"Ella tiene el cabello castaño" or "Ella tiene el cabello café"?

Question

Which means "She has brown hair"? Also, what exactly does "castaño" mean? (or was it costaño')

Answer 1

Castaño is the colour of the chestnut, i.e. brown. Somehow, about a hundred years ago, people decided to relegate this word to a second plane, and desperately imported the adjective "marrón" ("brown" in French) to replace our "castaño". Nowadays it is practically used only to refer to hair colour, while "marrón" is the main character in all other stories.

Answer 2

<http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp'tranword=brown>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Shades_of_brown

[url=http://www.proz.com/kudoz/spanish_to_english/other/1000227-morocha_casta%F1a.html]http://www.proz.com/kudoz/spanish_to_english/other/1000227-morocha_casta%F1a.html[/url]

Answer 3

I've always heard "tiene el cabello castaño." Café is used for dark brown, but I don't think I've heard it used for hair. But I suppose it could be. A brunette is una morena.