Shari Vaidya - Q4 Blog 15 - Nice Hair Bro
“Do you like it?”
That is the first thing that the Ulta hairstylist said to me after around six hours of bleaching, cutting, and coloring. When I lifted my head up to look at the mirror (depressingly enough I was hunched over my laptop doing work during a hair appointment) I felt like I was continuing something I put down a long time ago.
To provide context, since starting highschool I have rotated the color of my hair around four or five times. Red, teal, dark blue, a black-blonde split, and now back to teal. I think that each of my different hair colors represented who I thought I was at that time. I hated that ugly red color, in fact I wanted purple, but my mom insisted that red would look better. I dyed my hair teal the first time with my friends in my bathroom only for me to cut myself some bangs and smear L’Oréal dark blue Hi-Color all over the hair that me and my friends spent hours on. Safe to say my parents were not happy with that. It eventually faded back to teal since I have no care for color theory and I actually enjoy showering (it is recommended to wash colored hair with cold water to maintain the vibrancy). My most recent color is back to teal but definitely more refined as it was done in a professional salon rather than my bathroom floor, and all I can think about is how I manage to be both extremely similar yet different to my past self in both a mental and physical capacity. When I first dyed my hair that color, it was extremely patchy and not well done at all. Considering it was my first time doing my hair at home, I sort of expected my hair to turn out like an over bleached, dry, and spotty mess. During that time, I felt like I was on a quest to figure out what I truly wanted from myself. I truly felt like my sense of self was spotty and poorly put together, granted I was 14 so I think I gain some grace from this situation but still. When I went for the split dye, I wanted something more edgy and mature, and in some weird way I think that my hair at that time was an indication of my two different personalities. Many people have told me that they were afraid to approach me because I seem…intense to put it politely– like the black top of my head. But, once people get to know me, they see that I am actually extremely sociable and kind, like the blonde underside.
My most recent color is a mix of black, dark green and teal. For me, I think that shows that I am trying to let more vibrancy in my life. For the most part, my wardrobe is black or shades of grey, my Tumblr blog is filled with grayscale pictures and GIFs of Harry Styles or 5SOS (in their prime, which was obviously in 2010s). But over the past couple of months, I have slowly started to implement different shades of neon and pastels into my wardrobe, and into my Tumblr reblogs. Maybe, this is my way of showing that I accept every aspect of myself– both the good and the bad.
Hi Shari! I love the current teal hair that you have right now. Certain people just give off certain colors, and I think you absolutely suit teal. I also liked how you compared your hair colors to your personalities; it does feel like the color and the way the hair is dyed reflects someone’s character. I’ve had peek-a-boo hair throughout my high school career, from blue, to purple, to pink, to purple again, then pink—under all that black hair is a more outgoing version of me, but I’d also like to think the pink hair made me look a little friendlier.
ReplyDeleteAnd I’ll be honest, I also found you a little intimidating, especially during the beginning of the school year 😞 But with the dyed hair, outfits that seemed so effortless and planned, you just have an aura of confidence that not many have. You seem to have a strong sense of identity, knowing what you enjoy and going all out for it, and I definitely admire you for that. Thank you for being such a nice presence in my AP Lang class this year, with all your brilliant ideas during socratic seminars and blogs that have inspired me to actually go consume some peak media. Please continue to indulge in your favorite pop culture moments and TV shows, expressing yourself in ways that are just so unequivocally, you.
Hair dying is a long tedious ordeal indeed, and because it’s so time consuming, it makes sense that you choose to do work during that time, and it’s not really depressing in my eyes. Also, it’s honestly really impressive you have the patience to sit through an entire six hour long hair appointment! I can barely tolerate an hour-long session, and even during that time, I consistently had to be doing something.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to hair dye, it’s really cool that you seem to use it as a way to mark the different stages of your life! I’ve always seen hair dye as more of a cosmetic, unimportant thing that people do for fun, so your use of it to really express yourself and your personality is an interesting concept. I really liked how you talked about how the different colors of the layers of your hair when you split dyed it represented the layers of your character.