At an early age I always thought it was so cool to see people with brightly colored hair. Cartoons and movies are always filled with characters who have otherworldly hairstyles and fashion. Growing up with the birth of social media, it seemed like people with dyed hair, tattoos, and piercings were the gods and goddesses of the internet and the heathens of the workforce.

Parts of society glorify individuality and expressing who you are and what you want to be. The other half of society pushes you into a box and demands that you fit inside the box and follow the rules of the box and remain in that box until you are told to do otherwise. That society looks down upon those who express themselves artistically through clothing, music, cosmetics, etc... and forces stigmas and assumptions over people who look like that, as if they are not competent or capable of being professional or valuable to anyone or anything. But in the fashion and art industry, if you had fashion colored hair and exotic facial features and maybe the slip of a tattoo showing somewhere, you were prime. Teenagers all over the world striving to look like famous scene queens, emo kids, and fashionistas of all sorts.

During my elementary and middle school days, my mother would rarely let me participate in things. She either didn't approve of it or we couldn't afford it. At this point, hot topic began selling colorful extensions that became popular very quickly. I had saved up enough money to buy my own to strut around school with my cheesy extensions while the other girls were getting professional extensions or growing out their hair and dying it rad colors. My mom was completely against me dying my real hair so, clip in extensions was my only outlet to feeling different in the hair department.

In high school my mom became a little more receptive to me experimenting with different looks. She still wouldn't let me dye my hair straight up but she did allow highlights and one time I did dye my hair a charcoal color. However, I didn't know anything about dying my hair so the charcoal color only lasted for a week or so and then my hair went back to its natural color for the most part.

When YouTube became a very popular platform a lot of tutorials and how to videos came along with it. This is where I began understanding and learning about different things which would eventually lead me to finally dying my hair many years later.

Back in 2014 I had watched a kpop video and the girls had hair dye on the lower half of their hair but the upper half was their natural hair color. I found this to be so cool and so different than what people usually do here in the US so I made it my mission to do the exact same thing but with my favorite color. So I jumped onto Amazon as one does, made a few clicks here and there and bam I had me some 40 volume manic panic bleach and some hot pink manic panic hair dye.

I threw on a t shirt I didn't really care about, sorry sex pistols. I love ya, but I needed a shirt.
Into the bathroom I went with the solutions and dye. I mixed up the bleach and let it sit while I threw on some gloves. I separated my hair to opposite sides and began applying the bleach. It has to sit for a while so I went upstairs to play on my PC while I let it process. After that processed, I washed it out in the shower and dried my hair. It went from an auburn brown to a wheat yellow blonde. I looked like the equivalent of a broomstick.

A new pair of gloves and a whole bottle of hot pink dye later, my hair looked like a bunch of bloody and lifeless snakes. This had to process much longer than the bleach did so that I could make sure the color was vibrant and secure. Once again, I hopped into the shower to wash that out and dried + straightened my hair and wham... hot pink baby.

Since it was just the lower half of my hair, it didn't stand out to much from the front. I wear a pony tail up at work most of the time so unless you're behind me, you'd never know I had hot pink hair.
This type of style was really convenient for work and my boss was okay with it.
It faded nicely into a maroon then eventually a ginger/red color.

It was so much fun and it felt like one thing was crossed off of my bucket list.
A year or so goes by and I have the itch to dye my hair again.

This time I wanted navy blue or a midnight blue almost black. I was hoping to have something that fades into a denim jean color. Or even something like a charcoal blue, steel blue, grey. You get the idea.

This time, instead of doing the lower half of my hair I decided to get a long portion of my hair chopped off and I wanted to dye my entire head. I also didn't want to do it myself this time, I wanted to go to a salon.

So I didn't get the color I truly wanted, but that's okay. I still really like what I did get.
I'm not sure if my stylist misinterpreted what I was looking for in the pictures or if the color I initially have is jut way more bright and vibrant in comparison to what I want to fade out to. But whatever the case is, it's definitely different than what I had asked for and part of me is concerned it won't fade out to what I want either. BUT, I do like what I have and my boss is okay with it... so we'll just roll with it I guess!

Here's an example of what I was looking for:

And here is what I got:



 So the pictures on the left are what my hair looked like the day after the hair was dyed. It's a bright royal blue. On the roots there's a purple/blue mixture and on the ends there's as blue/silver mixture. But if you look at the final picture, you can see that there is a hint of teal/sea green in the mix.

There's a few things I've learned from this and a few things I'm shocked about in terms of peoples reactions, my work life, etc... that I hope you can take with you if you decide to dye your hair and your work in a professional environment etc...

