After reading enough, the blond/brunette, green/hazel I put down to personal interpretation on the writer's part.

I still remember being horrified when my older brother called me blonde (in a non-insulting way, but I was still horrified), because, damnit, I had brown hair! Light brown hair that bleached in the sun to a bit strawberry blonde in the summer. IDK. Maybe since Jensen's hair in the show is cut so short, a haircut that needs to be maintained constantly, that this natural bleaching process doesn't really get a chance to take place, and all we see are fresh roots that are dark.

"The elder Winchester" is also up there, for me.

It's okay to keep using their names! Just like it's okay to limit dialogue tags to "said" instead of getting fancy. It doesn't add up to repetition in those cases, it fades into the background, the way it's supposed to.

Well, you can't call Dean a blonde because he's not a chick. You can't call him a blond because he's a brunet. t /picky

JA was blond here. But I would have qualified him as pretty brunet by the time he was Ben/Alec.

Every time fics say "the hunter" or "his partner" I get distracted. I'm not sure why. Repetitions of name get pretty transparent for me. I see "the hunter" and I wonder if John or Bobby or Rufus wandered into the room. I see "his partner" and I start thinking about if they're out as a couple or not.

I can't recommend a Google search of dirty blond(e) with safe search off. The images really weren't what I was after. ::Ponders when I turned safe search off and why::

I have the same bafflement with "his partner", ita. Are they already considering this a relationship? If they meant a fellow hunter, would "fellow hunter, colleague, friend" work better?

JA was blond here. But I would have qualified him as pretty brunet by the time he was Ben/Alec.

When he first arrived on Days, I would say he looked more like the first picture. By the end of his run, he had already turned dark. I always thought of Ben/Alec as brunet. But I can see the strands themselves being blond under the sun or light.

Now I'm fascinated by the rules of blond(e) and brunet(te). While I follow the convention established by the blond (male) and blonde (female), I had no idea there was a similar rule for brunet and brunette. I always learn here.

Webster's 10th edition doesn't actually make a distinction between blonde for a woman and blond for a man. Most style guides I've seen usually break it down into blond as an adjective and blonde as a noun, though.

Brunet is just wrong.

::runs away, clutching pedantry to breast::

I had no idea there was a similar rule for brunet and brunette

I'm probably being overhardcore here and forcing French rules on English, but I can't bear to see the feminised -ette on a male noun. I'm pretty sure it's a rare usage.