A Hair Raising Transformation

I recently gave everyone a HAIR raising surprise... you guessed it... I dyed my hair, which has created an unanticipated stir. I swear, I could have come to work naked and people would have been less shocked, so this unforeseen response to my new do has made me question why hair is such a beloved entity in our society.

Admit it, you’ve cried at least once after getting a “bad” haircut and then cried some more when your mom told you “its just HAIR”. Just hair?! To most people, hair is a treasured possession that’s power must not be underestimated. And its not just women who obsess over their tresses –hair is something universal that people of any sex, race or age have (or have had) at some point, which is why I feel a majority of people get so attached to it.

If you want to see a public display of our societies’ obsession with hair, tune into any makeover show... when the fashion victims sit in a salon chair they act as if it’s an electric chair, crying about the fact that they are going to lose 3 feet of that horse’s tail they call a hairstyle, and as the stylist begins to snip away at their mane, they scream out in pain as if a dagger is stabbing through their heart. Hair has turned into something that identifies us – “dumb blonde”, “feisty red head”, “boring brunette”, the list goes on. I even jumped on the band wagon a few years back and bought a t-shirt that proudly dispels the “myth” and declares that “Brunettes Have More Fun”.

Born a dark brunette, my personal hair fixation started in high school, when I so desperately wanted to be a blonde because apparently blondes had is SO much better. To transform my look, I turned to every hair stylists’ worst nightmare: Sun-In. I used an entire bottle in about a week followed by a regimen of squeezing lemon juice all over my head as I fried myself in the sun to develop a tan to compliment my lighter locks – not only did my skin turn red from the UV rays and smell like a burnt piece of citrus, my hair turned a brassy orange; however, being the delusional 17 year old that I was, I thought I looked HOT... my mom, on the other hand, did not agree and with senior class pictures only weeks away, I was whisked away to the salon and forced to dye my hair a boring brown. Alas, my blonde ambitions were crushed.

After that experience, I decided to leave the fate of my hair in the hands of professionals and for the past six years of my life, my hair has been on a color rollercoaster, mostly staying in the spectrum between a dirty blonde and a lighter brunette; however, a few weeks ago, I decided I was fed up with the cost of maintaining my unnatural color and even more importantly, I wanted to give my hair a break from the color abuse it has endured for years... I feel like Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest, but instead of beating my locks with a hanger, my cruelty tool of choice is a brush saturated in bleach followed by foils and extreme heat. This hurts me more than it hurts you, damaged hair.

So I went back to my natural roots, well, I smidge darker than natural, and BOY did I get a reaction, which is to be expected because one day I’m “Sunny Stephanie” and the next I’m, “Stephanie: Dark Seductress”. Some people liked it immediately, while others reacted with an “OH” paired with undertones of I’m not sure its “YOU”, when little do they know that this natural color couldn’t be more “ME”, literally. I will admit that the reaction to my apparent “hair” raising change was a little disappointing only because when you make a beauty transformation, you’re hoping for a better response – it’s like walking down the aisle on your wedding day and people saying “OH.”

But soon enough, my dry, abused hair will slowly begin to fade as it sucks up the dye faster than a Dyson in a dust storm, and I’m sure the novelty of my natural color will also begin to fade and I’ll be back to being Mommie Dearest, forcing my hair to endure the vain pain of achieving a color that was never wired in my DNA. What a vicious cycle, but as I spend years of my life changing my hair color, balding men will spend years investing in hair growth fads, gray hairs will continue to be plucked and people with an attachment to their long locks will fight off scissors with an eternal passion.

Hair is so many things to so many people – it can be a canvas, a statement, a security blanket or a burden – hair is seems to be the one thing we all have in common, so the fixation society has with it is only natural... just like my hair color.