1. Even if something doesn't turn out how you expect it to, enjoy it and make a positive out of it.
I could be pissed off that I didn't get the color I wanted considering I paid $130 for the dye job but I still really like what I got, so I can't really be pissed. I did feel really weird at work though because I look like a smurf. I wanted a midnight blue almost black that way it looked way more natural but this is straight up BLUE. ROYAL FREAKING BLUE lol. So I'll be getting smurf comments for the next 4 months I'm sure.

2. Shampoos that contain zinc will strip out the dye A LOT.
I suffer from seborrhoeic dermatitis and mild dandruff from time to time and I use an anti-dandruff shampoo. Lo and behold, this type of shampoo has a high amount of zinc in it. So the first shower that I took after I got my hair dyed was a rollercoaster ride. I knew I needed to wash with cold water to prevent color loss, but I had no idea about the shampoo. I was in the shower and just heaps and heaps of blue was coming out no matter what I did. I was scared that my hair was going to be ruined after one shower. So I go the shampoo out immediately and once it was out the color stopped coming out. So I quickly hit up my stylist and asked her about shampoos and she confirmed that zinc in shampoo will pull out color FAST. So if you need to get rid of color, there you go. Tip for you. And if you DON'T want to get rid of color, avoid zinc and hot water like the plague.

3. People don't care about your hair color. But get approval & second opinions!
When I was growing up, the "older generations" had a stick up their butt about people with dyed hair, but I think over the last 20 years, that attitude has changed. I think older people are starting to really enjoy and embrace the idea that you can customize the color of your hair. I think that perhaps maybe the expectations of their family/job is what made them really hesitant about ever experimenting and having fun and now that they're old, they may have regrets or curiosities etc...

I was convinced that the second I walked into work with blue hair, I would get nasty scoffs and rude remarks from the elderly and just adults in general, not to mention getting scolded by my managers. See, I asked my boss beforehand if I could dye my hair that dark midnight blue and he was totally okay with it. He was like, yeah go for it, that looks awesome and it won't be too crazy. But if you compare my examples to my actual hair... you can clearly see that there is a HUGE difference.

So I walk into work and Boss 1 sees my hair and he's okay with it. Makes a few smurf jokes as expected and makes a bunch of movie references. Boss 2 dyes her hair frequently but usually a maroon/sangria color so not really crazy or anything, she also doesn't care... makes a few smurf jokes and now calls me Smurf on a regular basis. It grew on me lol. Boss 3 finally sees it and doesn't say anything negative. All he says is, he would roll over dead if his wife ever dyed her hair a crazy color but that he's okay with my hair.

Once I was confident that management was okay with my hair, I grew to be okay with my hair. In fact, every day I get compliments about my hair. It's really shocking honestly. I'm not the type of girl who really calls attention to myself. I'm quiet, reserved, anti social etc... People tend to ignore me or butt me out of conversations etc... so I'm just used to going unnoticed. But once I dyed my hair, I became what felt like the center of attention. People approach me differently. I think there are a few people who are still iffy on talking to people with dyed hair but most of the elderly and adults actually come to me for assistance followed by complementing my hair or asking me about it and what their kids can do etc...

I've been complimented more times in October than I've been complimented my entire life.

Just let that sink in.

Having blue hair lowered my confidence because I was concerned about the disapproval of others.
Having blue hair has increased my confidence because I'm receiving compliments and positive comments from co workers, strangers, women and men alike, etc...
Having blue hair has allowed me to feel invigorated and youthful again.
Having blue hair has made me feel more friendly and joyful.
Having blue hair has opened my eyes to things and has allowed me to achieve new experiences.

Honestly, the only down side to having blue hair is that if I shed hair, everyone knows it's mine. 
Showers really suck now, too. I have to wash my hair in cold water (and winter is coming) and I have to keep my hair out of the water when I use hot water for the rest of my body. 

So if  you're looking to push out of your comfort zone and do something different with your hair. I strongly urge you to go for it. Your hair will grow out and you can do something different with it in the future. My biggest piece of advice is to get approval from your bosses or school before making an irrational decision. It would have been heartbreaking if my bosses told me I had to re-dye my hair something natural or shave my head off. I would cry. I can't imagine how a cancer patient must feel when their lose their hair. That has to be a whole new level of heart break.

If your parents/bosses/teachers are OK with you making a change. Please consult someone who has experience with dying their own hair or go to a salon and ask a professional. Tell them what  you're interested in doing. Let them know what you are open to and what you DO NOT want 100%! If you are nervous about making a big change, do something small like streaks, highlights, a little peak of hair, or the lower half of hair like I did the first time. If you are ballsy like me, do a full head baby!

So if I could rewind back to the decision of dying my hair blue, I wouldn't change a thing. Even though I didn't get what I wanted, what I did get is really beautiful and I feel like a peacock and it's awesome. Having a vibrant hair color has taught me things about the people I work with, people in general, and myself.

So with that being said, smurf is out!