Why is Hoid's hair white?

[Lura]

The Coppermind mentions that there is a reason for why Hoid's hair is white, but that the reason is unknown. I wonder if it is somewhat related to the process of Awakening. We all know that Awakening drains color, and this is what it reminded me of. Obviously, it wouldn't be exactly the same - something that might be related to him being a former Dawnshard(?) - but maybe related in the way that Yolish Lightweaving is similar to Rosharan Lightweaving. Thoughts?

 

[+Invocation]

My money is on it being something to do with his oath of no harm. Like a visible symbol of "Hey! This guy is safe."

[stonewalker16]

I had thought he was from Yolen, where a lot of things are super white

Edited January 5, 2021 by stonewalker16
small mistake changed

[Weltall]

While a lot of things on Yolen are pale white, it's because they're fainlife; Hoid is (or was originally) human, so the color could be entirely unrelated

We have several forms of white hair seen in the Cosmere with both natural and supernatural origins so we can't pin it down to one thing specifically. Elantrians have white hair when they're not disguising their appearance and it's one of the colors the Royal Locks can turn. Tanavast also seems to have had white hair pre-Ascension (Rayse too, but he looks old so it might not have started that color) and white hair seems to be typical among the Natan people. We really don't have enough to say one way or another on Hoid.

Edited January 5, 2021 by Weltall

[Elegy]

It has not always been white:

Quote

Stormlightning

Hoid. Was his hair white from birth?

Brandon Sanderson

Hoid's hair, in the current incarnation, was not white from birth. But that's not canon until I write it. So, his hair was not white in the very first story I wrote about him, but it was white by Dragonsteel, so who knows what I'll do when I really get back to that. But, right now I have it not being natural.

Let's go with, canon answer for Hoid, 'not natural white hair.' But that's got the asterisk of "it's possible I could change that when I actually write it." Who knows what I'll do in 15 years. I think I'm going to have enough trouble making sure all the things that I've put in the books about him are all--stay true. I don't want to pull a Lucas and have the four things we've actually talked about not actually happen in the prequels, but...I'm not going to hold myself to all the Words of Brandon, particularly when I write Dragonsteel.

FanX 2018 (Sept. 6, 2018)

Also, Tanavast, another Yolish person, has white hair as well. That could be for the same reason.

[Jorr]

While they are both not fain, it could be possible they were in contact with the fain ecosystem somehow

[Knight of Iron]

On 12/16/2020 at 0:30 AM, Invocation said:

My money is on it being something to do with his oath of no harm. Like a visible symbol of "Hey! This guy is safe."

I think it might have something to do with this as well, but I've always thought that he literally couldn't do any harm, not that he swore an oath not to.

[Chinkoln]

I have always taken it to be a conscious choice of his. He is flamboyant and unpredictable on Roshar, so it kinda fits his personality.

[stonewalker16]

19 hours ago, Weltall said:

While a lot of things on Yolen are pale white, it's because they're fainlife; Hoid is (or was originally) human, so the color could be entirely unrelated

I think @Jorr is right here. If Hoid had his healing before the Shattering (or even after if the Fain was still around then) he could have survived the Fain, with that as a marker of it. 

On the other hand, it could be an effect of being present during the Shattering, or even the result of him doing some weird manipulation of connection to drain color from his hair while awakening.

[Weltall]

8 hours ago, stonewalker16 said:

I think @Jorr is right here. If Hoid had his healing before the Shattering (or even after if the Fain was still around then) he could have survived the Fain, with that as a marker of it.

While we don't have any canonized information about fainlife yet (aside from Khriss confirming that it exists in Arcanum Unbounded) what we've seen in the released Dragonsteel Prime/Liar of Partinel excerpts and what Brandon has said about fainlife being a competing ecology suggest that the two systems simply do not play nicely together and there's no indication that exposure to it can cause non-fain life to start taking on fain coloration. Which is why I don't think the coloring necessarily has to do with anything fain, especially as there are plenty of other examples of white hair in the Cosmere that have nothing to do with it either.

Fainlife does still exist, as Khriss' comment about Scadrial resembling the non-fain parts of Yolen is in the present tense, the short piece The Traveler takes place on Yolen right after the end of Hero of Ages and takes place in a fain region and we know that at least one of the Vessels was Sho Del and I'd be willing to wager money Uli Da wasn't the only one if I could find anyone willing to take a sucker's bet.