Reddit mentions of New Threads in the Pattern (The Great Hunt, Book 2)

We know very little about the actual appearances of most characters in the books. We know at the very least that the people of Caemlyn and the people of the Two Rivers do, on average, look different. We also know that Two Rivers folk have dark hair. The locals always note that Rand looks different but chalk it up to the fact that this mother Kari was from Caemlyn. This suggests that at least some, if not many, Caemlyners/Andorans have a northern European look, and that this is not typical for Two Rivers folk.

Other than this we know very little about what the Two Rivers "look" is. Some people definitely envision southern European or mediterranean, others envision Hispanic. This cover featuring Egwene on the left supports these interpretations of Two Rivers folk as having darker hair and darker skin, but even the art is just the interpretation of the artist.

So we agree, it is mentioned once and otherwise the appearance doesn't matter for Emond's fielders then right? As long as Rand is taller and has red hair/gray eyes to stand out who cares? Or maybe for viewers of a TV show making the difference in appearance more noticeable is probably a good idea to show how different he actually is. It's also accepted that his "mother" and Tam's wife was pale, red haired from Caemlyn so I wouldn't say he doesn't stand out when you have book titles that show characters like this here.