Going slightly off-thread, but still on the subject of brown .............In Co.Kerry, Ireland ( where my family moved to from a neighbouring county, when I was 13) it was quite normal to hear people referring to a woman with red/auburn hair as being a "brown haired woman"! I do not recollect ever hearing of a man with red/auburn hair being described as "brown haired". I was quite puzzled by this oddity when I first encountered it and queried it, because my own hair was brown, saying "and what do you call MY colour hair ?" ...........the response being "you are a DARK haired girl !!"
I don't know if describing females with red/auburn hair as "brown haired" was unique to the North Kerry area, or more widespread, but I personally never encountered it anywhere else, either in Ireland, or further afield.