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Silly question, but is it always canon for SoB hair color to be white or can it be other colors? I've only seen it portrayed as white.

It can be other colors.

It can be any color, I always figured it was white because of the combat stimulants/drugs.

White is often used as a colour for purity. From the way GW have painted their Sisters, the Sisters are likely to have black hair and the Sister Superiors/Canoness tends to have white hair to show their greater level of purity, faith & devotion to the Emperor. At least, thats how I look at it - don't quote me on it, I'm not particularly knowledgable about Sisters.

However there are many different Orders, so you could have an order where they all have blonde hair, or brown, or a mixture, or all black or all white, or all red... gives me an idea. Anyway, the choice is yours.

All of the original painted models from GW army had black hair. They probably just gave the Martyred Lady figures white hair in later editions because it provided a better contrast from the black armor. Their official painted models for the other Orders have different colors of hair.

Cool. Thanks for the replies. I ask because I'm using hair color as one of the designator of squads, with white being the more experienced/higher ranking members (Cannoness/Celestians/Seraphim) with regular Battle Sisters having other colors of hair.

Harriticus wrote:It can be any color, I always figured it was white because of the combat stimulants/drugs.

There's no evidence they use any.

Melissia wrote:

Harriticus wrote:It can be any color, I always figured it was white because of the combat stimulants/drugs.

There's no evidence they use any.

I'd figure if they fought as well as they're supposed to and not have any kind of genetic manipulation they'd need them, similar to the Officio Assassinorum.

They do not need combat drugs. They have faith and fanatical fervor unmatched throughout the galaxy.

It's better than combat drugs.

It's a 'clean' high, with just a couple of side effects:

'may cause paranoia, pyromania and sadomasochistic tendencies..'

Here's some really old GW artwork I found in my folders, from back when the Order of Our Martyred Lady still had black robes. Note the blonde Sister to the left.



Nowadays, hair colour seems to be propagated as part of a specific Order's uniform, complementing the armour and the robes - though it need not be enforced on an all-encompassing scale. I also noticed a trend by GW as well as some licensed products to portray Canonesses with both black and white hair, using one colour as a base and the other for contrasting bangs or streaks. That's about as much personal fashion as I'd deem appropriate for the Sororitas, though.

Gah, the rob liefeld style spines make me want to barf...

Could be any color they want as long as they've not lost the technology of hair dye.

Mostly White because it represent purity and their devotion toward the Emperor.
But I noticed that some Sisters still have their original hair color, maybe it's because of some rule that they must earn to paint their hair color while?
I don't know. I do know that it's your decision and your taste when it comes to miniatures. Standard GW Battle Sisters are all white
with Sister Superior carrying sword or helmet to represent her authority. But it's to you in the end, if you want to paint them all different colors and leave Sister Superior color white that's all right.

Gah, the rob liefeld style spines make me want to barf...

LMFAO at last we agree on something.

BTW Grey Knights are way more pure than sisters. Grey Knights never turn to chaos. Willingly or not.

DeffDred wrote:
BTW Grey Knights are way more pure than sisters. Grey Knights never turn to chaos. Willingly or not.

* asthma attack* Bloodtide * asthma attack*

See the above picture Lynata posted to see the original version of that order CoA, they dyed their robes red after heavy losses if I remember correctly. Them having white hair is like the Ultramarines all coming from their second company; basically the SoB flagship order most of the time.

DeffDred wrote:BTW Grey Knights are way more pure than sisters. Grey Knights never turn to chaos. Willingly or not.

Hurr hurr hurr you troll SoB thread good.

Brother Coa wrote:

DeffDred wrote:
BTW Grey Knights are way more pure than sisters. Grey Knights never turn to chaos. Willingly or not.

* asthma attack* Bloodtide * asthma attack*

The part where most of the sisters died and no Grey Knights did? Yeah, thought so.

Back on topic: As has been said, any hair colour is fine, although I'd probably raise more than an eyebrow if you chose something silly like blue or purple...

AlmightyWalrus wrote:
The part where most of the sisters died and no Grey Knights did? Yeah, thought so.

The part when Grey Knights needed talisman of purity to protect themselves ( with all of their superior training and armor and "faith" ) from Chaos corruption, and they found it by killing Sisters who were resist it with only their faith. Yeah, that part.

Harriticus wrote:It can be any color, I always figured it was white because of the combat stimulants/drugs.

I never got the white hair thing but this makes total sense.

They get so jacked up they lose their hair pigment, that is actually cooler than realistic black/brown hair. And more realistic?

Brother Coa wrote:

AlmightyWalrus wrote:
The part where most of the sisters died and no Grey Knights did? Yeah, thought so.

The part when Grey Knights needed talisman of purity to protect themselves ( with all of their superior training and armor and "faith" ) from Chaos corruption, and they found it by killing Sisters who were resist it with only their faith. Yeah, that part.

And, as is pointed out in EVERY. SINGLE. THREAD. about this subject: physical corruption and spiritual corruption isn't the same thing. No Grey Knight has ever fallen to Chaos, willingly or otherwise. One Sister has fallen to Chaos willingly. Sisters are incredibly resistant to Chaos corruption, but the Grey Knights basically have the same things turned up to 11, with the additional benefit of everyone being an Astartes, a psyker and having daemon-repelling runes carved into their skeleton. We don't even know if the Grey Knights would've died or not without the blood of the Sisters that survived, all we know is that they weren't gonna lose a brother to something preventable.

AlmightyWalrus wrote:physical corruption and spiritual corruption isn't the same thing.

Lore state that they are resistant in body as they are in mind. All those rituals and all that armor means something after all.

Most of them seem to bleach their hair as a sign of sacrificing their feminine side to the Emperor, but some Sororitas seem to shave their hair or keep them in their original colors.

It really depends more on the Order, look at the vestments page of C:WH where they present the colour codes for the six Major Orders. The Sacred Rose isn't any less pure than the Martyred Lady just because they tend to have black hair to contrast with the white armour.

The majority of drawings in the Codex has black-haired Sisters as well. The Order of the Martyred Lady is the Sororitas version of a posterboy army, but that doesn't mean they are any more special than the other 5 Orders Maioris. That would be like a statement that the majority of Space Marines wear blue because Ultramarines.

As to the actual nature of the hair colours, I like the idea that it might be the result of some biochem cocktail that affects the production of eumelanin and pheomelanin. Just sounds more "thorough" and sci-fi than including a hair dyeing ritual in the daily schedule. Just a personal take on it, of course; I'm not aware that this subject was touched even briefly in any product, studio or licensed.

I've seen a few sister armies with red hair. But thats just sily to me. Red hair on humans wont exist that far in the future.

And I'm sorry about the GK comment. I was just joking.

DeffDred wrote:I've seen a few sister armies with red hair. But thats just sily to me. Red hair on humans wont exist that far in the future.

Just like shock-white hair.
Any kind of natural human hair colour is produced solely by two pigments, whose concentration determines the end result. The potential for red hair will thus always be there, you just need to trigger the correct balance. But apart from rampant mutation of mankind depending on the planet you look at (if people can turn into Ogryns then an entire planet can turn into red-heads just as well), this also factors into my completely made-up idea of biochemical treatment changing a Sister's (or anyone elses, I imagine it would also be quite fashionable for the nobility) hair colour within months, no dye required.

Red is one of the three official traditional colours for SoB uniforms - the others being white and black. I wouldn't put it out of the question that some Minor Order has incorporated red hair into their scheme. None of the big six Major Orders uses it, though, at least not if you go by their colour scheme pages in the Codices.