The Pros And Cons Of Having Colorful Hair

Since I first dyed a chunk of my hair purple at age 14, I've had almost every color of the rainbow somewhere on my head for at least a little while. I've been a blonde, a brunette, a redhead, and I'm currently rocking a full head of sky blue. While I love changing up my hair color and everything that comes with it, there are also some not-so-fun aspects to the colorful hair lifestyle. If I'm trying to decide whether or not to dye my hair a new or unnatural color, I make a list of pros and cons, and then I usually end up dyeing it anyway. Here are just a few of my pros and cons of having colorful hair:

PRO: Confidence booster

If you're happy with the way your colorful hair turned out, it can be a great pick-me-up. If you dyed it yourself at home, you're a living art project you can take pride in. If you've just made a drastic change, people are going to notice and say “I like your hair!” whether they actually like it or not, because that's just what you say when someone changes their hair. If it's a bold, unnatural color, you know that all eyes in the room are on you when you walk in, which can be empowering.

My current look--feeling very confident about it!

CON: You can't turn it off

Some days you don't want all eyes in the room on you. Some days you just want to be alone in public, eating your sandwich without being stared at. Many people see body modifications as an invitation to start a personal conversation, be they tattoos (“what's the significance of that?”), piercings (“did that hurt?”), or dyed hair (“what's your natural hair color?”). I don't know about you, but I usually don't feel like having a conversation about my appearance with a complete stranger.

Me in 2012, obviously fed up with fielding questions about my red dip dye.

PRO: Everything looks different on you

Looking to reinvigorate your wardrobe and/or makeup collection? Dye your hair! When I dyed my whole head orange in my senior year of high school, I found that light blues and forest greens popped like never before. When I went dark brunette in my sophomore year of college, navy blue and white became my go-to colors, whereas white washed me out when I was a light blonde.

Brunette and navy blue, as promised.

CON: Everything looks different on you

After almost a year of light blonde with a blue streak in 2014, I was feeling restless and decided to chop my hair and dye it light brown. Imagine my disappointment when I put on my old favorite lipstick and found that it didn't look quite right with that particular shade of brown. Now that I have blue hair I try not to wear blue shirts with blue jeans, which was a staple outfit when I was blonde.

This lipstick did not play well with light brown.

PRO: Looking trendy without even trying

Even if you don't take the effort to paint on winged eyeliner or squeeze your body into some high-waisted shorts and tights, your pastel lavender locks have you looking on-trend the second you roll out of bed.

Probably the trendiest look I've had to date.

CON: Guys are gonna think you'll complete them

I'll let Kate Winslet do the talking on this one:

PRO: The memories

Since I've had a distinctly different hair color for many different periods in my life, I associate those times with that color. When I put on a scarf I haven't worn in a long time and I find a red hair on it, I think fondly on my months as a redhead, and then wonder with disgust when the last time I washed that scarf was.

A fake redhead and a real redhead.

CON: You can't lie about who left the hairball in the drain

Forget to clean the hair out of the drain when you showered this morning? If you have pink hair and the hairball in the drain is pink, you gotta own up to it (unless your other roommates have pink hair, too).

ERIN, THERE'S PINK HAIR IN THE DRAIN AGAIN.

If you're like me, you're easily swayed into dyeing your hair at the slightest mention of someone dyeing their own. If that's the case for you and you want to dye your hair, I hope the pros reminded you of why you love it so much. And if you know you probably shouldn't dye it, please read only the cons and feel free to blame me if you stay up all night going purple on a whim.