This topic came up on cosplay.com...

[ohariko.livejournal.com]

[Poll #1187121]
I'm interested in to see what your guys opinion is because the way I look at it, Lulu's hair is black and nothing more but some morons on cosplay.com thinks it's dark brown: http://www.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=147188 .The nice easy way for me to remember it is that Lulu is black, Suzaku's hair is brown. Simple, ne? What's your opinion?

Comments

[piccu.livejournal.com]

Black. I'm not colour blind.

[ohariko.livejournal.com]

They apparently are.

[angel-dunnant.livejournal.com]

I'm interested in to see what your guys opinion is because the way I look at it, Lulu's hair is black and nothing more but the idiots on cosplay.com thinks it's dark brown.
How the hell it's dark brown? D:
I'm 100% sure it's black, and sometimes there's a glint of purplish black/grey for the light of Lelouch's hair

[ohariko.livejournal.com]

Ask me that one too. They're arguing intensily on this one thread. It's amusing as hell and they think I'm wrong by saying it's black? Wait until they get the answers. XD;

[ya-kun.livejournal.com]

Black. Dark brown WTF?

[nomoreprinces.livejournal.com]

All you really have to do is check the official merch, especially the figures. Black.

[ohariko.livejournal.com]

I even showed them the official website pictures. They still didn't believe me.

[angel-katsumi.livejournal.com]

They're black.

[sapphirus.livejournal.com]

That reminds me...that I don't understand how Lelouch could end up with such a dark colour (like mom) yet his little sister ends up with a pale brown (though her hair is just as abundant as mom's).

His hair colour though is definitely black. No shades of brown in that.

[ohariko.livejournal.com]

Maybe the Duke at one point had black hair? XP

[tsukihane.livejournal.com]

Black.
I see where the dark purple comes from, shadow/light effects but dark brown? What? D:

[chunky-bunny.livejournal.com]

dark brownhair? I don't think that fits lulu after staring at my own.....

so black all the way~

[firebird-88.livejournal.com]

X_x Colorblind? If you're colorblind you should see things in black and white to begin with, and his hair is pretty darn close to black. -___-;; Weird. It does shine purple though, I'm not going to lie. XD

[thickets.livejournal.com]

People who are colorblind don't see in black and white. XD It means that certain colors look the same to you (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness). I've never heard of people having weakness in black and brown (usually it's brown and green or red and blue or whatever) though. Also, I've never heard of people being colorblind "in one eye" as that poster on cosplay.com said ....

[harlequins.livejournal.com]

His hair, as I see it is black, but with some tones of dark purple/brown but they're not that obvious. Just slight. :/

[spleener.livejournal.com]

It's very clearly black.

[vspirit.livejournal.com]

I've always thought it to be black because it appears black most times in the anime (except when there's a trick of lighting) but to be honest, that link you posted made his hair look like something between purple black and an espresso brown. It couldn't have posed a good argument on that other board. As it is, I'm now thinking that it's perhaps due to his hair having a purplish sheen to it that when certain lighting hits it, it becomes the dubious color as shown on the page.

But I've been thinking black too long, and there must have been a reason for me to not have viewed it differently even a year and a half later so I find it difficult to budge from it.

[vspirit.livejournal.com]

Or well, you can prolly just put him next to XingKe and see if it's really black. Cos XingKe's hair is most undeniably pure black. No other hues. Now that I'm actually looking, Lelouch's looks like it's black but with a slightly different sheen or hue (I mean in the anime--in the CLAMP art in the ED, it just looks inky black) to it and i suppose that's what makes it arguable to some.

[musumeyz.livejournal.com]

First when I read the poll, I thought: "BLACK! Of course it's BLACK!"
But then I had a look at some pictures and screencaps. It's actually dark brown. Like really dark brown with a greyish hint. (Note: I checked the pictures in GRAPHICS: ASHFORD and GRAPHICS:ZERO, so it has got nothing to do with my monitor.)
It looks like black, yes, especially comparing to Suzaku's hair, but compaired to his school unfirom (which is black and no one would argue about that I believe) it's rather brown.

But then again, on some Artwork it's even slightly purple.

I don't really think it matters, actually. As for wigs, I'd go for a black one.

[albel.livejournal.com]

This is kind of like the argument back in the day when people were debating whether Roy Mustang's eyes were black or blue because of the shine. If you have black hair in a cartoon you need to give it a colour (blue, purple, brown, gray) to give it shape otherwise, lol, it's just flat black. That's how natural black hair is as well. They make it lighter than black so that, in animation, it can still have black as the shadow and light brown or whatever it is in the anime as the shine.

So, it's really of opinion which level colour of the hair you want to look at to get a main colour. In the end though, I would vote on black. If you want to look at it realistically, I've never seen someone with naturally black hair like how you would get in a dye that's shiney and, in my persona opinion, kind of gross. If Lelouch was real, which he isn't (woe D8), he would probably have dark dark brown hair but...bah, I'd say black.

That's just what I think the problem is. I don't think being colour blind in one eye will make you think the hair is brown rather than black. Or maybe that's just me.

