Okay, I’m aware that this probably isn’t one of the greatest questions to ask about the Halo universe, but it’s sort of been bugging me. In the books Halsey is described as having jet black hair and blue eyes in her youth, while she’s been depicted as having blonde hair in Halo Legends and the CEA terminals.
http://www.halopedia.org/images/7/73/Halsey_Memory.jpg
http://www.halopedia.org/images/6/68/HalseyHomecoming.png
http://www.halotoynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Dr-Catherine-Halsey-Halo-Legends-Screenshot.jpg
And it looks as though she could be portrayed as blonde again in the upcoming animated adaption of The Fall of Reach. I’m just confused about the whole discrepancy. What is her natural hair colour?
Personally, I’ve never imagined Halsey as a blonde. When reading the books I always pictured her having black or dark brown hair. 
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> Okay, I’m aware that this probably isn’t one of the greatest questions to ask about the Halo universe, but it’s sort of been bugging me. In the books Halsey is described as having jet black hair and blue eyes in her youth, while she’s been depicted as having blonde hair in Halo Legends and the CEA terminals.
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> http://www.halopedia.org/images/7/73/Halsey_Memory.jpg
> http://www.halopedia.org/images/6/68/HalseyHomecoming.png
> http://www.halotoynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Dr-Catherine-Halsey-Halo-Legends-Screenshot.jpg
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> And it looks as though she could be portrayed as blonde again in the upcoming animated adaption of The Fall of Reach. I’m just confused about the whole discrepancy. What is her natural hair colour?
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> Personally, I’ve never imagined Halsey as a blonde. When reading the books I always pictured her having black or dark brown hair.
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> OP in spoiler bubble
There are no “great questions” lol all questions are valid 
Here is my version of the truth/ head-canon.
Immediately discredit all specifics about Halo Legends. They also messed up some Covenant blood color, some weapon functionality, Covenant anatomy, etc. So the stories are canon (save for Odd One Out), but the artistic choices made are not. So that discredits Legends’ Halsey hair colors as far as I’m concerned. As for the terminal, I like to imagine she was trying to hide her pregnancy later, perhaps even going on the lam for a brief period to deliver the baby and give it to Keyes (I’m actually not certain how Miranda was raised, but it doesn’t really apply).
So basically when we see her with blonde hair in that flashback, I imagine that’s her natural hair color and she dyed it black in an attempt to go incognito for a while. She may have liked the look, and kept it for the Spartan Project. At some point, she got tired of dying her hair and let nature take its course. Or maybe she just got distracted for a while once multiple eminent alien threats were attempting to destroy humanity lol
Anyway, hope I helped a little.
Game canon trumps book canon. If the terminals show her hair as blonde, she’s blonde.
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> Game canon trumps book canon. If the terminals show her hair as blonde, she’s blonde.
That was a Bungie policy, so that they didn’t have to read the books or know what they contained lol. 343i’s policy is everything is equal, but the canon may be in a constant state of flux. Here is a quote from GrimBrother One, the employed loremaster at 343i when he was speaking about the inconsistencies between Halo 1-2 and their remakes. Bolded part for emphasis/ TL;DR.
> There is an important thing to remember here though (that I’ve said countless times before), canon is often times much more an exercise in “spirit of the law” vs “letter of the law.” The idea of the Halo universe in its most grand and fullest capacities should have room for the idea of different possibilities. The fact of the matter is that there will ALWAYS be “inconsistencies” brought about by a myriad of factors, from scope, to resources, to artistic differences. And while it might be frustrating to the more… unwaveringly-minded fans, the truth is that the universe is usually much more enjoyably (or at least less stressful, lol) viewed with a bit of flexibility built in to one’s interpretation. Trust me, no one takes this stuff “more seriously” than yours truly, but one will only truly find joy and understanding in the greater narrative when they are able to transcend past certain details they might struggle to find a concrete explanation for.How many times has Gotham City been rearranged? How many different origin stories has Spiderman had? Eventually, these iconic fiction franchises become much more than just the sum of their canonical parts, something that I’d certainly hope for Halo to stay around long enough to achieve. 
