Talking about hair

Introduction Georgie and Phil have a real conversation in easy English about hair – the stuff that grows on the top of your head. Learn to talk about different hair colours, what it means to have your hair dyed, and find out what colour Phil's hair was when he was younger! Vocabulary dye change the colour of something, using chemicals or pigments blonde/blond lighter, yellow or golden colour of hair ginger warm orange or red hair curly describes hair which has tight curves and spirals wavy describes hair which has wide curves bald having no hair on top of your head Transcript Georgie Hello, I'm Georgie.   Phil And I'm Phil. Welcome to Real Easy English.   Georgie Find all the vocabulary and a worksheet to test what you've learned over on our website. Go to bbclearningenglish.com. Hi Phil. How are you doing?   Phil I'm doing really well, Georgie. I must say, your hair is looking fantastic today.   Georgie Thank you very much, Phil. Today we are talking about hair. Now, I can see your hair, but for our listeners maybe you can start by describing your hair.   Phil OK. Well, my hair – it's short, but it's not very short. I think it's fairly straight. And then the colour – it's kind of a light brown colour. The bits that aren't grey, that is!   Georgie You said your hair used to be ginger.   Phil Yes, it used to be ginger – bright orange.   Georgie Wow! Well, my hair is naturally dark brown. It's quite short and it's wavy, so sometimes it can be curly, but mostly it's wavy.   Phil OK. So, you've told us about your hair, Georgie. Do you like it? Georgie Yes, I do now. I actually... When I was younger, I didn't really like my hair because I wanted it to be straight, so I used to straighten it – take the curls and the waves out. But as I've got older, I've started to really like my hair. It looks a bit wild and I enjoy it. What about you? How do you... Do you like your hair?   Phil Yeah, usually I do. I think similar to you. When I was a teenager, I just wanted my hair to look different, so I used to try and stick hair gel in it and try and make it do things that it didn't want to do and it wasn't going to do. And I used to get very frustrated about that. And then as you get older and wiser, you realise actually it looks fine. And I quite... I quite like it. I don't get my hair cut that often, so it often gets a bit too long and messy for me. And then when I can't put up with it any longer, I go and get it cut.   Georgie And how do you feel about the hairdresser? Do you like the experience?   Phil I don't mind it. It's not... it's not something I really like doing but I don't really mind it. I don't have a problem with it and it does feel good to come out and it's a lot neater than it was when you went in.   Georgie Yeah. How long does a usual appointment take when you go to the hairdresser?   Phil It depends how busy it is, but if it's quiet, I can probably go in 20–30 minutes and it's done.   Georgie Wow.   Phil What about you?   Georgie Well, I think my experience of the hairdresser is a little bit different. If I get a haircut and a hair dye – so, a hair dye is when you change the colour – it can take about three hours. But I actually enjoy it. I probably go to the hairdresser once every six months, and when I go, it's like a treat. Phil OK. You told us about the hairdresser's, Georgie. Do you often change your hairstyle?   Georgie Well, when I was at university, I once dyed my hair – not all of it, but half of it pink and green. But the dye, the hair dye, wasn't permanent. It was temporary, so the colour didn't stay, which was probably good for me. I don't think I suited it. But recently I actually have thought about growing my hair, so I want to grow it, make it a bit longer and I want to stop dyeing it as well. So, in the last few years I have been dyeing my hair a bit blonder, but I was looking at some old photos of me when I had brown, natural hair, and I think I'd like to go back to it. Yeah. What about you?   Phil I don't think I'm going to change my hair. Do you think green would suit?   Georgie Phil, I think you would look great with green hair.   Phil Maybe. Maybe we should try that, because my hair is changing its colour itself. It's going greyer and greyer and greyer. And every time I get my hair cut, more grey comes off.   Georgie Ah, well, maybe green would be...   Phil ...the way forward!   Georgie Yeah.   Phil The other thing is there's less of it. When I get my hair cut, I can see it's higher up, and there's a bit going a little bit bald there, but hopefully no one notices.   Georgie Let's recap the language we heard during the conversation.   Phil If you dye your hair, and that's spelt 'D-Y-E', then you use chemicals to change the colour.   Georgie Blonde hair is a light colour, a bit like yellow. Ginger hair is a bit like orange.   Phil If your hair is curly or wavy, it's not straight. It has curves.   Georgie And if you're bald, you don't have any hair on your head.   Phil That's it for this episode of Real Easy English. We'll be back next week with another conversation in easy English.   Georgie And don't forget to test what you've learned with the free worksheet on our website. Go to bbclearningenglish.com.   Phil Bye for now.   Georgie Goodbye!  Now try this... Watch The London Letter Challenge. Download a free worksheet. Discover more programmes for your level.  Find all our latest programmes.