[syrenshaeda.livejournal.com]

I voted black.
From what I can see in the picture in the thread (http://endofdreams.files.wordpress.com/2006/12/lelouch.jpg), it's a rather 'light black', with a brown undertone, at least from my view and compared to the chess piece which looks veeery black. (The school uniform seems to have a blue-ish green undertone, imo XD)
So I can kinda see where they are coming from, but it's black , for sure.

[emifujiwara.livejournal.com]

I'm sure his hair are dark, with purple and brown higlight.
And figurines of Lulu have black hair. =)
Dark brown? What? Is it a joke? XD

[nitaspitas.livejournal.com]

As a cosplayer (whose sister cosplays Lulu (http://www.cosplay.com/costume/123236/) :D), I'd say that it makes more sense to use a black wig for Lulu for it to be recognizable because in the anime his hair is relatively black. I get anal and nitpicky about certain things, but in the end, it comes down to people recognizing your cosplay as a certain character. Since most people who watch the anime think of Lulu as having black hair, even if it's not pure black (because whose hair is?), if you choose a brown wig because when you zoom in on it and look at it by itself, it looks brown, people will definitely confuse you for Suzaku. Or Rollo. (I was thinking of doing Rollo, and I was having a similar problem of trying to figure out how to distinguish him from Suzaku...)

As for the colored shadows, most of the time, they're just shadows :D The only time I've felt the need to include shadows was for Nia (http://www.cosplay.com/costume/117964/) (from Gurren Lagann) because the style of the anime was such that the shadows left as strong of an impression as the actual hair color.

[rainbow-cnxn.livejournal.com]

...

Black.

Okay, granted, there is no such thing as "black" hair. (I'm Asian, and although my hair is "black", it's actually a really, really dark brown, and you can sorta see the brownish red undertones when I'm standing under a bright sun.)

In that case, you can say that Lelouch has really, really dark purple hair. But for all intents and purposes, it's black.

Purple's not a real hair color, you say? Well, neither is green or pink or fuchsia.

[diamond-vesper.livejournal.com]

I don't think its black... I think its dark brown... if you look at Li Xingke, his hair colour is different from Lelouch... I think Li Xingke has black hair... Now, I think its more of dark brown, but its not really the common dark browns we usually see... I read through wiki and I found some similar colours... called taupe or sepia... or mixture of those kind of browns... well, I think its somewhat more darker (as in a bit more black) of those colours... now the pictures of Lelouch show many different shades, but I think mostly, it is brown, rather than black.

[kanasaii.livejournal.com]

Lelouch's hair colour did make me ponder for abit when I was working on his costume. But eventually I went with black, because toys, official goods carry black haired lelouch :)

It's very common to see newtype, ashford graphic, and any other illustrations carrying tint of brown, grey or purple because those are supposedly 'highlights' to give hair volume in 2D perspectives.

So plain-minded-ly, LELOUCH HAS BEAUTIFUL BLACK HAIR.
It's often better not to crack nuts just to argue about his hair colour.

Also thought it this way, if Suzaku has brown hair, why would they want Lelouch in some half-assed brown, dark brown, blah brown?

Come on, he is the 'dark prince' give him his smexy black locks XD

[zalem.livejournal.com]

Christ, black, dark brown...who cares? I can't believe those cosplay people are even arguing over such a silly thing. They should just pick a wig color and be done with it. I highly doubt anyone will care.

[waterpuzzle-.livejournal.com]

Ahaha. Even as a Lelouch cosplayer myself, I have to agree with you. An argument for that is indeed rather silly. Especially with Lelouch, whose hair color is so obvious, whether it be black or black with dark purple tint or dark brown tint.

And, yes, like most Lelouch cosplays, I also use black for mine (http://lunarloopcosplay.deviantart.com/art/CG-Lelouch-82121109).

[ikui.livejournal.com]

Well being asian and going to a school full of them, there really are different types of black hair and some come off looking as a dark pale brown. Ultimately though? Dark dark brown hair = Black hair so yeah Lulu's hair is black.

And as for the question of why brown in some art? Well I digital colour as well so I know that to even dare and colour anime hair as pure black in certain styles of pictures just makes the hair look flat so then artists op for different colours like dark brown or dark purple and then add in black highlights. In other words, they are just adding shape to his hair and it is really black.

[honou-no-izumi.livejournal.com]

My hair is Black and it seemed dark brown under the sunlight but it's still undeniably Black. Same as Lelouch's hair. Even if I am slightly color blind I still knew black when I see it. XO

[keele-san.livejournal.com]

IMO it's black... or uber dark brown like my hair... but it really looks black... when light hits my hair at certain angles only then it would look brown.

I agree with the others that the purplish/brown tones only give shape to Lulu's hair, or else it would really be flat.

besides, a black-haired Lulu looks better for me xD

srsly, cosplay.com peoplez are too anal about the hair color >_> I bet if it was a CC cosplay, they won't mind if it's shocking neon green or yellow-green as long as its a light green >_>

[fulguratus.livejournal.com]

WTF?!? I by accidently voted for Dark Brown instead of voting for Black. >.>

So yeah! One of those Dark Brown votes is actually one for Black.

And honestly, WTF, I don't comprehend why there's arguing. I mean I could maybe see the dark purple argument but dark brown . I mean I can understand I guess but I too looked at official pictures and it's very black.