Brown and black hair are referred to in only one record each (Waterford 1 (L);Wexford 19 (Q)). These colours may have been avoided because they would not be visible in the dark, the time when the death-messenger was commonly believed to appear. They are atypical. More prominent is the colour grey. There are nine records from east-Munster, Leinster and south-Ulster (Armagh 8; Cavan 1.14 (p. 463-4), 23; Laois 11, 18; Tipperary 15, 10, 44; Westmeath 2). The tradition that the death-messenger is white-haired is much more firmly established. There are 17 records in all (Carlow 1; Cavan 31; Dublin 9; Kildare 8; Kilkenny 1,26; Laois 9, 21; Longford 29; Offaly 1; Tipperary 17; Waterford 18, 28, 32,35; Wexford 54; Wicklow 14). This tradition has a wide distribution and is especially prominent in Leinster. The grey and white colours are in keeping with the image of an old woman, and they have associations with the realm of death. Also human keeners would mainly be elderly women, with grey or white hair.

In view of the popularity of the traditions about the death-messenger’s hair it is appropriate that the being should be thought to be engaged in combing it. The Comb Legend, a migratory legend to be treated later, is connected with this activity. The combing is also encountered in belief statements and memorates. In the orally-collected sources there are 113 references to combing (Appendix 3.3 (d) p. 301) in addition to those found in versions of the Comb Legend. Only two additional examples have been noted in nineteenth-century literature - yet another illustration of how important aspects of folk tradition have been overlooked by writers of fiction and how lack of literary reference cannot be taken as evidence that a tradition was less prominent before organised folklore collecting began. The combing belief can be numbered among those beliefs which are firmly rooted in folk tradition. The belief has a marked regional distribution (Map 7). The combing is more prominent in Leinster (62 examples) and parts of Munster (31 examples, most of which stem from Tipperary and Waterford) than in Connaught and Ulster (10 examples each). The tradition is limited to the area in which the being is believed to be seen as well as heard but does not cover the whole of this area. There is a marked correlation between the distribution of the combing belief and the belief that the death-messenger’s hair is long.