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> Game canon trumps book canon. If the terminals show her hair as blonde, she’s blonde.
Not true. All media, whether it’s from the games or books, are equally canon according to 343i.
Pretty sure its still possible to dye your hair in 2552 
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> Pretty sure its still possible to dye your hair in 2552
Yep! It’s even possible here in the 21st century! I’m a natural blonde who’s tried out a bunch of shades of brown and even black just to be weird. All of Halsey’s hair colors are equally canon.
I just default to black when I think of Halsey prior to her 40s when I expect her hair may have started graying if I had to guess.
Am I the only one who thinks she doesn’t actually look blond in that flashback? To me it just looks like it’s the background light reflecting/shining off her hair and making it seem like its blond >_> Since lighting can have a pretty big effect on just what colors something looks like (for instance that infamous dress that was going around a while back that nobody could tell if it was white and gold or blue and black), remember in some of the Halo 3 screenshots how the Arbiter’s armor looks like the color had been changed from silver/gray to bronze/gold because of how the lighting had hit it? I think that same thing is going on here and in that particular terminal scene from Keyes that Halsey just looks blond because of the lighting and how the lightsource is hitting her hair…
And with Halo Legends, it’s definitely true what everyone else said, pretty much completely ignore the visuals as they’re all artistic license. The stories told within the series (except for Odd One Out, but that one’s title should tell you it isn’t canon anyways, since it’s, well…the odd one out haha) are pretty much all completely canon, but the visuals used to tell them are either aren’t necessarily canon, or they most definitely aren’t.
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> > Pretty sure its still possible to dye your hair in 2552
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> Yep! It’s even possible here in the 21st century! I’m a natural blonde who’s tried out a bunch of shades of brown and even black just to be weird. All of Halsey’s hair colors are equally canon.
I was thinking of her natural hair colour? Legends and the Anniversary terminals sort of implied it could be naturally blonde, but I guess it could be dyed. I guess I’ll just take it that Halsey’s hair is black because it’s said so in the books and any deviation of that is artistic license or hair dye, unless specified that it’s not.
Thanks for those that commented on this thread.
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> I was thinking of her natural hair colour? Legends and the Anniversary terminals sort of implied it could be naturally blonde, but I guess it could be dyed. I guess I’ll just take it that Halsey’s hair is black because it’s said so in the books and any deviation of that is artistic license or hair dye, unless specified that it’s not.
Ahhh okie dokes! Halsey’s youngest depictions in the universe are still fairly old, having been VADM Jeromi’s pupil and conversing with Dr. Elias Carver, in her teenage years. That’s usually around the time that teen girls start dying their hair, myself included. Her depiction in The Fall of Reach comic adaptation, per Halopedia, suggests that the youngest canon hair color is black as you suggested. 2525-2544 all suggests that she stuck with being a blonde. Jacob Keyes originally had black hair and their kid, Miranda Keyes, has brown hair. So who the hell knows.
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> Am I the only one who thinks she doesn’t actually look blond in that flashback? To me it just looks like it’s the background light reflecting/shining off her hair and making it seem like its blond >_> Since lighting can have a pretty big effect on just what colors something looks like (for instance that infamous dress that was going around a while back that nobody could tell if it was white and gold or blue and black), remember in some of the Halo 3 screenshots how the Arbiter’s armor looks like the color had been changed from silver/gray to bronze/gold because of how the lighting had hit it? I think that same thing is going on here and in that particular terminal scene from Keyes that Halsey just looks blond because of the lighting and how the lightsource is hitting her hair…
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> And with Halo Legends, it’s definitely true what everyone else said, pretty much completely ignore the visuals as they’re all artistic license. The stories told within the series (except for Odd One Out, but that one’s title should tell you it isn’t canon anyways, since it’s, well…the odd one out haha) are pretty much all completely canon, but the visuals used to tell them are either aren’t necessarily canon, or they most definitely aren’t.
Honestly it looks black in one scene to me and maybe brunette in the other. I don’t even see blonde in the vid.
