Adventures in Blue Hair

If you know me, you know that back in March I decided to dye my hair blue.  Not just a strip or two, but all of the hair on my head.  No big deal, right?  Who cares?  Well, I've been talking about doing it for more than a year but never had the "guts" to pull the trigger.  It was always one good reason or another - too much money, what if I look dumb, it will trash my hair, what will my job say?  I'm in my 40s - who does that?

 I do.

I've been blue for three months now.  My husband helped me pull the trigger and not only found me a stylist, he made the appointment and got me a gift certificate to pay for it!  I'm glad he did otherwise I may still be talking about it.  Lots of people ask me why I did it.  I don't have a good reason other than - I wanted to.  I've never done it before and I've wanted to for a long time.  Blue is my favorite color and when I see it, it makes me happy.  I wish I had a better story.  Someone asked if it was for Autism Awareness and another asked if I lost a bet.   A seven year old girl said I looked like an Oompaloompah.  Which, by the way, they have green hair.  Maybe I just wanted to see if I'd do it.  I'm glad I did.

One outcome of this divergence from natural hair color is this - I've had more friendly conversations with total strangers than I would have ever had with my normally brown hair.  Sometimes I forget it's blue and I wonder if I have something on my face or toilet paper hanging out of my pants if I see someone staring at me for a second.  Then I remember-it's the hair.  I promise you, this isn't for attention.  It's about expression.  It's about being me and doing something out of the norm that makes me happy.  Will I keep it forever? No.  Will I do it again.  There is a pretty good chance I will.

I'm very popular with elementary school girls.  If I'm feeling down and just want to be invisible, it is harder to do, but I will tell you that when I catch myself in the mirror, I like what I see a whole lot more than I did when my hair was brown.  I started thinking about why?  For someone who has a long history of disordered eating and being overweight off and on for many of my younger years, I was always (consciously or unconsciously) trying to fit into that narrow lens of "beauty" that that I thought I was supposed to fit into in order to be happy.  I never felt I measured up no matter what my size.  And by the way, did I mention, that fitting in this lens was a competition?  That's why it's so huge and weird for me to say "I like the way I look with blue hair".  It's me and I think it's pretty.  Am I allowed to say that out loud?  Does that make me a narcissist?  Self absorbed?  How dare I write a whole blog about the color of my hair!  How dare I say that I like the way I look - who do I think I am?   Yet here I am.

I thought some of the reactions that people shared with me were fun.  You have to understand, normally I'm pretty nondescript.  Not someone you would stop on the street for any reason.  A lot of little children will stop me and say they like my hair and that is so cool.  Many woman shared that they have wanted to do this color or that but never did it.  I get it.  One person told me I was brave - I'm not sure about that.  Remember, my husband helped get things rolling.  The woman who did my mammogram said that my personality didn't match my hair.  I'm not sure what that means but I think it was compliment.  Maybe not.  :) Either way, it was fun to step out of the social norm, although in Richmond, it's not so abnormal to see many different "unnatural" hair colors walking around the city.  If nothing else, it was a great social experiment.  And to my inner artist, it was the most fun that I have had in a long time.  So here's to following through on some of those creative ideas that come to us each day.  That's all for now.  twg