we would call it "silver". Right?
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Grey is a type of colour, so if the whole head of hair is only white then we would call it grey. If the head of hair was black and white intermingled, then we would probably say 'he/she has grey streaks', this is because the whole hair isn't grey, but it is streaked with grey. So in your first example it's 'grey streaked' and the second it's just 'grey hair'.
As for the difference between 'silver' and 'grey', you are right that 'silver' sounds far more polite and complimentary than 'grey' does. Personally 'silver' sounds more poetic to me, something you would probably hear in a novel or a poem, because in everyday life 'grey' is more widely said, but - if you wanted to compliment somebody - 'silver' would also be acceptable, because it does sound far more poetic, thus more of a compliment.
So kind of like "She has the most beautiful silver hair" for a compliment, and "She has grey hair" to just state a fact
