Saturday, March 2, 2013

Manic Panic, A Love Story

My hair has been basically every shade of the rainbow. This scalp has seen a lifetime of Manic Panic, Special Effects, and some other ill-advised coloring methods meant to bring Roy G. Biv a little closer to home.

See, this was me at 18:




Cute, right? And since I was at a public high school with essentially no dress code, I didn't have to worry about being work/school appropriate.

I always knew on some level that at some point I wouldn't be able to do this anymore. Fortunately, I became a writer, so that day didn't come as soon as I thought it would. For example, this is me in 2011:


And these are me last summer (yes, pink is my favorite hair color):



The point is, I got away with this much longer than I had any right to.

And now the day has come where I can't really use these bright, unnatural colors. There's nothing explicitly banning them in my library dress code, but they require we look professional, and unfortunately fuchsia locks don't fit that definition to most people.

Recently I tested the waters and used a bright red Manic Panic color. I don't know why. Boredom, probably. It wasn't too far outside the realm of work appropriate, but as it faded and grew out, it looked less and less OK. So I went from this:


 

To this:







It's not as unique or exciting a brand of dye (though the streaks are nice), but it had to be done. I certainly don't like or agree with the assumption that having a certain color hair (or piercings or tattoos, which we'll get to in another post) makes you less professional or capable, but unfortunately, right now that is the world we live in.

And that's not to say I can't still have fun with my appearance. I may try out hair chalk, which means I can put streaks of more exciting colors in my hair that will just wash right out before work. Or maybe over the summer, when I'm not going to school, I'll be able to play around a little. But part of being Adultish (even reluctantly so) means adapting to the professional world. So here I am.


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