The French language is famous for its expressions… and hair is used in a lot of them.
From overthinking to precision, awkward timing to total stillness, these French expressions can sometimes be real head-scratchers.
In French, cheveu (singular) and cheveux (plural) mean hair, while poil is often used to describe body hair. For example, des poils sous les bras would be armpit hair in English.
Now that you’ve got the basics, let’s take a look at some of them:
Couper les cheveux en quatre (roughly pronounced koo-pay lay shuh-vuh ahn kahtr)
This expression translates to “cutting hair in four”. Like its English equivalent “to split hairs”, it means to overanalyse or be excessively precise.
Listen to the team at The Local discussing these phrases in the latest episode of the Talking France podcast – download here or listen on the link below
Since the 17th century, the expression couper les cheveux en quatre has been used to describe a fussy person. The expression first appeared in the form of fendre un cheveu en deux, translating to “split a hair in two” in its length. In other words, it means to go to great lengths for a small result.
Arrête de couper les cheveux en quatre ! Ça ne sert à rien de tout analyser. – Stop splitting hairs! There’s no point in overanalysing everything.
Se faire les cheveux blancs (roughly pronounced suh fehr lay shuh-vuh blanh)
This expression translates to “to turn one’s hair white”, which means “to worry oneself sick”.
It’s worth noting that ‘grey hair’ in English is cheveux blancs (white hair) in French, and hair products aimed at enhancing or covering up grey hair will use ‘blancs‘ rather than gris.
The expression dates back to the 19th century and illustrates the anxiety felt at the sudden greying of the hair of people who have suffered an emotional shock. Although the concept of ‘hair turning white with shock’ exists in English, it’s more commonly used as a synonym for stress in French.
Elle se fait des cheveux pour ses examens. – She’s really stressing out for her exams.
S’arracher les cheveux (roughly pronounced, sah-rah-shay lay shuh-vuh)
Somewhat similar is this expression, translating to “pulling out one’s hair”, meaning extreme frustration.
Since the 19th century, this expression has been used to describe a situation of severe stress or anxiety, in which a person is so desperate that they end up pulling at their hair. It functions essentially the same way as ‘tearing/pulling hair out’ does in English.
J’ai envie de m’arracher les cheveux avec ce problème. – I’m tearing my hair out over this problem
Avoir mal aux cheveux (roughly pronounced, ah-vouar mahl oh shuh-vuh)
The literal translation is “to have hair pain”, which sounds absurd. In reality, it means having a hangover and a bad headache – the essential idea being that you’re in such a bad way that even your hair hurts.
J’ai beaucoup trop bu hier, j’ai mal aux cheveux ce matin. – I drank way too much last night, I have a bad hangover.
Un cheveu sur la langue (roughly pronounced uhn shuh-vuh soor lah lanhg)
This one translates to “a hair on one’s tongue,” but in reality, it means having a lisp when speaking.
Avoir un cheveu sur la langue refers to a speech impediment. In French, the sound che- would be pronounced as ce- by someone who has a lisp.
It is also easy to see how uncomfortable it would be to have hair constantly stuck to your tongue, most likely preventing you from saying words properly.
Je vais emmener mon fils chez l’orthophoniste, il a un cheveu sur la langue. – I’m going to bring my son to a speech therapist; he has a lisp.
Comme un cheveu sur la soupe (roughly pronounced, kohm uhn shuh-vuh soor lah soop)
This one translates to “like a hair in soup”, but it really means to turn up out of the blue, something unexpected.
While soup in this expression refers to food, the phrase un cheveu sur la soupe does not imply something dirty but rather something out of place. To say that of a person or a comment means that it occurs at an unexpected moment.
Il est arrivé comme un cheveu sur la soupe, je ne m’y attendais pas. – He arrived out of the blue. I was not expecting that at all.
Être tiré par les cheveux (roughly pronounced, ehtr tee-ray par lay shuh-vuh)
This translates literally to “pulled by the hair”; it means that something is a bit extreme. It first appeared in the 17th century and, just like today, referred to a slightly far-fetched argument.
Its origin, however, is somewhat unclear. According to some, it refers to an ancient form of torture in which the victim was tied by the hair to a horse and dragged until they confessed, whether they were guilty or not.
For others, the expression refers to the fact that, when you hold someone firmly by the hair, you can force them to move in the direction you have chosen.
Arrête avec cette théorie complètement tirée par les cheveux. – Stop with this far-fetched theory.
Passer au peigne fin (roughly pronounced, pah-say oh pegn fan)
This one doesn’t have the actual word cheveu (hair) in it, but it does include a comb.
The English equivalent to this French expression is to “go through with a fine-tooth comb”. It means to go through something thoroughly.
When a comb is fine-toothed, it is even more effective and precise – like those combs that help get lice out of children’s hair. The expression, therefore, uses this idea metaphorically to describe a thorough examination of something to uncover as many clues as possible.
Elle a passé son dossier au peigne-fin. – She went through his file extremely thoroughly.
Un poil sur le caillou (roughly pronounced, uhn pwal soor luh kah-you)
This expression is considered to be informal and even a bit crude. It translates literally to “a hair on a rock”, but actually it means to be bald. In French slang, caillou (rock) refers to the head and poil body hair. For a more polite way of saying that someone is bald, you can also use the word chauve.
The expression emphasises total absence of hair, often in a mocking way.
Depuis qu’il a 30 ans, il n’a plus un poil sur le caillou. – Since he turned 30, he hasn’t had a single hair left on his head.
Ne pas bouger d’un poil (roughly pronounced, nuh pah boo-zhay duhn pwal)
This translates to “don’t move by a hair”, but its English equivalent would be “don’t move a muscle”, in other words, stay completely still. But in French, it can also mean that something has not changed.
Ne bouge surtout pas d’un poil, tu as une araignée dans les cheveux. – Stay still, you have a spider in your hair.
Les prix de l’immobilier n’ont pas bougé d’un poil ces derniers mois. – Property prices haven’t budged an inch in recent months.
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