Hair & Eyes Tags Complete Reference

Hair styles, colors, eye colors, and special effects — the complete reference for character identity tags.

1. Why hair and eyes carry so much prompt weight

In character prompting, hair and eyes are almost always the first two identity tokens you should lock down. They're the features viewers read first, they're the features that most often drift between generations, and they're the features where token order matters most. A good rule of thumb: length + style + color for hair, color (+ optional effect) for eyes — in that order, within the first 20 tokens of your prompt.

2. Hair length

very short hair

Buzz cut, pixie.

short hair

Bob, ear-length.

medium hair

Shoulder-length.

long hair

Past shoulder to mid-back.

very long hair

Waist length or lower.

bald

No hair — often needs a negative prompt safeguard.

Tip: Length interacts with pose. Very long hair on running or wind adds motion blur and fly-away strands; same tag on sitting will often drape realistically over shoulders. If your subject is in a helmet, add hair tucked into helmet to avoid "hair clipping through solid objects".

3. Hair style

Tied

ponytail, high ponytail, side ponytail, twin tails, low twin tails

Braided

braid, single braid, twin braids, crown braid, french braid

Wavy / Curly

wavy hair, curly hair, drill hair, ringlets

Bangs / Fringe

blunt bangs, side swept bangs, asymmetrical bangs, parted bangs

Updo

bun, double bun, messy bun, hair up

Texture

straight hair, messy hair, wet hair, glossy hair

4. Hair color

Booru-style color tags are reliable: blonde hair, brown hair, black hair, red hair, silver hair, white hair, pink hair, blue hair, green hair, purple hair.

For gradient or two-tone hair, list both colors with a modifier:

gradient hair, pink hair, blue tips

two-tone hair, black hair, white underside

streaked hair, dark brown hair, blonde highlights

Attribute leakage warning: red hair plus red dress can bleed — the model may tint the dress into the hair or vice versa. Separate them with other tokens: put setting/pose between them.

👁️ Appearance/Face — Tag examples

5. Eye color

Standard colors: blue eyes, green eyes, brown eyes, hazel eyes, grey eyes, amber eyes, violet eyes, red eyes, golden eyes, pink eyes.

Special effects

heterochromia (two different colors), glowing eyes, slit pupils, star-shaped pupils, cat eyes

Eye shape / framing

almond eyes, round eyes, narrow eyes, sparkling eyes

Heterochromia recipe: Use two color tags together with the marker — heterochromia, blue eyes, green eyes. The order of the two colors typically maps to left/right on anime checkpoints (first token = viewer's left side).

6. Putting it together

A well-formed identity stack for a character looks like:

long silver hair, side ponytail, blunt bangs, golden eyes, slit pupils

That's five tokens. Beyond five, you start crowding the attention budget and the model begins dropping features. If you need more flavor, move description tokens (freckles, scar) out of the identity cluster and into their own segment later in the prompt.

7. Common mistakes

Too many styles. Pick one tied/braided/loose style; mixing (ponytail, braid, bun) creates conflicts.
Color listed late. If hair color comes after clothing, the clothing color can steal it. Keep hair color in the identity cluster.
Forgetting the negative. For blonde or white hair, grey hair in the negative prevents drift to a silver/ash tone you didn't intend.
Ignoring model conventions. NovelAI prefers silver hair; some SDXL checkpoints respond better to platinum blonde. Check your model's prompt bias.