Brown hair is the second most common human hair color, after black hair. It varies from light brown to almost black hair. It is characterized by higher levels of the dark pigment eumelanin and lower levels of the pale pigment pheomelanin. Its strands are thicker than those of fair hair but not as much as those of red hair. People with brown hair are often referred to as brunette, which in French is the feminine form of brunet, which is the diminutive of brun (brown, brown-haired or dark-haired).
Brown hair is common among populations in the Western world, especially among those from Central Europe, Southeastern Europe, Southern Europe, Southern Cone, United States and also some populations in Greater Middle East where it transitions smoothly into black hair. Brown hair is common among Australian Aborigines and Melanesians.
Brunette literally means "little brown-haired girl" or "young brown-haired woman", but, in modern English usage, it has lost the diminutive meaning and usually refers to any brown or black-haired girl or woman, or the associated hair color. Merriam-Webster defines "brunet" as "a person having brown or black hair"—with which they may have "a relatively dark complexion—spelled brunet when used of a boy or man and usually brunette when used of a girl or woman". Although brunet is the masculine version of the popular diminutive form used to describe a little boy or young man with brown hair, the use of brunet is uncommon in English. One is more likely to say of a man or boy, "He has brown hair" or "He is brown-haired", than to say, "He is a brunette" (or brunet). The term brunette is the feminine form of the French word brunet which is a diminutive form of brun meaning "brown/brown-haired", the feminine of which is brune. All of these terms ultimately derive from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhrūn- "brown, grey". The form "brun" (pronounced /ˈbruːn/) is still commonly used in Scotland, particularly in rural areas, and is also the word for "brown" in the Scandinavian languages.