Things to know:
1.) I had purple hair. Twice.
2.) I fully support small businesses.
3.) I have kick-ass friends who do kick-ass things.
All that = right here, right now.
So, the purple. Obviously, as you see above... it was awesome. And the purple eyebrows made it even more awesome. I tried the vibrant color first when I was 22, and then a few years after that again. The honest truth about this story, though? When I dyed my hair purple the first time, I only kept it for a month.
The reason behind this being: I was so insecure about taking up space as a fat woman that I was worried that purple hair made me TOO visible. That I would draw MORE attention to myself, and this would allow MORE people to judge me and my appearance. A damn shame, right?
It was a shame because I loved it. But, the happy ending is- that the second time around, I kept it for years. By then, I had graduated to the point in life where I cared less about what other people thought and more about what I liked. To dye your hair a vibrant color IS defiance in a way; you're saying- "I stand out. You can see me. And I'm totally okay with that." It was empowering.
Now the thing about dying your hair purple (or red, or teal, or pink or...) is that it fades like a motherfucker. That's where #2 and #3 from above came in. The reason I went back to my natural color the second time was because it just felt like too much maintenance. There wasn't a way to keep the color from fading instantly and this meant a million trips to the hair stylist.
Do you remember Liora? The photographer behind the Abercrombie and Fitch photos? Well, her and her fiery orange-headed friend Maegan came up with an answer, and it's organically based, feminist founded and all kinds of cool shit... and I wanna support them and their killer new business. They've started oVertone, which is this bad-ass company that sells color depositing conditioner with vibrant color in it that revamps your hair every time you wash it. If I had this, then.. well, I might have kept it longer. They're doing this cool towel challenge where you take a picture of your towel after you wash your hair and the dye is everywhere, and then tweet/Fb it with hashtags #towelart #overtone. If you join in, you get 10% off the order. I love any kind of discounts... so I'm in. If you're thinking about dying hair, or need to maintain your already colorful 'do, I would recommend checking them out.
Ah, purple.
I kind of miss it guys. And I really miss wearing clashing red with it. One of my favorite pictures is the time I went to Mass at the San Xavier Mission. I decided to take pictures next to a dilapidated structure... and got so. Fucking. Stuck. In the WORST mud. I had to be rescued by THREE trucks, and the contrast of the help and surroundings compared to me was epic. Proof:
I'm going to change my hair color again sometime, and purple suits me. And when I do, I'll probably enlist Liora and Maegan to help me keep the vibrancy and my sanity.
Have you ever dyed your hair a wild color? If you could dye it any color, which would it be? My other choice would probably be turquoise...
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