I first started dyeing large portions of my hair freshman year of high school, when I had a 3.9 GPA and was in the top 30 of my 500+ class. At this point in my life, I had never kissed anyone, I never drank alcohol, my hands had not once touched pot or tobacco. The only time I had ever been in trouble at school was because of a uniform violation where I had apparently been wearing black jeans as opposed to black pants on the first day of 7th grade.
I was the epitome of a “Good kid” and yet somehow, some way, dyeing my hair turned me into a young troublemaker destined to spend my days in jail and hurting those around me.
I know that sounds really dramatic but it really felt like that’s how people saw me.
At least a couple times a week people would feel the need to go out of their way to say something about my hair. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the time people would compliment me too. People appreciated how “fun” I was, or “bold,” or they just liked hair that was the same color as a unicorn’s butt. But it wasn’t a rare occasion when some random person would go out of their way to stop me and ask “Why would you do that to your hair?” This would solicit the usual shrug from me and a line similar to “Cause it’s fun,” and then I’d either get a head shake or someone would tell me it wasn’t “fun” that it made me look like a “hooligan.”
It’s funny cause it was never the strangers berates that bothered me as much as it was the constant complaints from my own family. My mother would always tell me that I would never get a job, I would never make a good first impression, that everyone around me would assume I had a thing for trouble. And she would flat out tell me it was ugly. My aunt would say the same, my step dad would just shrug and avoid the conversation when brought up. I had on and off support from my cousins whose opinions would vary based off of how old I was and how crazy the colors were.
Why was it so wrong for me to have blue hair?
People with colored hair are constantly surrounded by the stereotype that they’re involved with drugs, alcohol, crime, and almost anything with a negative connotation. These stereotypes are usually believed by older generations, I’m proud to say that the millennials are proving to be a far more accepting and all around fun generation because the stereotypes many millennials believe about people with colored hair is that we’re an artsy bunch or think it’s just because we like a certain style. And even if they have a preconceived notion about you, far more millennials (in comparison to older generations) are willing to get to know me even after making an assumption about me, where as many others will try to avoid me because they’re so sure my hair is a sure-fire way to tell who I am as a person.
For years, it made me sad that I was being judged for liking fun hair. I even stopped and went a more natural color for a couple years. But I had an epiphany one day: why do I want to appeal to people who are so eager to judge based off of the way I look? Why have I spent so much of my life feeling worried over what some stranger in the street thinks?
Soon after this beautiful realization I went and dyed my hair bright teal. It was so obnoxious, and loud, and in your face and I was so in love with it. My mom was so pissed when she saw it but I felt like the daughter of Poseidon. My Dad told me he loved it, and to rock whatever color I wanted. My friends and even a good few of my teachers gushed over how it fit my personality and how much they loved it. I couldn’t stop looking in the mirror.
Kids on the street would stop and stare but it wasn’t because they were judging me, it was because I had fairy hair and I looked like I walked out of a Disney movie. A truly magical experience was having a little girl tell me she wanted hair like mine one day. Parents could drag them away by the hand all they wanted as they watched me closely, seeming to expect me to do something I guess. But I’d just wear a smile on my face because I realized little by little my hair wasn’t just making me happy, I was contributing to something much more. I was normalizing unnatural hair colors.
Brightly colored hair is usually associated with certain alternative styles like goth, scene, emo, etc. My own personal style is some weird amalgamate of 90’s grunge revival mixed with a zombie apocalypse and a hint of the Addams family at a rave, but I’m also a lazy little poo so very rarely do I go in public in full glam and fashion attire. A lot of the time I just run to the grocery store in my old Softball shirts and leggings, glasses on, blue hair in pony. I don’t look like I conform to any specific fashion. I’m just in average joe fashion…and rocking blue hair.
Maybe it doesn’t seem like a big deal to everyone, but I really believe that person by person we’re revolutionizing the world to realize that hair is just hair. And whether you’re dressed in certain fashion or just running to grab some milk in your sweats, you’re helping the cause.
People can judge me and my blue hair if they want. They can also judge my well-paid internship at an insurance company, they can judge kids telling me they want to look like me, my want to be an EMT, and they can judge my amazing group of friends, because quite frankly my hair has taught me to not care about the opinions of people who don’t affect my life.
